Britannia driving wheels from Ultrascale

[Dave Franks]

Well guys, here is the news... 'Ultrascale' are ready to start the development of the Britannia driving wheels, I had an email from David Rodgers of Ultrascale last week to tell me that there would be an announcement on their website. I kept quite so as to not pre-empt the announcement. If you go to the Ultrascale website you will see that under the 'developments' banner there are six new wheels being worked on. No timescale can be predicted for the moment as the work will be done alongside production work. Here's hoping it won't be too long as the dust is getting thick on my Brit CSB chassis....

All the best,
Dave Franks.

WWW.lanarkshiremodels.com

[Dave Franks]

Hi People, a few weeks ago I was in email conversation with David Rodgers at Ultrascale. Despite keeping quiet and not hassling him too much over the past few years and after getting the 'go ahead' back in 2012 as seen below, it appears Ultrascale no longer want to do these sort of projects. I have replied to ask if any sort of 'crowd funding' for upfront costs might help and to date have not received an answer so, I think the project is dead unfortunately. It is a pity as he was also talking about doing correct 9F and Jubilee drivers.
There were about forty sets of three axles of Britannia driving wheels pledged at £60 a set plus the bogie and tender wheels already available so it would have been quite a bit of money upfront and over the past wee while other people have asked about the project so there would have been further sales.
Now having had a 'sort of' definitive answer I'll investigate other avenues as the dust is really thick on my CSB Brit chassis....

Dave Franks.

[Mike Garwood]

Hi Dave

That's not good news, did they say what sort of projects they did want to get involved with?

Thanks for trying.

regards

Mike

[David Catton]

I think it's as well to remember that Brian Rogers is, by some distance, now past retirement age (whatever that is nowadays) and David Rogers, as far as I am aware, probably wouldn't do any of the machining necessary to make moulds for new Ultrascale driving wheels. I suspect unless existing moulds can be adapted easily to produce alternatives of the same sizes, the range that exists is the range that will be available until the moulds wear out. It would be nice to be wrong on this but I, for one, have asked about Britannia/Clan/DoG, 9F, LMS and Standard 2-6-0 and 2-6-2T, Jubilee (and Scot and Patriot and Compound and 2P) wheels many times over the years. I was surprised, not to say delighted, when Dave announced the agreement to produce Britannia wheels but now resigned to the fact that other sources will have to be investigated.

[Dave Franks]

Quote:- That's not good news, did they say what sort of projects they did want to get involved with?

Hi Mike, I understand Ultrascale have been doing commissions for European diesel and electric conversions so probably using existing diesel wheels with gears to match the model a bit like their BR diesel conversions only these wholesalers are buying hundreds of them at a time to sell on to modellers.
Maybe we could arrange something similar , then again maybe not....

[Crepello]

I understand Ultrascale have been doing commissions for European diesel and electric conversions so probably using existing diesel wheels with gears to match the model a bit like their BR diesel conversions only these wholesalers are buying hundreds of them at a time to sell on to modellers.

There was I envying the continentals apparently having many more Ultrascale-minded suppliers than we seem to. So quite an accolade for David.
Do you happen to know what wheel profile they're buying? P87 perhaps?

[Dave Franks]

Hi Crepello, sorry but I don't know what wheels are being supplied, I only heard by word of mouth that that is what Ultrascale are doing at the moment.

Dave Franks
www.lanarkshiremodels.com

[Horsetan]

I understand Ultrascale have been doing commissions for European diesel and electric conversions so probably using existing diesel wheels with gears to match the model a bit like their BR diesel conversions only these wholesalers are buying hundreds of them at a time to sell on to modellers.

There was I envying the continentals apparently having many more Ultrascale-minded suppliers than we seem to. So quite an accolade for David.
Do you happen to know what wheel profile they're buying? P87 perhaps?

The wheel profile is "OO" - the Ultrascale commission is for Greek Railways engines, I think. Ultrascale won't do P87 unless you're prepared to dig deep and wait.

Some suppliers of German standard wheel castings, such as Teichmann, provide the raw wheel blanks, and it's then down to you to do all the donkey work on your lathe, whether you want RP25-88, RP25-fine, or P87. I'm about to spend a couple of hundred quid on Teichmann wheels for the DB Br.41 and DR Br.01.5 so I'd better get that Unimat Millennium working....

Teichmann, by the way, has to rely on a third party to do the actual casting, but the masters were definitely created by him years ago and he supplies the axles and bushes, etc. appropriate for the upgrade of your RTR engine or kit. He also provides form/profile tools for NEM, RP25 and HO-pur (which is close to P87 without actually being P87). The only classes he doesn't seem to cover are the ex-Bavarian S3/6 (Br.18.4-6), Br.05, and the DR one-off 18.201 (the latter two share the same 2.3m diameter driving wheels).