Il Grifone Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 (edited) A basic question. Am I correct in thinking these have aluminium tyres and are best left alone? Leaving aside conductivity, I believe aluminium is good at picking up muck? Many thanks in advance! Edited October 24, 2020 by Il Grifone Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Michael Edge Posted October 20, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 20, 2020 They are aluminium, completely useless for pickup purposes but they are fine on tender locos (with pickup from the tender wheels of course) and I still have quite a few locos fitted with them. They were very well made, concentric and easy to fit on the axles, if they had had the sense to use steel or n/s they would have been excellent. The quickly collected muck does soon turn into traction tyres so the haulage capacity can be immense. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 Originally launched in a blaze of glory extolling their excellent electrical conductivity characteristics. In practice it was soon discovered that other less beneficial characteristics quickly overshadowed the conductivity one. Like Mike says, they look good etc. - but........................... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Michael Edge Posted October 20, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 20, 2020 Aluminium is indeed a very good conductor, however aluminium oxide which forms very quickly is a pretty good insulator. This was in fact the principle behind the Peco Insulaxles - if anyone else remembers these. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted October 20, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 20, 2020 I had a set of these for motorising an Airfix Prairie. They look like Alan Gibson driving wheels but fitted with ally tyres When working () the loco would travel down the track in a shower of sparks! I tried resurrecting them a few years back but I ended up binning them. they are now in the might, just might come in useful box. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Bucoops Posted October 20, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 20, 2020 47 minutes ago, Michael Edge said: Aluminium is indeed a very good conductor, however aluminium oxide which forms very quickly is a pretty good insulator. This was in fact the principle behind the Peco Insulaxles - if anyone else remembers these. My house was built on the cheap in the 60s - the BT phone line is aluminium cored instead of copper. Good conductor, but brittle. Amazingly my internet connection over it is very stable considering it's 50 years old. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted October 20, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 20, 2020 As a comparison, the resistivity of some commonly used metals Silver has a resistivity of about 1.6 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Copper has a resistivity of about 1.7 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Aluminium is 2.3 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Brass is 3.9 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Steel is 13-22 (x10-6 Ω·cm) varying on C content Nickel silver is 28 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Stainless steel is typically 90 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Bucoops Posted October 20, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 20, 2020 1 minute ago, melmerby said: As a comparison, the resistivity of some commonly used metals Silver has a resistivity of about 1.6 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Copper has a resistivity of about 1.7 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Aluminium is 2.3 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Brass is 3.9 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Steel is 13-22 (x10-6 Ω·cm) varying on C content Nickel silver is 28 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Stainless steel is typically 90 (x10-6 Ω·cm) Interesting - being that Markits wheels (when you can get them ;)) have changed to Stainless tyres. I don't suppose it makes much of a real world difference but that's quite a jump. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted October 20, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 20, 2020 7 minutes ago, Bucoops said: Interesting - being that Markits wheels (when you can get them ;)) have changed to Stainless tyres. I don't suppose it makes much of a real world difference but that's quite a jump. The ones I bought a few weeks ago (yes, I did find some of the size I wanted!) didn't look any different to those bought years ago, but they could have been old stock. Here's the aforementioned Stephen Poole wheels. Compared to Markits and Gibson wheels the crankpin boss is smaller. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now