Re-Wheeling Very Old Rolling Stock
By Philip Worsfold
'Keep Calm and Carry On' was never actually used as wartime propaganda but 'Make Do and Mend' certainly was; and some of us are old enough to remember it - and food rationing too, whereby we even now still scrape the last vestiges of butter from the wrapping!
And of course a few more remember Rovex and Triang trains with 'steam-roller' wheels. O.K.! You can reminisce and run your ancient models on ancient track; but some might prefer to run them on more modern track without the flanges bouncing on the sleepers and jamming between the check rails.
There is a solution for which you'll need a pair of small pliers, a miniature drill. a fine cutter disc and a 7/64" (2.75mm) drill bit - and possibly a small round needle file to use as a reamer and to clean up drilled out holes. You'll need a small hammer and a drift (I used an old miniature screwdriver) to drift out the old axle from the axle boxes; a small flat file, the new wheels on pin-point axles to suit your model - check the right diameter against more modern stock to get the buffer height right - some Peco nylon pin point bearings (or more expensive brass ones but without shoulders), some Blutack and a few dabs of paint.
By Philip Worsfold
'Keep Calm and Carry On' was never actually used as wartime propaganda but 'Make Do and Mend' certainly was; and some of us are old enough to remember it - and food rationing too, whereby we even now still scrape the last vestiges of butter from the wrapping!
And of course a few more remember Rovex and Triang trains with 'steam-roller' wheels. O.K.! You can reminisce and run your ancient models on ancient track; but some might prefer to run them on more modern track without the flanges bouncing on the sleepers and jamming between the check rails.
There is a solution for which you'll need a pair of small pliers, a miniature drill. a fine cutter disc and a 7/64" (2.75mm) drill bit - and possibly a small round needle file to use as a reamer and to clean up drilled out holes. You'll need a small hammer and a drift (I used an old miniature screwdriver) to drift out the old axle from the axle boxes; a small flat file, the new wheels on pin-point axles to suit your model - check the right diameter against more modern stock to get the buffer height right - some Peco nylon pin point bearings (or more expensive brass ones but without shoulders), some Blutack and a few dabs of paint.
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I've worked on an old Triang R215 Grain Hopper wagon- basically the same as the R214 coal hopper but with a roof. This has a mazak metal chassis, which makes the job a bit more difficult than with plastic. I've also done the same job on some old Triang Clerestory coach bogies.
The axle boxes have open ends, revealing the tips of the fixed axles. Each of the old wheels has an integral sleeve that rolls on the fixed axle. To remove the old wheels, I started by drifting out each axle as far as I could get it one way, To do this, I rested one open-ended axle box over a small hole drilled in a piece of hardboard and used the hammer and drift on the other end to ease the axle through. Once done, I cut through the axle between the sleeves with the cutter disc. One wheel will come away and the bit of axle pull out quite easily; the other wheel will drop off the remaining stub of axle, which will either pull out using pliers or with a bit of persuasion from the hammer and drift. You will then need to drill out the holes to accept your pin-point bearings - hopefully a tight push fit. Once you've managed to fit a bearing in each pair of axle boxes and retrieved the ones you dropped on the floor in the process, ensure you don't lose them again by inserting the new wheelset (in my case a second hand Dapol wagon axle) between the bearings while at the same time pressing a small piece of Blutack into the open end of each axle box. If the pin-point bearings are not quite a tight fit, don't worry becase the Blutak will squeeze in to fill any gap. With a metal chassis, you may also need to blunt the ends of the axles a tiny bit, to squeeze them past the metal into the new pin-point bearings. At this point they will be a loose fit, because you've needed some play to get the axles in. Now you can use the drift gently to adjust the position of the bearings to get the wheels centred between the axle boxes and removing the sloppiness to give good low friction running. With the nylon bearings, the pin-point doesn't seem to be that important! Once you've done all the axles, you can fill up flush the open ends of the axle boxes with a bit more Blutack or other filler. I find that the Blutak goes hard enough after a few days to accept a coat of paint to hide the holes and leaves you the option for future adjustments. And the outcome? An old time Grain wagon that will run on code 75 track - if that's what you want and think it's worth the effort! |
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