Caboose wheel sizes...

[Joetrain59]

Converting some rolling stock to metal wheels. Bowser N5 has it's own trucks, not MT's. 33" wheels seem a bit large compared to stock plastic wheels.
 Would cabooses have smaller than 33" wheels?
 Thanks,
 Joe D

[nscaler711]

You know I was just thinking about that, I wanna know for my ATSF CE-1.....
I think the only thing out there smaller than 33" is a 28" and I'm not even sure what cars use the 28"....
I'm betting that they would use a 33", 36" would be excessive...

[bbussey]

Pennsy cabin cars ran on 33" wheels. The Bowser models use a Bettendorf T-style truck. Same prototype that Bachmann is now using on their higher-end freight models.

[Joetrain59]

Thanks. Got 33" wheels on order, with shorter axles than for MT cars. Cabin height needs to be lowered a bit.
 Joe D

[peteski]

If you have a caliper handy, I would be curious as to what is the diameter of the original plastic wheels which came with that model.

[garethashenden]

While not directly relevant to the original question, you've made me wonder about the wheels for the B&M cabeese I intend to model. So I looked it up. The large number of homebuilt buggies used 8' hand me down passenger trucks, but with 33" wheels as opposed to the 36" wheels normally expected with passenger trucks. Now I'm wondering if they changed the wheels or did 19th century passenger cars use smaller wheels?

[bbussey]

Thanks. Got 33" wheels on order, with shorter axles than for MT cars. Cabin height needs to be lowered a bit.
 Joe D

In addition to the lowering, I believe you will have to change the couplers from the factory-installed #1015 to the offset-shank #2001.

[Joetrain59]

Bryan, I have Z905's, and lowering will be a problem for their mounting height. May have to compromise.

Peteski, will measure right now.
 Joe D

[Joetrain59]

Wheels in Bowser N5 truck measure; Tread dia = 0.204". Flange dia = 0.239". Axle length = 0.545".
 Joe D

[peteski]

Wheels in Bowser N5 truck measure; Tread dia = 0.204". Flange dia = 0.239". Axle length = 0.545".
 Joe D

Hmmm... that scales to 32.64" wheel. I would say that is close enough to being a 33" wheel.  Interesting that those looked to be too large.

[Joetrain59]

I see I wasn't clear about wheels I was talking about. I meant FVM 33" wheels. Likely just an optical illusion. Optivisor lenses can itnroduce ditortion.
 Joe D

[peteski]

I see I wasn't clear about wheels I was talking about. I meant FVM 33" wheels. Likely just an optical illusion. Optivisor lenses can itnroduce ditortion.
 Joe D

Well, I'm still confused.  Your original post stated: Converting some rolling stock to metal wheels. Bowser N5 has it's own trucks, not MT's. 33" wheels seem a bit large compared to stock plastic wheels.  FVM 33" wheels will have a thread diameter around 0.206".

Or are you saying that due to an optical illusion the 33" FVM wheels look larger than the Bowser's N5 plastic 33" wheels?

[Joetrain59]

The latter, Peteski.
 Joe D

[Ngineer]

AFAIK 28'' is only used on Auto Carriers, Vert-A-Pac Autoracks, etc. to reduce overall height.

Javier