_____
From: Bob Werre
Ed, Your comments regarding the wheels leads me to make a couple of
comments.
Am I able to counter-comment? Or is that re-comment? Can I comment on a
comment? Are your comments commentable? Or just commendable? Groan.....
I really don't like any of the wheelsets commonly available as to their
colors.
Welcome to the club. NWSL wheels which are in the "NASG" column of their
online catalog claim to be weathered and are, in fact, a rather weird
brownish kind of color. To my way of thinking, it is better than black or
silver, but not ideal for sure. My freight-car-building buddy has a
technique that uses Floquil paint of your favorite color. He stands the
axle on end and floods the paint onto the outer surface of the wheel. A
week later he comes back and it has all evaporated and, in the process, has
left not only a colored surface but even a textured surface. It really
looks like the rust is about to flake off. It is very coarse looking and
quite 3-dimensional. Then he turns the axle over and repeats for the other
wheel. Somewhere along the line he paints the backsides of the wheels and
the axle in the normal manner. After all is dry, he takes a small brush and
paints oil drippings and other "black things" on the surface of some of the
wheels. Usually just one "drip" per wheel and maybe only one or two
drip-treated wheels per car. But it really looks neat seeing the wheel
actually rotate (thanks to the drip) instead of just being a plain old brown
color. Try it -- you'll like it! Sort of like watching spokes on the stage
coach in those old western movies. Remember Hopalong Cassidy?
If you look at the real thing, you wll see that the wheel tread is a bright
silver
Yep, and NWSL claims to have a solution. Their funny-brown wheels get that
way due to some chemical treatment that turns the surface of the solid
nickel-silver brownish. The NWSL catalog claims that the tread area's
brownish color will actually wear off after some running time and the tread
area reverts back to it's natural color -- a sort of silvery grayish color.
Not quite a bright silver, but getting closer. No, I do not own NWSL stock.
I am not sure how much actual running is needed to get this effect and am
just quoting the catalog.
we all have way too many SHS, PRS and AM wheels to replace and paint. I
also have a whole box of plastic PRS axle sets stored someplace, an even
heavier box of AM's wheelsets plus a super large box of SHS's hi-rail
wheels.
I boxed up a big bunch of new AM wheels and sent them back to Ron Bashista.
He was appreciative. I felt they had found a good home. NWSL gets the cash
and AM gets the sintered steel. I get a less-stuffed closet. Probably
should give eBay a shot, but didn't want to take the time.
Your right of course, regarding the non standard axle length--with our
reduced numbers a standard length would certainly be nice and economical for
everybody. Unfortunately the ship in the standarizatioin might have sailed,
as I'm sure nobody wants to change their design now.
You could be right, but until NASG asks how will we know for sure? Maybe
the standardization could start with new trucks in the future? The older
trucks will eventually die away of their own free will and could be replaced
with standardized axles (wishful thinking?). Maybe the cost to drill those
conical holes in the sideframe mold is not really all that costly. If
everyone drilled them to accept the same axle length, standardization might
be easily achievable. Your comment about the ship already being departed
might be very correct since I am not sure what the benefit is to the
importer/manufacturer to standardize axles. The benefit is to us, the
modeler, and to aftermarket companies like NWSL.
Occasionally I will get a PRS car (many times the grain hopper but sometimes
the house cars also) where the car will lean to one side. It doesn't derail
just rides leaning to one side all the time.
I cannot comment on this particular comment because I have not observed
leaning on the mighty NYC. Not sure why I am so lucky. Remember the old
anti-tipping conical-shaped springs in the Kinsman/Northeastern trucks? Now
there was a solution!
I assume it's the taper of the axle not matching the taper of the axle
hole--or shouldn't they match at all???
I once saw a diagram somewhere and it appeared that the sideframe conical
hole has a slightly wider angle than the axle tip. I assume this is to
reduce friction so that only the very tip of the axle rubs against the
conical hole. If the angles were identical, then the entire length of the
conically-shaped axle tip would rub against the hole. And, I do not
remember if this diagram was for all trucks or those of only one
manufacturer. I seem to recall it pertained to HO trucks and so I do not
know if the various S trucks are made the same way or not.
Anyway, to end this wheelset saga, I do think there is a business
opportunity here to make the PERFECT wheelset -- one that is the correct
colors (rust/brown/silver/black grease), has a tapered axle, maybe ribs on
the back (for eras gone by), RP-25 contour, totally non-magnetic, and so
forth. Like couplers, the PERFECT wheelset has yet to reach us. But the
quality bar is continually raising and maybe some day we will see it. We
have more today than ever imagined just a few years back.
Cheers...Ed L.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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