Whilst these wagons look excellent, even more so with short couplings, I'm experiencing a small issue and looking for advice...
I found that the wheels did not spin freely as per other models and when on the track there is less side play in the wagon.
I took a small drill (0.65mm) to the axle boxes and opened them out a bit - half a turn just until a tiny slither of swarf was produced.
This helped the free spin a bit, but not as much as I'd hoped for.
I have a rake of 9 and both a Farish 08 and 31 struggled to take them round a Peco radius 3 (11.75 inch I think) curve. There's quite a lot of drag.
I compared the wheel sets with some spare Farish ones and found that the Farish wheel sets had a slightly smaller back to back measurement. The Farish ones also have longer axles and larger wheels so direct replacement was not an option.
My suspicion was that the back to back was too large, causing drag by jamming on the curve due to lack of sideways movement, so to be sure I purchased the DCC Concepts gauge for 9mm track which says that it is set to the mid-point of the tolerance range at 7.65mm.
The DJM wheels are a 'snug' fit onto the Gauge - just as described by the DCC Concepts instructions. I can only conclude that these wheels are 'spot on' in that respect.
I did find that neither Farish nor Peco wagon wheels would fit onto the gauge, obviously they're using less than 7.65mm.
What is the correct BTB figure and is there a preset gauge I can use to set the wheels slightly less than 7.65mm?
Alan.