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Sharman Wheels


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I notice that Sharman wheels are available, in very limited quantities, from Precision Paints. I've just ordered a set, in P4, for a Jinty. One thing though, although I haven't seen a Sharman wheel for decades, I have a memory of there being a brass insert for the axle, these seem to be a straight forward hole in the nylon, similar to AGW wheels.

Regards

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I've never seen a Gibson wheel with a brass centre, perhaps when he first took over the wheels from Studiolith. All the Gibsons and Sharman I have had the plastic has been a press fiy on a parallel axle. The Studiolith Mk 1 wheels had a tapered brass centre to fit a tapered axle end. Studiolith Mk2 had a tubular stub axle to fit over a 2mm axle centre..

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I’ve got a tin of Kean-Maygib loco wheels of various sizes and they do seem to match the specs of the Studiolith Mk 1’s. The other tins of Gibson and Sharman ones ( all three makes are P4) have plastic moulded centres, with as said, the Sharman’s having moulded-in crankpins.
 

Izzy

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The original Gibson wheels had brass inserts to fit on a tapered axle end like the Studiolith ones. I used some in 00 gauge back then, they fitted perfectly and were such a tight fit that one set proved impossible to remove when I wanted to change a gearbox - eventually I resorted to sawing through the axle at the back of one wheel with a piercing saw. Presumably this system went out of use because it was too expensive.

Are these actually new production Sharman wheels or just old stock? The wheels produced by David Stapleton with glass filled nylon centres were excellent, solved all the problems with wonky centres caused by the unstable plastic originally used.

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2 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

The original Gibson wheels had brass inserts to fit on a tapered axle end like the Studiolith ones. I used some in 00 gauge back then, they fitted perfectly and were such a tight fit that one set proved impossible to remove when I wanted to change a gearbox - eventually I resorted to sawing through the axle at the back of one wheel with a piercing saw. Presumably this system went out of use because it was too expensive.

Are these actually new production Sharman wheels or just old stock? The wheels produced by David Stapleton with glass filled nylon centres were excellent, solved all the problems with wonky centres caused by the unstable plastic originally used.

There are a surprising number still available - I recently got some tender wheels for a diesel shunter. Whether they are new production or just the leftovers from a previous era I don't know. We can hope - I always preferred them and never had a bad set. 

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The range of wheels on the PPP website are very unlikely to be old stock. They have been unable to supply orders from LRM for some time for specific wheels to fit kits, where an alternative wheel size/spec. isn't available elsewhere.

 

Sharman wheels need careful fitting onto the axle to avoid wobble. A chamfer on the axle is a must. Latterly I  reamed the centre for a less tight fit (a la Ultrascale) and pinned the wheel to the axle  when the loco chassis was finished.

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From their website.......

 

"The Original Sharman Wheels - Supplied in pairs with axle material which MAY require cutting to the length shown in the chart below."

 

also........

ALL of the Sharman Wheels Diesets are extremely worn out and we reserve the right to withdraw any item without notice.

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2 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

That looks like good news but do the prices refer to wheels or wheelsets? (single wheels or two wheels/one axle)

You get two wheels and one axle per pack. 

 

Despite the warnings, the set I got the other week was well moulded and didn't show much sign of flash. 

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I do wish people would refer to "wheelsets" rather than wheels - why don't we use railway terminology?

Good news anyway, I see that the ones for the EE1 are even dearer but at least they are available again. We didn't ask for this wheel pattern but David Stapleton took it on as a challenge when he first took over Sharman wheels. Good to see that they are available without the 14BA screw as well - this is a poor crankpin in itself and the added bush makes the diameter far too big, Ican drill and fit Romford crankpins as usual. The glass filled nylon centres are completely stable (unlike the old stuff) and the wheels should be near perfect if fitted carefully.

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During the break in the test match this afternoon I took another look at the wheels and they are supplied with pretty rough axles just lengths of steel roughly sawn and then broken off. For those of us without a lathe these would have to be files down and then filled on assembly.

I wonder what affect the glass in 'glass filled nylon' would have on reamers?

 

Regards

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You can finish the axle ends with a power drill and a file but it does seem a bit poor. You might sometimes need to open the hole in the wheel a little to get the axle started but I don't think it would take much out of a reamer and you would only be using the short tapered part at the end anyway (assuming you don't have a taper reamer).

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Attempting to order some of these wheels, but in certain cases there's only a single set left, which is little use to man or beast.. I think they're just running down the existing stocks, rather than new production, but I sincerely hope they prove me wrong!

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