Worn out wheels

[daftbovine]

Hello,

 

I have bought a secondhand Hornby 8F, it was swimming in oil which I have cleaned up. It also has very worn driving wheels which are down to the brass. I suspect the wheels have been cleaned with one of those Trix wire brush cleaners or something similar.

 

I wondered if the worn wheels would be likely to cause problems in future and whether it would be a good idea to buy replacement wheels while they are available as spares.

 

Thanks in anticipation.

 

Ronnie.

[mossdp]

Some models have brass wheels anyway so the brass being visible of itself is unlikely to be a problem. It sounds like the chemical blackening has worn off. Pitted or badly scratched wheels might be a problem if they spark on good track and cause a build up of dirt, but should be easy to verify with a quick test in the dark but even wheels in very good condition spark a little so unless excessive it may not matter.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I go through the plating to seeing some brass on current Hornby steam loco driving wheels within a year. That's just the wheels running on the track does that. No harm to the running at all, but they are run frequently (most days) which keeps them well polished. (I clean the rails continuously by a drag, rarely have to clean any wheel as there is little on the railhead for a wheel to pick up)

 

The N2s are the oldest China made Hornby I have running, just about a dozen years old, running as well as ever. It's pick up wipers that are the first wearing component to wear out on current products (Kader group split chassis steam types which I no longer use - having worn them out -  excepted).

[Titan]

Nah, proper wear is when they get double flanged and derail on points!

[Sam Moss]

My Hornby 8F had brass wheels from new, just blackened.

[DCB]

Maybe you should trade up to a Hornby Dublo 8F, their wheels seem to be bright nickel finish right through, I was turning the flanges off one earlier..  A regards brass finish I don't like the sound of it for an infrequently used loco, but maybe it improves their feeble hauling power.  Older Hanblins wheels had brass tyres and they always seemed to be dirty and to be honest looked horrible,

[Sam Moss]

We had a Dublo 8F bought into the club the other week for repair and it had run so much it had worn a groove into the wheels on one side and essentially had double flanges.

[TheWeatheringMan]

Hi,

The older wheels mentioned were by Hamblings Models (of Cecil Court, Charring Cross Road, London) and had turned brass tyres, with a somewhat coarse flange, mounted onto moulded phenolic resin centres. The axles were press fitted using a wheel press sold by Hamblings for the purpose. The axles were splined and once fitted stayed put.

Although typical 1950's products they could, and were often lathe turned by modellers (me included) and thus fettled could be made to look quite reasonable.

Sometimes available were batches made with nickel-silver tyres and once lathe turned these did look rather nice - not having the 'yellow' look of the normal brass tyred version and they stayed clean.

The late Guy Williams of Pendon fame who built superb locos for the museum made some use of Hamblings wheels so they were'nt all bad.

Regards