Hello everyone, I'm new to the steel railroad wheels that intermountain has for sale. Most all of my train cars have plastic wheel. Which size wheels do I use for Micro trains 50' box cars ? Which size for Atlas 17,360 tank cars ? I always thought that the 33" were for low cars, like car carriers and passeger cars. Is there a link that can tell me what wheels I need for the different cars I have. Thank you.....Bill
ive seen this here before . have you searched the forums for that. im not good at finding old post, but i now its some where.
Hi Bill, as a general rule of thumb, intermodal and autoracks generally have 28" wheels, 50' cars and shorter cars generally have 33" wheels and modern cars generally have 36" wheels. Again this is just a general rule of thumb and like everything else, you'll find exceptions. Now the most important part is the actual axle length of the model wheel set. If you have a digital or dial caliper be sure to measure the axle length, else you may end up purchasing wheel sets that either fall out of the trucks or will not spin freely in the truck.
Wheel size is based off car capacity, nothing to do with car length. 33" wheels are for cars under 70 ton capacity, 36" for 100 ton, and 38" for 125 ton. 28" wheels are used on some autoracks, however not all, none of the prototype cars are available in N scale, but the smaller wheel diameter is to lower the cars overall ride height. Passenger cars typically have 36" wheels With the intermountain wheels, they only make a 34.5" wheel for micro-trains trucks, which no prototype wheel exist.
