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2mm Finescale Wheel Standards vs American N ?.


itsthegman

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Hi,

 

Complete newbie question here.

 

I've joined the 2mm fs assoicaiton i've bought my first loco but have yet too order replacement fs wheels for it.

 

My question is how do wheels compare between 2mm fs and American N, i know that USA HO is much better than some of the OO offerings but what are the N gauge wheels like from Yank tanks?.

 

Thanks,

 

G.

 

 

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What exactly are you planning on achieving? Are you planning on converting American N models to 2FS? Or are you intending to go with a finescale N?

 

The trouble with all this is that 2FS uses a track gauge of 9.42mm where as both British and American N use 9mm. 9mm is incorrect for British N, but is correct for American. What I'm doing is using the FS160 standards. These are essentially the 2mm standards regauged for 9mm. Mostly I'm using non-Association wheels for freight stock. I like the Fox Valley Models fine tread wheels, although the back to back needs to be eased out a bit for the FS160 track.

 

The FS160 standards are here: http://www.fs160.eu/fiNeweb/standards/HANDB.php

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I was thinking about converting some American N locos to 2mm FS as that's the track i have been making

 

I have two bachamn plymouth 0-6-0 switchers for my all in the mind layout and was going to send the wheels away for re-profiling?.

 

Also considering an SW7/8 or 1500 switcher for conversion to go with the Farish class 33 i have.

 

It's early days yet but i'm going down the 2mm FS rabbit hole.

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Don't assume that 'N' always means pizza cutters.

 

A couple of years ago I had some wheelsets custom made by North West Short Line (or rather the company that bought them). Although intended for American 'N', the flanges on these are finer than 2FS.

 

They were not cheap - on paper the wheels themselves were very reasonably priced but I also needed custom cut brass gears (which accounted for most of the cost) and then paid NWSL to assemble them to 2FS back to back dimensions. Add on the VAT and the Royal Mail's 'service charge' for taking the VAT from me and the total cost for the wheels was approaching what the RTR loco cost me in the first place.

 

The loco will run happily on 2FS track but is much less tolerant of any imperfections in pointwork. We used it as an extra test for St Ruth's trackwork and found several issues that way. It is still used regularly at shows on St Ruth although it tends to be used for 'out and back' runs on the main lines rather than anything ambitious like shunting.

 

Cost-wise, it's not an option that I'd be keen to repeat, but it is an option (or at least it was a couple of years ago - not sure what the situation is today).

 

BTW, NWSL also used to do ready made replacement axles for Atlas locos with equally fine flanges. They discontinued these several years ago. When I asked them why they told me that they could not reliably avoid 'wobbly wheel' syndrome when assembing these wheelsets.

 

Regards, Andy

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