I batted a query into the cheap seats at Stalag Dandruff the other day and was met with a crashing wall of silence.
I may be in a minority of one in my love of Peco chassis under NZ120 4 wheelers, but was won over a long time ago because they are pretty quick and easy to use, bulletproof in their running and 'close enough' to the NZR look with a few bits surgically removed.
Unfortunately the big fat wheel flanges are deep enough to do your lawn edges with. While you can get away with that on Peco code 55 track, on the Atlas code 55 at 'the club', they just bump along on the plastic molded spike heads until they fall off and everyone laughs at you.
Yet, given the massive output from the Peco factory over the last few decades, surely someone must make fine-ish scale replacements???
If you saw that DI video posted the other day you might have noticed that I've answered my own question: Peco do.
Yes I don't know what made me look into my treasure trove of dozens of Peco chassis that I bought in bulk from the UK a few years back, but indeed the newer ones actually have little flanges from the factory. So inadvertently, most of the 4 wheelers that I've made over the past few years have nice wheels and run well.
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| Coarse old flanges at right (discs on NC), less so at left (new spoked LA) |
While the bad news is that all of my older wagons need their wheels replaced with the new ones, this is actually good news for me. A problem with a solution is better than a problem without one as I see it. Especially if you already own the solution.
A side effect being that after modeling and running only bogie stock for the past few years, the 4 wheelers look really neat.
Somehow I managed to run that train behind the DI for 10 minutes and nothing derailed even once on those multiple laps. The real surprise was the steamroller-esque wheels on that old 30 foot F van which somehow managed to drag themselves over the dozens of Atlas code 55 points on the layout!
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| Holy Rollers, Batman! And look at that back to back measurement... |
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| Looks better from this angle |
5 comments:
I've got about a dozen old four wheelers by Peco, which need new wheels. Any tips on what to order and where from?
I've checked the spoked wheels and they are 'almost' NMRA compliant in that the back to back is almost right. I haven't located any solid wheels with the new profile yet.
Dare I ask what the axle length is??
15mm or near offer.
I've been having a hunt and can't findanywhere to buy Peco wheelsets. Farish and Parkside Dundas are a bit easier to find and do the job.
I've got several Peco 15ft chassis (and drew some 3D bodies to suit). I've replaced the plastic Peco wheels with Graham Farish metal ones (I'm not a fan of plastic wheels of any variety). The axle length is slightly longer, but with a bit of care and a small drill bit you can make them fit nicely.
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