Regauging an On3 Wheel Set

[HHRR]

I just bought an On 3 Porter Tender for my 0-4-0 On 30 Bachman Porter, to run on my EZ track.   How difficult is it to regauge the wheel sets from On3 to On30 to make sure you move each wheel in the same distance to keep the tender centered on the tracks?
Any help would be appreciated, or is there a site that shows how to do it.  I have never regauged a wheel set.

Thanks,  Joe

[railtwister]

Hi Joe,

If it's like most Grandt Line On30 wheelsets, it is made in two halves, & each half has a metal tire with molded plastic wheel center & outer axle slid onto a brass wire axle. As long as you are not narrowing the whole thing, just slide the two halve off the metal axle and remove a small amount of plastic from each to allow the halves to be reassembled (on the untouched wire axle) in proper HO gauge. You should only need to remove about a 1/16" (give or take a few thousandths of an inch) from each half to achieve proper 16.5mm HO gauge. Not cutting the wire axle is important, because you still need it to fit into the stock journals.

Good Luck,
Bill

[Woody Elmore]

Hi Bill: I have several cars with Grandt trucks regauged to HO. I add a tiny piece of tubing from the inside of a Bic pen to the axle ends. It takes the play out of the axles and I found that if the pieces are short enough they don't effect rolling.

Joe may find out that the bigger Grandt On3 wheels will make the tender ride higher than the engine.