Scalefour Forum

Thanks for Keith and Dave for the replies. I was also thinking that I would have to resort to thinning down the bosses. However I did have the impression from earlier posts that this would not be needed.

Probably pay to cut a V notch in the bottom of the remaining boss also, to reduce the stress when inserting axles.
The idea is shown here,

but for a plasic bearing just do the bottom Vee with a scalpel, easier than with brass bearings.
Image couresy of CLAG.
Regards

Hi gents,

From talking to modellers who have regauged the hoppers to EM and P4, some have reported no issues while others have had to do some minor fettling to achieve free running. We're at the mercy of manufacturing tolerances on this one, but we're constantly looking at ways to improve things for future products. Some of the guys we spoke to have used this tool ("a couple of turns") to open out the bosses sufficiently to enable free running: https://www.micromark.com/HO-Truck-Tuner_2

You could also use the tip of a mouse tail file - just make sure to turn it counter-clockwise instead of clockwise, otherwise you will create a tread.

Hope that helps!

waveydavey wrote:Also need to get around to asking Accurascale about spare brake levers as I managed to brake a couple during the axlebox shenanigans.

Hi Davey,

Can you send me a PM with your email and contact details? Cheers!

No need to go searching on the far side of the pond:

https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/bea ... et-of-two/

Although I didn't get mine from there, they are very useful and highly recommended gadgets.

Charlie

ChrisMitchell wrote:Having received my TOPs era hoppers a week or two back, I have been taking a look at swappng out the wheelsets. I have discovered that there is zero clearance between the the front of the wheels and the back of the fixed washers on the rear of the W irons, so no free running at all.

Any suggestions? I am using wheelsets bought from Wizard Models. Is this the problem?

Regards, Chris

Hi Chris - see up the thread, I even added some pictures showing what you've found

I have tried Gibson and Exactoscale wheels. Some slight thinning of the bosses helps and you will also have to drill out the pin-point location slightly too - to account for the extra 1mm axle length (25mm from Accurascale vs 26mm from Gibsons).

Using one of the drilling tools wasn't an option for me as the tool I have didn't have clearance behind the hopper doors but other tool manufacturers might be ok, depends on the diameter.

The conversion is really simple just go easy with the drilling

Thanks,
Alastair

Thanks everyone for the replies.

New axle drilling tools ordered from DCC Concepts, so this combined with thinning the bosses should work. On some other stock I have previously swapped some wheels onto the shorter axles 25 mm axles, so might look at trying that as well

Regards, Chris

Having looked again at my fleet of six HUOs I have found that the ones fitted with Gibson wheelsets seem OK but the bushes on KM wheelsets seem to stick out a little from the wheel centre and rub against the boss inside the W iron. I’ve now fitted all the fleet with Gibsons.

All my wagons have needed the axleboxes to be deepened to allow 26mm axles to turn freely. Most were done with a Truck Tuner with the rubber bit removed. On a couple of occasions the TT wouldn’t fit as the hopper door mechanism intruded a tiny bit more than on others so I had to resort to very gently opening up the axleboxes with a couple of drills. I didn’t check their sizes but they will have been somewhere around 0.8 and 1.6mm or thereabouts.

David