Athearn/Roundhouse Overland Coach Wheelsets

[Dave V]

Has anyone ever replaced the plastic wheelsets in the Athearn/MDC/Roundhouse 50 foot Overland passenger cars with metal wheelsets?  They're 33" wheels, but not sure of the axle length appropriate for the Roundhouse passenger trucks.  If anyone's done this, please let me know what wheelsets you used.  The plastic ones don't roll especially well.

I don't have calipers.  Kinda wish I did, LOL.

[mu26aeh]

Maybe this will shed some light....

https://www.trovestar.com/generic/blog.php?Article=421

Roundhouse - 0.549 in

Not sure if thats the same for freight and passenger. 

[Dave V]

Maybe this will shed some light....

https://www.trovestar.com/generic/blog.php?Article=421

Roundhouse - 0.549 in

Not sure if thats the same for freight and passenger.

That is helpful, thanks!

That said, my car set is Athearn and I assumed it's the identical tooling as the Roundhouse cars (but then again, maybe not).  Athearn sells its own 33" metal wheelsets with an axle length of 0.5445 in.

So...the plot thickens!

[thomasjmdavis]

I just measured a wheelset I pulled from one of mine (and to double-check, we are talking about the 50' Overland cars, not the 36' Overton cars, right?  I get these mixed up in my head) with my trusty really cheap caliper, and I get .538 (m/l .540).  Remember, that measurement was free, and worth what it cost.  But to test, pull a .540 wheel from a MTL freight car and see if it fits.

FVM wheels with .540 axles are listed as fitting Athearn..   Trovestar notwithstanding- I am guessing the ".549" is a typo.

[Dave V]

I just measured a wheelset I pulled from one of mine (and to double-check, we are talking about the 50' Overland cars, not the 36' Overton cars, right?  I get these mixed up in my head) with my trusty really cheap caliper, and I get .538 (m/l .540).  Remember, that measurement was free, and worth what it cost.  But to test, pull a .540 wheel from a MTL freight car and see if it fits.

FVM wheels with .540 axles are listed as fitting Athearn..   Trovestar notwithstanding- I am guessing the ".549" is a typo.

Yep, the 50-footers.  The 36' Overtons are a little cartoonish for my tastes.  Yes, I've seen the prototypes in person at the Sierra RR back in the late 80s, but they were not anywhere nearly as ubiquitous in the real world as they are in the model railroading world.

I may have a few FVM .540s on hand...

Thanks!

[Maletrain]

Dave, I already did exactly what you want to do for exactly the same reason.  I used BLMA 0.537" axle 36" wheels, and they made a major improvement.  With the Athern/Roundhouse wheels, my small 2-6-0 was slipping with 2 of those cars.  But, when I replace the wheels with the metal BLMA sets, it pulled all 5 of my cars with no trouble.

I just checked the axle lengths on 4 sets of those BLMA wheels, and they are actually all just about exactly 0.540", not 0.537", as stated on their package.  So, any Fox Valley or other wheel set that is "for MicroTrains cars" should work as well, or even better, if Athearn really uses 0.549" axles.  Of course, the reason that the OEM wheel sets are not rolling well might actually be that the axles are too long, as well as their choices of plastics aren't that friction free.  At any rate, my BLMA wheels do not fall out of the Ahearn/Roundhouse trucks when I pick up those cars.  But, because my Overland cars came by way of eBay, I am not really sure of their vintage or whether it matches the vintage of your cars.

Now, about a modeler of your caliber not having a caliper,... ???

[Dave V]

Dave, I already did exactly what you want to do for exactly the same reason.  I used BLMA 0.537" axle 36" wheels, and they made a major improvement.  With the Athern/Roundhouse wheels, my small 2-6-0 was slipping with 2 of those cars.  But, when I replace the wheels with the metal BLMA sets, it pulled all 5 of my cars with no trouble.

I just checked the axle lengths on 4 sets of those BLMA wheels, and they are actually all just about exactly 0.540", not 0.537", as stated on their package.  So, any Fox Valley or other wheel set that is "for MicroTrains cars" should work as well, or even better, if Athearn really uses 0.549" axles.  Of course, the reason that the OEM wheel sets are not rolling well might actually be that the axles are too long, as well as their choices of plastics aren't that friction free.  At any rate, my BLMA wheels do not fall out of the Ahearn/Roundhouse trucks when I pick up those cars.  But, because my Overland cars came by way of eBay, I am not really sure of their vintage or whether it matches the vintage of your cars.

Now, about a modeler of your caliber not having a caliper,... ???

Awesome!  That's really good to hear.  Just want to confirm...you used 36" wheels rather than 33"?  I know more modern (like post-1900) cars used 36" but I thought the older wood cars used 33".  The HO version of these cars are advertised as having 33".  But if it's really 36" and they work, I'll have to pick some up!

[nkalanaga]

The old Precision Masters wheelsets list Roundhouse as 0.543 inch, and Kadee as 0.536.  Yes, they're that old, they still say "Kadee".  But definitely not 0.549 inch.

[Maletrain]

Awesome!  That's really good to hear.  Just want to confirm...you used 36" wheels rather than 33"?  I know more modern (like post-1900) cars used 36" but I thought the older wood cars used 33".  The HO version of these cars are advertised as having 33".  But if it's really 36" and they work, I'll have to pick some up!

Dave,

I only used 36" wheels because that was what I had on-hand when I had the unexpected problem with the bunch of cars that arrived via eBay.  If I remember correctly, the wheels that came on the cars were longer axles and smaller wheel size than the BLMA wheels I used, but I don't even know if those were OEM.  At the time, I suspected the seller had substituted junk wheels and kept something that he had been using that were better quality. 

The good news for you is that 33" wheels are sure to clear everything on those trucks if 36" wheels clear everything.  Brake shoes are the usual issue with increasing wheel size, but I don't think those Ahearn/Roundhouse trucks include any brake shoes.  In our current shortage of good metal replacement wheels, it is good to know that whatever you have with the proper axle length will work.

Maybe I will go back and change the wheels on these cars when I get to running them.  But, they only increase ride height by about 0.01", and I just can't notice that.  It would be more a matter of wanting those BLMA wheels for another use and having 33" metal wheels available to substitute.

[nkalanaga]

The MDC/Roundhouse wheels never were the best.  So yours could have been OEM wheels.  The early ones were typical metal-tread, plastic-hub wheels, like most early N scale wheels.  The later ones were all-plastic wheels on a metal axle.  Both had pizza-cutter flanges, and neither rolled or tracked that well.  I ended up replacing all of mine, usually with Precision Masters. 

Their roller bearing truck frames were nice, and I bought a bunch of them, as parts, from Walthers.  Those also got PM wheels,

[thomasjmdavis]

Now, about a modeler of your caliber not having a caliper,... ???

In Dave's defense.....and even though I find all sorts of uses for my own caliper, there is a down-side to having one.  Which is that before I had one, I spent more of my modeling time modeling stuff.  Now that I have a caliper, I spend a WAYYYYY too much time measuring stuff.  Prior to having a caliper, if there was a question on axle length or something similar on Railwire, I would check back the next day to see what the answer was. NOW that I have a caliper, I find that I will compulsively search through my collection to find whatever car or structure there is a question about, just so I can measure it.  Plus the additional problem that once you have a caliper, you discover that virtually every model you own is .008" too big or too small in some dimension, all your little people are wearing size 14 shoes, and don't even get me started on the furnishings of passenger cars.

[Dave V]

Dave,

I only used 36" wheels because that was what I had on-hand when I had the unexpected problem with the bunch of cars that arrived via eBay.  If I remember correctly, the wheels that came on the cars were longer axles and smaller wheel size than the BLMA wheels I used, but I don't even know if those were OEM.  At the time, I suspected the seller had substituted junk wheels and kept something that he had been using that were better quality. 

The good news for you is that 33" wheels are sure to clear everything on those trucks if 36" wheels clear everything.  Brake shoes are the usual issue with increasing wheel size, but I don't think those Ahearn/Roundhouse trucks include any brake shoes.  In our current shortage of good metal replacement wheels, it is good to know that whatever you have with the proper axle length will work.

Maybe I will go back and change the wheels on these cars when I get to running them.  But, they only increase ride height by about 0.01", and I just can't notice that.  It would be more a matter of wanting those BLMA wheels for another use and having 33" metal wheels available to substitute.

I ordered enough of the Athearn 36" metal wheels to do four cars.  I had some FVM wheels around and the 33" seemed too small.  The Athearn ones are the former BLMA, right?  Or was that Atlas?  Now I forget...

[wazzou]

The Athearn ones are the former BLMA, right?  Or was that Atlas?  Now I forget...

Atlas acquired BLMA.

[Dave V]

Well sh!t, I hope these work!

[Missaberoad]

Well sh!t, I hope these work!

They should work... the Athearn wheel sets I have fit perfectly in micro-trains trucks...

I also took a quick glance at John H White's "The American Railroad Passenger Car" and there is enough variety of wheel sizes on early cars that your choice of 36" wheels should at least be plausible...