Vance.
I think there is a market out there, albeit probably small. Way to go might be to file and fettle one wheels spokes, and use it as a pattern for lost wax casting (A brilliant process). You'd probably get the idiot fringe who would say "I'd have bought 25 if it had been 1/2 a mililmetre smalle or had one more spoke". But they are everywhere.
Jim Gregg.
At 10:21 AM 10/6/04 -0600, you wrote:
You're right, Pete (almost). I have cut them from mild steel, and the spokes are indeed not formed, but rather just silhouettes. This is quite acceptable for outside-frame locos, where the wheels are about invisible anyway, but obviously wouldn't do for inside-frame locos. Since the question regarded wheels for a Lady Anne bash, they would work.
The treads are G1MRA profile and are turned on a CNC lathe. This is the
difficult part, as finding a shop to do the work in small quantities is difficult
and it's not something you want to do by hand. (At least, I don't; it takes
me a half hour a wheel to turn treads.)
So, I haven't put these into production. I've only done two sets and am about to install one on the project I'm currently working on. Right now, the performance is unknown. I suppose if they work out well, I could have a couple hundred made up, but are there that many Lady Anne bashers out there, or would I end up with 172 in my estate?
best regards, -Vance-
Vance Bass FH&PB Railroad Supply Co. 6933 Cherry Hills Loop NE Albuquerque, NM 87111 USA http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/fhpb/
