Good Day, I use Bachmann couplers throughout my rolling stock. However, most couplers have plastic wheels installed. Who makes metal wheels that fit Bachmann N Scale couplers? Thanks!
If I remember correctly, the trucks need the 0.554 axle length. You should be able to use that to find them. There are several manufacturers that make that size but I'm not sure what the rules are here about discussing companies items other than Bachmann's
We have 33" wheels available from our parts department.
https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_81&products_id=369 (https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_81&products_id=369)
In my experience, I've found it best to stick to the same manufacturer for interconnecting small parts like wheels and trucks. Especially in small scales.
Quote from: Yard Master on April 01, 2025, 09:06:54 AMWe have 33" wheels available from our parts department.
https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_81&products_id=369 (https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_81&products_id=369)
I just ordered and received a dozen of those exact wheels for replacements on some of the Old Timer freight cars. I wanted to upgrade to the wheels used on the silver series of the old timers, which have a narrower profile along with being darkened. I was displeased to find out that they were instead an N scale 36'diameter wheel (.222' to .225' or .225' x 160=36'). They also have a much thicker profile than the wheels on the silver series old-time freight cars I have. (.093 versus .061). I had been using Fox Valley for my upgrades, but they got bought out by Scale Trains, who subsequently discontinued their .561 length wheel sets.
The axle lengths are .561 to .563, which work with both the old and new trucks. When I spotted yours, thinking they would duplicate the wheels on my silver series old-time V & T gondola, I ordered them. However, they make the cars sit too high and just look wrong. My only other choice is to change out the trucks for Microscale, which is going to really get expensive. I'm modeling the 1890s, so my choices for rolling stock are limited to non-existent.
I picked up a lot of the initial old-timer cars on eBay at good prices before you launched the updated silver series versions. However, after buying the single V&T gondola, I realized that your design engineers had made a terrible mistake with the molded truss rods and vertical queen posts. They evidently don't understand how the rods function. The rods are supposed to use the cantilever principle of the queen posts to keep the old wooden cars from sagging over time. Thus, the rods are automatically bent where they ride over the queen posts. The queen posts act like the upright beams of a truss bridge, only inverted in this application.
Somehow, for your silver series, someone redesigned the mold for the rods and posts to have the truss rods not bend where they meet the queen posts, but instead bend at least half of a scale foot outside of their intersection with the queen posts--a physical impossibility. I can live with a few things that are not protypical on a model, but not something that visually defies the laws of physics.
This is what the truss rods should look like \l___l/ and not like this \_l__l_/ (the l's are the queen posts)
Surely somebody in your company knows enough about the history of freight car construction, or at the very least took a physics class in high school, to be able to spot such a mistake as this? I also find it hard to believe that no customer has ever brought this to your attention.
The funny thing is that for quite a period, I've seen many listings of these models at various vendors that were presented as simple colored-in line drawings, which showed the truss rods as being correct, so maybe people just overlooked the fact that they weren't right on the actual models,i.e., silver series old timer box cars, water tank cars, gondolas.
A concerned customer