Model metal wheels

[Rammstein2609]

Hi,

 

A bit of a curiosity this one. While looking at photos of a class 220 Voyager recently and looking at the wheels it was apparent some of the wheels had been replaced as the tyre thickness was different from other wheels. It looks as though the wheels had worn past a safe level therefore they had to be changed.

 

This got me thinking, do model wheels wear in the same way as the real things? I'm assuming the wheels would wear very slightly but would take a very long time to be noticeable. Has anyone had to change wheelsets due to excessive wear? (or am I being stupid?)

 

Cheers

 

Martin

 

ps - I have no plans to model this 'effect'

[Etched Pixels]

They wear - but physics is on your side so you'll need to do an enormous distance to wear them out. You'd probably wear out the motor and gearing many hundreds of times first.

[Kenton]

They probably wear faster through all the scratching with a glass fibre brush during cleaning.

I think there is a big difference between weight and distance applied to the real thing.

 

Of course plastic wheels are to be avoided along with rubber tyred wheels - especially on the prototype.

[Fat Controller]

Ther soft iron wheels fitted to Triang-Hornby locos in the 1960s to allow them to use 'Magnadhesion' were prone to wear, being softer than nickel-silver rail. The Reverend had a double-motored Hymek which would haul 12 Mark 1s on his garden line- the down side was that the wheels became distinctly pulley-shaped after a few months.

[Jenny Emily]

The old zinc-mazak and sintered iron wheels on Hornby Dublo stock used to wear if run an awful lot. In my Father's loft there are around a dozen low sided BR coal wagons with slightly concave tyre faces. They were, of course, quite heavy compared to modern stuff. I have never seen any appreciable wear on anything newer than the 1980s.

[hollywoodfoundry]

I fit solid nickel-silver wheels to my products, and have only had one case of worn wheels reported to me in greater than 5 years of making drive units.

 

The one case was a curious one, the customer reported that the wheels were worn 'flat' on one side. I was puzzled by this and offered to replace them if the drive unit was returned to me. When it arrived, there was a quite noticeable flat on the bottom of each wheel, and it was sychronised across all four wheels.

 

This could only have been caused by dragging the motor bogie around the track while not running, presumably by another locomotive or drive unit. But when questioned, the customer denied it.

[Poor Old Bruce]

I have come across an instance where the plating on the driving wheels of an Airfix 'Royal Scot' was flaking through wear.