Newest Freight Car

[Jhanecker2]

To doctorwayne :   If  the plastic wheels are functional they should be fine for freight cars that have no functions that require  track power . However for lighted passenger cars  you might want metal wheels to be able to illuminate your cars . This applies to your home layout .  Though it must be said that metal wheels probably roll better & stay cleaner longer .  I do admit to having changed  a good number of wheel sets .  John2.  Hope  everybody on the East Coast are staying warm & inside .

[rogertra]

Is this new rule a personal rule or a club rule? Because replacing the wheels on 50+ cars... That's 200+ metal wheelsets you had to buy. Ouch.

I don't belong to a club. 

This is on my private Great Eastern Railway.

Cheers

Roger T.

[rogertra]

As a club rule, it might be manageable depending on how many of your own cars have to be on the club's layout.  For home use, I see no need to have metal wheels a necessity, although they may be your preference.

Wayne

Metal wheels roll better, you can pull longer trains with metal wheels.  Metal wheels also stay cleaner.  Metal wheels add weight, making you freight and passenger cars track better.  The extra train weight is offset by the ability of the wheels to roll better than plastic wheels.  So although the train may be heavier, a given loco can pull more cars, not a lot more true, but more.  Plastic wheels, over time, can pick up enough crud as to reduce the effectiveness of the wheel flange, resulting in derailments.


Cheers

Roger T.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

All the same, plastic wheels are not inherently worthless, despite what Model Railroader Magazine would like you to believe. If you make sure that they're clean of the mold-release coating (sometimes they come out of the box that way, sometimes they don't), they won't accumulate dirt or other crud any faster than any other plastic part of a car (like, say, the body). So long as there's no flash in the way on flange or tyre, and the axle needlepoints are unobstructed (a need not limited to plastic wheels, I might point out), plastic wheels work perfectly fine.

On a different subject, I saw a reefer on the first page of this that had been painted green... including the couplers. Why were the couplers painted, out of curiosity?

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

The ones on the Grand Valley reefer.

[Jhanecker2]

Zelda  is correct the Grand Valley reefer  does appear to have green colored couplers .  I am not sure if prototypical are painted or coated to reduce rusting , but considering the operational  life of cars suspect that "rust" is their normal coloration  just like track rails .  John2.

[jbrock27]

I have to agree, as has been pointed out to me recently, that metal wheels as rule, to which there are a few exceptions or course, roll better than delrin ones, even if the delrin ones have pointed steel or brass pointed axle tips where they fit in to the truck.  This does not mean I got about a campaign to replace delrin ones, but when opportunity arises to buy, I buy metal.

[rogertra]

Zelda  is correct the Grand Valley reefer  does appear to have green colored couplers .  I am not sure if prototypical are painted or coated to reduce rusting , but considering the operational  life of cars suspect that "rust" is their normal coloration  just like track rails .  John2.

There are certain things on the prototype that must never be painted.  Wheels are one, couplers are the another. 

Cheers

Roger T.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Hmmm.  They're not green on my monitor, and they're certainly not painted green.  I have painted some couplers with a dry-brushed rust colour, and most get some airbrushed weathering as a by-product of the general car weathering. 
Real couplers are not painted, although they may acquire some overspray when the car is painted - in fact, I believe that couplers are not to be painted.

Wayne

Yeah, well, I think the couplers on that Grand Valley reefer got some overspray because they look exactly the same drab green color as the car.

[Jhanecker2]

Due to the operational  environment  of couplers   and wheels,  paint  would be a total waste  of time & materials .  If memory serves I believe wheels are heat shrunken  onto axles and the lubricants  would destroy the paint ,  same basic  problem  with the coupler  abrasive contact  and lubrication requirments plus  weather conditions make it a waste . John2.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Well then I don't know what the deal is, but they definitely somehow wound up the same green as the carbody - I can see it plainly in that photo of it on the first page! In fact, that's what caught my interest enough to continue reading the thread. I was wondering what the heck was up with it!

[rogertra]

Due to the operational  environment  of couplers   and wheels,  paint  would be a total waste  of time & materials .  If memory serves I believe wheels are heat shrunken  onto axles and the lubricants  would destroy the paint ,  same basic  problem  with the coupler  abrasive contact  and lubrication requirments plus  weather conditions make it a waste . John2.

Nothing to do with the operational environment nor a waste of time and paint, nor the manufacturing process nor lubricants.  Wheels and couplers are  simply not allowed to be painted for safety reasons, period.  See my previous comment.

Paint can hide cracks and defaults, so that is why wheels and couplers cannot be painted.   


Cheers

Roger T.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

I'm not crazy about green   I was just wondering why the heck the couplers on a model seemed to have been painted! FFS

[J3a-614]

my previous comment.

Paint can hide cracks and defaults, so that is why wheels and couplers cannot be painted.  


Roger T.

Well, that's certainly the rule now, but how far back does it go?  I recall builder's photographs of cars with apparently painted wheels and couplers (this is visible in the different tones in black and white photographs, particularly for black trucks and wheels under a red or other colored car).  I seem to recall also photos of steam engines out of the shop with black couplers, and of course steam locomotive wheels are painted. . .

And let's take a look at this factory fresh EMD passenger F3 at LaGrange, ready for delivery to the ATSF:

http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/fileSendAction/fcType/0/fcOid/7343020832504542/filePointer/7343020841223269/fodoid/7343020841223264/imageType/MEDIUM/inlineImage/true/Santa%2520Fe%2520F3.jpg

Silver trucks, silver wheels, silver couplers. . .and right out of the plant!  

The same paint applications are on these Alco PAs that do seem to have been in service for a while:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=392180

It's on the Western Pacific, too.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/California_Zephyr_pre_first_run_1949.JPG

And we have a very new looking Canadian National FPA-2 with a black coupler that blends in quite well with the black pilot.

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/cnr_diesel/6706.jpg

For contrast, a new EMD F125 nearing completion.  Besides a rusty coupler, check out those unpainted wheels that look so much like our unpainted metal wheels in HO scale!  

(Of course they won't stay so shiny for long!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_F125#/media/File:Metrolink_EMD_F125_Spirit.jpg

And so we have a little mystery--which is, how far back does the no paint rule go?

[J3a-614]

One other thing I might add, and that is those wheels, painted or unpainted, didn't stay clean for long in the days of plain bearings.  Those bearings always had some oil leaking out the back seal, and it didn't take too long for it to coat the wheels, where the oil also attracted and held dirt.  I well recall how freight cars wheels were coated with this black, shiny greasy stuff.  

I seem to recall one fellow suggesting the real look for freight cars wheels in the plain bearing era would be to paint them glossy or semi-glossy black with something like baking soda mixed in the paint.

EDIT:  Wasn't looking for this, but here we have a Wabash Blue Bird observation car on what was by that thime the Norfolk & Western, and clearly with a silver rear coupler.  Date:  1966

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1559470407678224&set=a.1441806412777958.1073741827.100008458391209&type=3&theater