Here's a question for anyone with experience with the new closer-to-scale Proto Fine Scale wheels for HO locos. Are there any problems with tracking or negotiating turnouts on old code 100 track - or other problems in general? If I were a manufacturer of HO locomotives, would it be wiser to stick to RP25 or would it be a plus to go with the fine scale profile? It would have to be one or the other. Thanks for your help!
<font color="336633">I have not had any of the proto scale wheels on locos, but I have some on a few boxcars, and these dont seem to have any problems so far.</font>
The proto 87 weelsets dont track as well on regular HO track. They work fine as long as they dont have to go throug a turnout. Atlas turnouts seem to derail them all the time, they drop down in the guard rail area. If you want to use the proto 87 type weelsets you will need to handlay all the turnouts to proto 87 standards. Now the semi proto weelsets will work fine. they have a wider tred width than the proto 87 wheels but its narrower then the RP25 weelsets.
I use both Proto 2000 and Reboxx wheelsets on some of my rolling stock. The P2K wheels are about as wide as the plastic wheels, while the Reboxx are closer to scale (but not exactly proto-scale). If you want good-looking wheels that aren't "fat-tired", go with the Reboxx. They track well thru Atlas turnouts (my observation and personal experience). I'm not getting paid to plug either brand, I'm just offering my personal observations based on use.
Thanks for the response folks! I'm only concerned with diesel loco trucks here and will be producing them ourselves. According to NMRA RP-4, the designation "proto" relates to scales large enough to use scale width wheels, while scales smaller than Proto-48 (O), using over-scale (but narrower than standard width) are designated as 'fine'. Where a 'standard' RP25 tread width (including flange) is .108", the fine scale recommended dimension is .086". This is a difference of only 22 thousands - so I don't think there should be any problems with a 40" locomotive wheel negotiating average turnouts or cross-overs. As for dropping a wheel between the guard rails, I would suspect wheel set gauging rather than tire width as the source of that problem. The primary reason for my question, of course, is whether to stick my neck out for a production run of 10,000 skinny wheels - which people seem to want - or stay with the old tried and true. Ahhh what the heck - I'll go with the skinny!
