Re: MTH 44 Toner engine - is it truly O scale?

@David Minarik posted:

I made mine on a small lathe.  I would suggest looking for tubing with the correct ID and OD for individuals who don't have machining skills or equipment.   To my knowledge, nobody has even tried that option.

The best option by far would be to buy the wheel/axle set listed above and swap out one solid wheel for one traction tire wheel on the two drive axles.   You just need a puller to do that.

And yes....MTH knew about this.  

Is it possible to just replace the whole wheel/axle set?  Is a wheel puller something I need to get from MTH or is there some generic widget for doing this?

Thanks!!

@swise posted:

Is it possible to just replace the whole wheel/axle set?

Hopefully, MTH parts will come up with more of the plain geared wheelsets.  I think I started a stampede when I posted about them being available after ordering a couple for my engine, now they're out of stock.  That's obviously the easy way.

@swise posted:

Is a wheel puller something I need to get from MTH or is there some generic widget for doing this?

I would respectively suggest, if you don't know what a wheel puller is, I'd probably not consider the wheel pulling option.

conceptually i know what a wheel puller is...  I was hoping for more enlightenment.

OK, I use a couple of them, the Frank Timko puller is the one I normally use for wheels.

Since we are on the subject of the MTH 44 Tonner, Atlas just announced that they have a new 44 Tonner with ProtoSound 3 on salle

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=...mp;mc_eid=dee446f067

That's seriously cool, my Williams 44-Ton locomotive converted to TMCC is actually a pretty reliable little beast.

@swise posted:

Is it possible to just replace the whole wheel/axle set?  Is a wheel puller something I need to get from MTH or is there some generic widget for doing this?

Thanks!!

If you replace the complete wheel/axle, you will have no traction tires.  I just replaced one wheel on each axle.

The Timko puller is a good one.  You can do it with a small vice and a drift if you are careful but using a puller is the best way to do it.

For something like this 44-Ton locomotive, I want no traction tires, so I'll be putting the two wheelsets I'm getting on and going "bareback" with my 44-Ton engine.