What size wheels?

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choffman41

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Quite a while ago I replaced the arch bar trucks on my old timey passenger cars (Roundhouse Overton types). I measured them and they scale out to 33". Now I'm wondering if these are correct scale as I see the 33" are usually listed for freight cars and passenger are 36". They work fine and line up perfectly with the loco but I'd like it to be right if possible. Thanks in advance for any help.
Chuck
 
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Fred_M

Old passange train rolling stock used 36" wheels as far as I know. But, 3 inches in HO is like .034 of an inch, so 1/2 of that would be .017 of an inch. So your stock possibly sets .017 too low. If you put on the right size wheels the couplers may still line up OK. Your delima is why i don't bother to measure wheels.;) Ignorance is bliss...DASH
 
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Bill Stone

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You say you replaced the arch bar trucks. I've always wondered why MDC put arch bars under those cars. So far as I know, no passenger cars ever were equipped with arch bar trucks.
What trucks did you use? The MDC old time passenger?

BillS
 
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choffman41

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Actually, I kind of don't remember. My initial goal was to have metal sprung trucks and metal wheels. I found a bunch of these on ebay a year or 2 ago. I think they were something like CSM or a similar manufacturer. They seem fine, have ribbed wheels, look OK. I just wasn't up on what was correct for the era at that time. I'm just slightly more educated now.
 
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Benny

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Mine own

I have rounded up about 5-10 sets of the MDC passenger/caboose trucks...They are more "correct, those freight trucks aren't the best for ride but they are cheaper...from a railroad stand point...
 
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Russ Bellinis

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The Roundhouse Overton cars are unlike any other car ever made. To my knowledge the only railroad that ran them was the Sierra. They only had a coach and a combine. They are only 30 feet long because the section of railroad they ran on had such steep grades and tight turns that the cars were pulled by shays. At the speeds shays run, passenger trucks would have been superfulous.
 
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shaygetz

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I have one of those coaches myself that I use as a historical excursion type extra on the club layout. While a freelancer trying to stay reasonably prototypical myself, I love the look of the archbars, knowing that they weren't often found on passenger gear. However, my inner rivet counter tells me to swap out with a pair of old timer passenger car trucks I have that are more suited to the task. I keep him at bay by pulling out my 4-8-8-2 Cab Forward painted in Conrail colors:eek:. Thanks Russ, for the heads up on their origins. I'll have to get a coach and run them with my shay as an excursion extra instead.
 
brakie

brakie

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Chuck,I going to stick my neck out here (and more then likely get it chopped) but I am certain that I read where passenger cars had the 36" wheels..

SS my young friend there is a BIG difference between a rivet counter and those that like to model as correctly as possible even the good enoughers and close enoughers like me has limitations on what we will accept as our standards but we are not true rivet counters you see..:D Besides who really wants to bother with counting iddy biddy rivets?

I do hope Santa was good to you..:thumb: See you in the chat room!:D
 
brakie

brakie

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SS said:Of course the phrasing of the setup was designed to give a Rivet counter a heart attack
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LOLROF! :D
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The gist is 'As long as you are having fun, what others think about it is silly'
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Absolutely! One of the joys of this hobby is to enjoy it in ones' own way.That's why its the worlds greatest hobby! :D
 
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Fred_M

World Class Rivet Counters

The ultimate rivet counters were the Russians during the Stalin era. While bombing the Japaneese in WWII a few of the then top secret B-25s were diverted to Siberia after bombing Japeneese interests in China. Stalin said to reverse engineer and built "an exact copy" of the American Bomber. Well, in them days people tended to take him at his exact word because if you didn't you got purged. So the first bomber they built included a panel on the wing that was riveted on. It was a patch from a bullet hole from a previous mission of the aircraft. They knew it was a patch, but "the Boss" said "an exact copy". They even went so far as to custom make all the bolts and screws in the plane. They were American standard size bolts and the Russians were making metric and using metric bolts. So they had to also design and make machine tools to cut the american bolts with their SAE thread pitch. Now metric bolts would of worked just fine, but "the Boss" said "an exact copy". Thus ends our history lesson for today. DASH10
 
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Russ Bellinis

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Originally posted by brakie
Chuck,I going to stick my neck out here (and more then likely get it chopped) but I am certain that I read where passenger cars had the 36" wheels..:D
Click to expand...

Normally you would be right, but these cars were built for the Sierra in the late 1800's I think. They were used on the "Angel's Flight" branch, if my memory is correct, running between Jamestown and Angels Camp. Jamestown & Angels camp are at about the same elevation, but they are on two different hilltops with great canyons all around. One of the problems the Sierra had in building the Angel's branch was that when they would set charges to blow out hillsides to make the right of way, they track crews would forget about the railroad and start filling their pockets with the gold the was blown out by the dynomite. The "Angel's Flight" was not only steep and twisting, but used two switch backs between Jamestown and Angel's camp. I think it was about a 2 hour run to go the 15 miles or so that the branch ran. Most passenger cars were designed to run on mainline tracks behind passenger power at high speed. These cars were designed to be pulled and pushed on a tight, steep, twisting branchline by a shay at a maximum speed of perhaps 10-15 miles per hour.
 
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