Lionel and K-Line box car Truck wheels a Copper Color Mystery

Dennis LaGruaOGR Forum Member

Recently I took it upon myself to refinish some old Lionel and K-Line box cars that were stored in a very wet location before I purchased them, The bodies and frames were in good shape but the trucks were gray with corrosion but for $5.00 ea I purchased a few and went to work cleaning up the trucks before painting with Krylon satin black paint. Used a Dremel with a small wire brush to rub away all the corrosion and got down to bare metal. To my surprise the wire brushed stripped wheels were a copper color that makes me believe that some kind of bronze material may have been used. Can anyone here solve the mystery of the bronze/copper color wheels?

3/1/174:17 PM

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RonHOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBER

Maybe copper plated before nickle/tin plate?

3/1/174:19 PM

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Dave45681OGR Forum Member

How old? Some of the "near the end" of K-line cars (and maybe also some of the K-L by Lionel) had sort of a copper color to the wheels.

I am thinking of the wheels that had the "swirl" pattern on the backside of the wheel (there is a more formal name for that, I think, but it eludes me at the moment).

Were these possibly from that timeframe, or do you mean old, like early K-Line?

-Dave

3/1/175:54 PM

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aussteveOGR Forum Member

I have seen the copper colored wheels on the early MPC freight cars for sure. They tend to be very lightweight compared to later MPC and LTI wheels. I think they might have less material on the backside of the wheel as well. Maybe the minimum material used to build and maintain the outward appearance.

Heck they were still toys back then.

3/1/176:21 PM

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Dennis LaGruaOGR Forum Member

Dave45681 posted:
How old? Some of the "near the end" of K-line cars (and maybe also some of the K-L by Lionel) had sort of a copper color to the wheels.
I am thinking of the wheels that had the "swirl" pattern on the backside of the wheel (there is a more formal name for that, I think, but it eludes me at the moment).
Were these possibly from that timeframe, or do you mean old, like early K-Line?
-Dave

I estimate the copper color wheels to be late K-Line (92?) and Lionel about 10-12 years back. Wheels were usually sintered iron made by compacting metal powder under heat and pressure. Just can't discover what the copper color wheels could be made of. My guess is that they were a type of cheap pseudo cast bronze.

3/1/177:35 PM

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D500OGR Forum Member

"My guess is that they were a type of cheap pseudo cast bronze."

That implies that they were this "bronze" color on purpose, which I greatly doubt. I have seen these wheels here and there, as well as some that looked almost "tin-plated" (somewhat silvery). The alloys used in model-making, especially models aimed at a, shall we say, non-discriminating customer base (that is, many non-scale-modelers), can be something of a "what's available and will mechanically do the job" situation, I believe, though I have no proof of it.

3/1/177:43 PM

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