Fox Valley Wheels

[ai5629]

I have a question for those versed in Fox Valley Models wheel set replacement.  I am considering starting to install FVM wheels on some of my freight equipment.  My question is which wheels fit Atlas trucks?  There are two lengths for Atlas trucks: 0.553 and 0.563.  Both say they fit "some Atlas" trucks.  If I want to replace the wheels on Atlas trucks that came with Accumates (Atlas releases from the last four or five years), which wheels would I use?  What Atlas trucks will the other axil length replace?  Thank you for your insight.

[sundowner]

Use the .553. This size also work on Kato trucks.

[ai5629]

Thanks for the response.  I guess I'll walk down this road, knowing I will most likely never turn back.  I hate to add $2.05 onto each car I purchase for new wheels, but I will at least try a few. 

[davefoxx]

Jeff,

I don't know what type of track you are using, but, if it's Atlas code 55, like I use, you won't be disappointed.  They run flawlessly, and I have found very, very few that have been out of gauge.  I use the 0.543" for my Atlas cars and the 0.540" wheelsets for just about everything else (e.g., Athearn, Fox Valley).  Reliability aside, they just look great and bring N scale just that much closer to scale modeling.  New cars don't even come on to my layout until the wheelsets have been replaced.

Dave

[ai5629]

Here is the problem I have.  My layout is about 20 years old.  The track is Atlas flex track.  They call it "code 100".  My turnouts are Shinohara.  I ran into a problem using MT low pros.  Any car that had them would pick certain switches.  The Atlas wheels would work fine.  So, I started to change my MT trucks to Atlas wheels.  This was somewhat sucessful, but I noticed another problem.  The Atlas wheels on certain cars would "wobble".  That is, the axil must have bent when I installed the wheel causing this.  It is almost as annoying as picking a switch.  I would like to see if the FVM wheels solve both problems.  I try to body mount my couplers, so this may attribute to the cars picking switches.  I don't know.  Truck mounted couplers with MT pizza cutters work fine everywhere.  Go figure.  Thanks for the help.

[Nato]

  Yes convert and don't look back. I decided to take the plunge about a year ago and convert all the wheels on the close to 200 freight cars I use perminently on my layout for op sessions. These cars had already been conevted to plastic LO PROS from both MT and Atlas. One factor that convinced me to make the change was the design change to MT's LO PROS that changed the flange shape. I have used the 540's for MT's and the 533's for the Atlas. I have way more cars with MT trucks because I conevted lots of older cars with these trucks before the Atlas with Accumate trucks came out,but I do have some.Eventhough my layout is old code 80 Flex with peco switches, I really appreciate the way these wheels look and run. I have way too many cars almost a thousand to convert the rest of my fleet, but cars that I take to train shows and run on the Wasatch N Scale WNS (sounds like a radio station) layout which has code 55 track and switches,both Atlas & Micro Engineering will be up next for conversion. Thanks to my Pusher CHUCK at Feather River Trains for another recient care package of more FV wheel sets so I can finish up the cars on my layout. Nate Goodman (Nato) Salt Lake, Utah.

[harrym]

I have been converting MT trucks to FVM wheelsets.  The locomotives seem to be able to pull a couple more cars on converted wheels.  However, I have had to replace some turnouts that worked fine with the MT pizza cutter plastic wheels.  The FVM wheels would derail on them.  This is with Atlas code 80 track and Atlas or Peco turnouts.  Manually pushing cars through the offending turnouts reveals a slight binding through them, causing the FVM wheels to jump the track.  I have heard that another benefit of the FVM wheels is the sound they produce, but I don't hear it.  Someone suggested that if I want to hear wheel click, I should file a slight notch across the track every 39 scale feet.  Do the rest of you hear anything like wheel click?

[skytop35]

Here is the problem I have.  My layout is about 20 years old.  The track is Atlas flex track.  They call it "code 100".  My turnouts are Shinohara. 

A WORD OF CAUTION: I would test some wheels over the Shinohara turnouts first to confirm what our group discovered.
I love FVM wheels and use them myself but we found the wheels drop in the frogs of Shinohara turnouts. We tested samples of the wheels on many layouts before they came out. The Shinohara turnouts were an absolute no go on one of the layouts that used them exclusively. I just don't want someone with Shinohara turnouts buying a bunch of wheels and then spreading word that they don't work or suck or whatever. They should work with just about any other turnout, although we also found occaisonal problems on some Peco turnouts (not all, only a small percentage). The simple fix was to shim the guardrails with a piece of .005 or .010 styrene. Hope this helps.

[ednadolski]

The locomotives seem to be able to pull a couple more cars on converted wheels.

Interesting. Since the cars are more free-rolling, do you notice if that improves, worsens, or makes no difference with the MT coupler "pogo" effect?

Someone suggested that if I want to hear wheel click, I should file a slight notch across the track every 39 scale feet.  Do the rest of you hear anything like wheel click?

With metal wheels I sometimes notice a slight click at frogs and flextrack joints that have a slight gap.  For N scale the effect would be small in any case.   Every 39 scale feet seems like a lot of notches to file.

[harrym]

I'm sure he wasn't serious about filing the track -- just an attempt to reproduce the prototype sounds.

[ednadolski]

I've seen a few folks who were serious about that sort of thing.

[Robbman]

Here is the problem I have.  My layout is about 20 years old.  The track is Atlas flex track.  They call it "code 100".  My turnouts are Shinohara. 

A WORD OF CAUTION: I would test some wheels over the Shinohara turnouts first to confirm what our group discovered.
I love FVM wheels and use them myself but we found the wheels drop in the frogs of Shinohara turnouts. We tested samples of the wheels on many layouts before they came out. The Shinohara turnouts were an absolute no go on one of the layouts that used them exclusively. I just don't want someone with Shinohara turnouts buying a bunch of wheels and then spreading word that they don't work or suck or whatever. They should work with just about any other turnout, although we also found occaisonal problems on some Peco turnouts (not all, only a small percentage). The simple fix was to shim the guardrails with a piece of .005 or .010 styrene. Hope this helps.

It's not just FVM wheels either...  I seem to recall many other threads about having to shim turnouts...

[DKS]

Here is the problem I have.  My layout is about 20 years old.  The track is Atlas flex track.  They call it "code 100".  My turnouts are Shinohara. 

A WORD OF CAUTION: I would test some wheels over the Shinohara turnouts first to confirm what our group discovered.
I love FVM wheels and use them myself but we found the wheels drop in the frogs of Shinohara turnouts. We tested samples of the wheels on many layouts before they came out. The Shinohara turnouts were an absolute no go on one of the layouts that used them exclusively. I just don't want someone with Shinohara turnouts buying a bunch of wheels and then spreading word that they don't work or suck or whatever. They should work with just about any other turnout, although we also found occaisonal problems on some Peco turnouts (not all, only a small percentage). The simple fix was to shim the guardrails with a piece of .005 or .010 styrene. Hope this helps.

It's not just FVM wheels either...  I seem to recall many other threads about having to shim turnouts...

Most Pecos need to be shimmed for M-T wheels to work right.

[Chris333]

Yeah Pecos are the worst turnouts I've ever had. There was an article in MR back when they did a BN sectional layout, about how to shim these.

[harrym]

I've never had a problem with Peco turnouts and have gradually been replacing my Atlas turnouts with Pecos.  The only turnouts I have had serious problems with were some Model Power turnouts my LHS got in to save his customers money.  They did not hold up very long.