Tomytec chassis wheels

[Chris333]

What is everyone using to swap out the Tomytec chassis wheels?

I knew they came with chrome wheels and traction tires, but was just going to swap out the wheels for Kato, but they don't fit. What is everyone using? 

[randgust]

I just turn mine.  Easy even with a dremel and file

[Chris333]

I think the flanges are OK I just don't like the bright chrome finish. Plus I need to get rid of the 2 traction tire wheels. I assumed the Kato stuff was interchangeable.

[Jim Starbuck]

I’ve used a few different ones depending on the diameter needed. I cut the axles of freight car wheelsets with a Dremel cutoff wheel to make half axles. ESM 33” and 38”, Tangent 36”, FVM 28”, 33” and 36”. You may be able to use Atlas half axles from their geared wheelsets.
There are different axle diameters so you may need to bore out the Tomytec geared axle tubes. Using axle point pickup required using just the non insulated side of the wheelset and may require some experimentation with the length of the axle point to keep the wheels in gauge while still letting them spin freely in the axle cups. For example Kato wheels have a longer axle point. Wheelback wipers can use the insulated side of the half axles.
I’ve found the ESM to work well as far as electrical pickup. Tangent works best but only has 36” diameter and the FVM are a bit less conductive.
I’ve also blackened the bright wheels on Kato chassis with NeoLube coating the face and the flange and leaving the tread alone.

[peteski]

Yes, they are rather ugly and toyish Bachmann-like.  You could  easily weather them or just paint the faces rail brown. What I dont' like about them is how wide the tread is, and of course the deep flanges.

What your photos do not show is the wheelset and half axle out of the axle muff.  Is the wheel land axle turned from a single piece of metal, or is the axle made from stainless steel rod press fit into the wheel (like Kato wheels)? I suspect that the entire assembly is a single part.  Also what diameter is the axle? Kato uses 1mm axes.

[Chris333]

The axle dia of the Tomytec, Kato, and ESM are all different. The Kato muffs go all the way to the wheel. Tomytec muffs do not, part of the wheel has a shoulder.

So what I did was take Kato geared muffs from those old 4 wheel drives. I chopped 8 ESM wheels in half. Drilled out the muffs to fit the ESM wheels. And did all of that just for this:

On the right are the new wheels. Now I can sleep at night knowing my wheels are blackened 

Oh oh  also the Kato and Tomytec muffs are a different dia and gear size. I had to file the truck axle openings bigger to fit the Kato muffs. This also spaced them out just enough for the gear to fit. This has all been ran back and forth and runs just like before.

[Jim Starbuck]

I like what you did there.

[peteski]

Using axle point pickup required using just the non insulated side of the wheelset and may require some experimentation with the length of the axle point to keep the wheels in gauge while still letting them spin freely in the axle cups. For example Kato wheels have a longer axle point.

Since Kato wheelsets (Diesel and passenger) have press-fit half-axles, the distance they protrude from the wheels can be fairly easily adjusted for a perfect fit. See https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=33107.msg379288#msg379288

[randgust]

I've got a lot of those various chassis as they were the 'standard' for my powered boxcar kit and the Whitcomb centercab.

Probably 50% of them got flanges turned for the custom-builds for customers.  But I just painted my wheel faces grimy black, so what you've got is a blackened tread and flange, so that's a lot of work for that, just sayin'.   I'll also say that Tomytec almost ALWAYS runs narrow on gauge out of the box, easily corrected.

The end-axle pickup designs (longer wheelbase) were FAR more electrically reliable than the shorter wheelbase ones with the 'internal' floating pickup pads on the inner wheel shoulders.  I just spent an entire evening field-stripping and cleaning my rebuilt PRR Bachman Doodlebug with Tomytec drive that is inside plate pickups, and really surprised how bad it had become for pickup.  The end axles aren't as good as Katos, but they are still good if the contact strips are exerting enough down force.  The shorter wheelbase trucks without end-axles are kind of a trap for reliability.   At one time Tomytec did end-axles on short wheelbase trucks, but I haven't seen one for a long time.  And the gear towers at the ends (putting the universal at the bolster center instead of the inner axle) is obsolete now too, all the "R" versions have a center gear tower.

I've had so many Tomytec chassis that on ones like that (that need 8x8) I just swap out traction tire wheels from my piles of parts.  On the Whitcombs, I need the tire for one-truck drive anyway.  And never had a traction tire fail since about 2005, unlike Kato, which have crumbled.

[Chris333]

Yeah I was being picky. It is why I only buy Athearn 2-8-0's instead of MDC. They are the same except for those shiney wheels. Blackened wheel treads look so much better.

[peteski]

Blackened wheel treads look so much better.

Don't you mean wheel faces and backs?  Wheel treads are supposed to be polished shiny bare metal.