I have been wanting to change over to metal wheels for all my cars ( modeling the WWII era ) . I like the looks of the FVM 33'' low profile wheel and the wide tread wheel in 33'', but not sure how well it perfoms on the code 55 track . Is the 33'' wheel right for the era ? Any suggestions ? thanks! Paul
Maybe you could pick up a few to test. Perhaps enough for a couple of cars and see how they work out?
I use the original (narrow tread) FVM wheels on Micro Engineering code 55, and code 40, flex track with excellent results. I hand-lay turnouts so I don't have much experience with these wheels in commercial turnouts, and that is potentially where problems could arise. The wide tread wheels were introduced a while after the original ones came out because some people did have problems with the narrow tread. The best thing to do would be to get a dozen of each and try them on your layout before you go whole hog. Regarding wheel diameter, it can get tricky. The most basic advice is that cars with 70 ton trucks use 33" wheels and cars with 100 ton trucks use 36" wheels. In the modern era, most cars use 36" wheels except for auto racks and 50' box cars, which use 33" ones, but this is only a rough guide. Freight cars from earlier eras will more commonly have 33" wheels. If you really care, you're best off trying to locate photos of your prototype. You'll also have to figure out which axle length you need for the trucks you have... But these are excellent wheels that (to me) are worth the investment. -Gary
33" wheels would be appropriate for your era, I think I read somewhere that the wide treads came about because of problems running on Shinohara track, I use Peco code 55, and the narrow treads work just fine. If you decide to go with Intermountain wheels, their treads would all be considered wide.
I've posted this elsewhere, but I've hit problems with the new BLMA wheels with narrow treads dropping in the 'hole' at the points of Atlas legacy C80 switches, where the points nest into the stock rail. That .005 does actually seem to make a difference.
I use the wide tread due to one of my clubs is old code 80 and the Free-moN group is all code 55. I'd play it safe and go wide.
My layout has Shinohara Code 60 rail (now discontinued). I converted all my rolling stock to the original FVM wheelsets a year or so ago. Had some very minor adjustments to trackwork, but the Shinohara track and original FVM wheelsets now work fine together. Only issue is that the wheels tend to sometimes drop into the gap near the frog on #6 switches. I plan to address that issue in the near future. Any suggestions?
