'Training Wheels' on Lionel Scale Steam locomotives.

Sam, the L2a Mohawks were equipped with 33” wheels, the Hudson with 36”. …..may this not appear to be a big difference, in scale, it really is……This afternoon when I get done work, I’ll post some pictures of some Hudsons & Mohawks that I have added the appropriate scale pilot wheels to, so you can see the difference….

Pat

It definitely would be a great thing if they did Sam. I guess we'll just have to see if they return to doing that, here's hoping they do.

I wonder who produced the scale pilot for the K-Like Hudson?    Lionel and Trainz both had the Commodore scale pilots in stock recently. A bunch of them. Would be curious if they would fit any other steamers?

I started on my venture months ago. I bought some 36”  2 rail wheelsets with thick axles. These required drilling out the pilots to accept the axles. I was working with a Lionel 10 Wheeler. Yes the wheels are probably the smallest you will see. The fact that they are white walled make them even more noticeable. The scale wheels were the same outside diameter measuring at the flange. They would ride a bit higher up in the chassis but would clear everything. They looked good. The issue was when they went through turnouts. I need 100% reliability and  was more in the 70% range.
Scott Mann hooked me up with 3 axles from some 3 rail pilots. Right size axles even drilled out centers to fit my previously drilled out truck frames. These worked well. Looked much better than stock. I was a happy camper but had many more to do and no more parts.

My next try was using Lionel freight axles. The newer Lionscale ones with a flat profile wheel. The axles are slight smaller than stock. But close enough to work. All went well till it hit a few spots where you could hear a groan from the wheel flange rubbing the chassis. Off came the truck and I preceded to shave down the flange to eliminate the noise using a drill press and file. I only did the lead axle. The noise was gone and all seemed well till it went through a turnout in the engine yard area. It climbed the rails every time. A stronger spring may have worked.

I purchased pilot trucks at the half price sale for these experiments. This past sale I stumbled on this truck. From a GS4. I believe the wheel face is around 33 scale inches. I never got around to measuring it. But it noticeably larger.

This truck was tried on 3 models that all share the same pilot casting. The arm itself had to be swapped over with the stock version to get it positioned in the proper spot. A 10 Wheeler, L2a Mohawk and a Weaver die cast Pacific. Two failed with a rubbing issue. The Pacific never made it to a curve. It lifted the chassis enough to give it a wheel slip feature without pushing any buttons on the remote.
I don’t give up easily but sort of threw the towel in on these for now as I have to many other projects going on. The oversize flanges rubbing or not clearing seem to be the big issue on most models. The ones I got from Scott look really good and function with no issues. Just could use many more of them. The 2 rail wheelsets I may revisit. Thinking maybe a stronger spring may give it a little more downforce going through turnouts. The other thing to consider if you start swapping in larger wheels. The brake gear no longer fits. On the 10 Wheeler. I had to file down the brake shoes themselves to pretty much there limit before the inspectors would side line it. The larger wheels do look nice and make it look more like a scale model. I don’t consider my layout to be to complicated and it features decent size curves. Other than operating error. Every engine has to be 100% reliable as far as derailments and the ability to go any route.

Here’s some teasers, ….I’ll show more tonight, as I’m a bit busy at work,…..but if your track work can stomach 2 rail scale wheel sets, that’s the way to go……as far as traversing switches, etc, …I stole the playbook from Jack ( Hotwater ) and put some thin strips of brass in the gaps to give the wheel set flanges a place to ride,…..doesn’t affect three rail flanges, ……

Pat