Scale Pilot Wheels on Lionel Steamers?

C. Sam, You are absolutely Correct. On my VL Hudson we have the Scale pilot wheels on the front and it negotiates the wide radius, 072-081-091-099-0120 curves great. I will post a picture later on your thread.  I agree that Lionel and other manufacturers should go with the scale pilot wheels and give us the option to change back to the semi scale look.  Thanks for posting. Merry Christmas to all!

Because big flanges keep the lead truck on the track over sharp curves and flaky 3-R switches.

You can run appropriate flanges if you pay attention to lead truck suspension and your trackwork.

Lionel offered it with the original scale Commodore Vanderbilt Hudson, a scale-ish set packed separately with the loco.  Their reasoning was that shelf queens would look better with them, but for running purposes on tubular you would use the "as installed" wide flange set.  I have put them on and run with them without incident.   Of course, flat top rail and 072 is a necessity.

Bruce

Great suggestion.  I often wondered that myself.

Ron is the MAN in my book!

A few yrs ago, he turned me on to this simple mod and it makes a huge difference. I have replaced most of the "pizza cutters" with correct scale NWSL wheels. Of course, tight curves aren't an issue for me.

 I suspect they would never work on tubular track is why they haven't been offered.

This is one of my favorite Lionel Engines, the VL Hudson...The friend that sold me this Engine had installed the Scale Pilot/Wheels and it runs really good on my layout. I was not sure the scale wheels would work on Atlas O and Ross Switches but no problems...Great Thread. 

Where do you find the scale wheels?

Just order scale size 2 rail wheels from Northwest Shortline and put em on. They should work fine. Here they are on a K line Hudson. I do this on all mine.

I have the scale pilot installed on my Vision Hudson and on my C&O Yellowbelly Hudson (it, like the scale Commodore Vanderbilt, came with a scale set for "display" purposes that runs just fine on wide curves).

So if the scale wheels work on the lead truck, why not put them on all wheels?  I gotta tell ya, I have more trouble with lead trucks than any other trucks or locomotive frames.  I run minimum 64", which is O-128 in 3-rail speak.  I weight them and/or spring-load them, sometimes with a self-centering device.

Re-doing Lionel or MTH lead trucks is semi-trivial.  I use steel Walthers wheelsets, available used.  NWSL are just as good, but for 3-rail use, make sure you specify the .172 tread.

I use the .145s on all mine. I usually do the trailing truck wheels also.

Another trick I did on the first one was wrapping solder around the lead axle for weight.  I found it wasn't necessary.

I was converting an older MTH Allegheny to 2 rail and someone posted that for the lead truck's wheels I should use smaller diameter ones. Well Joe F did the conversion of the main drivers and I should have had him to all of the engine.

Anyways that was a great tip. When I installed the proper sized ones, they kept sparking on something. It was not apparent what, but I installed the smaller wheels and all was fine.

 I have always meant to thank that poster and I can't remember who it was.

Ron,  that K-Line Hudson is certainly a beauty! A top notch model.

C.Sam,

Thanks that loco was my first O gauge locomotive since the age of 8.

Ron

I have used the Vision Line pilot truck on many of my Hudsons.  They look and run great with the addition. 

Rolland

It makes such a huge visual difference with those scale wheels.

If you like the scale wheels, install them. For the rest of us who aren't concerned about appearance and want the deeper flanges for round profile rails, they aren't preferred.

I'm OK with the idea of a manufacturer providing scale wheels as an install-it-yourself option.

Just to clarify - I'm mainly talking about scale SIZED wheels, not necessarily with the smaller flanges...

c.sam posted:

Just to clarify - I'm mainly talking about scale SIZED wheels, not necessarily with the smaller flanges...

Agree with that. 

The problem with scale size wheels with big flanges is one has clearance problems. Usually at the steam chests.