Williams to Lionel Wheels Possible

Hi Dennis,

Are you sure it's the wheels catching and not the pickup rollers? I've had trouble with the rollers catching occasionally, but not the Williams wheels. You can glue a small block of wood or plastic in the spots on the switch where the rollers drop and catch.

Jim

They will not.

The fast-angle wheel sets require a corresponding pocket, whether in Delrin(as per most MPC-forward rolling stock) or even white metal castings(a-la early Standard "O" sprung trucks).

The wheels on your cars are probably picking the switches due to the sloppy gauging of the wheels on the axles. The poorly designed/implemented vertical travel pickup rollers are also a contributing factor.

Check the axles to see if they have the swaging to hold the gauge as all the postwar Lionel axles did. If not, you mat be able to just change out the axles with the TC-118 axles and get improved performance.

Back in the 80's I changed out the Williams wheels to Lionel fast angle wheels on my Canadian Pacific Aluminum set with no problem.  As the Williams trucks didn't have Delrin bearing inserts, I just had to remember to keep them properly lubricated.

They rolled so much nicer.

Rusty

Thanks for the tips guys.

Jim: We will try the pickup roller mod and see if that helps

Rob: Will check for the swaging on the axles as per the diagram but on the Willaims passenger trucks the large coupler plate sits between the wheels, and the holding tabs are bent around the axle. It would seem that the plate would keep the wheels spaced but maybe not.

UPDATE:

  Noticed that on this brand new set, someone had put a fat three conductor wire in the roller bracket assembly which kept the roller from lowering and contacting the center rail. I noticed that the lights were not going on in three cars so I pulled the two 2" pieces of wire out and let the roller relax to its normal position. Now the lights were on. Tried putting a small piece of duct tape on the switch to bridge the center rail gap and no more derailing. Needless to say the least I was disappointed in someone jamming a fat piece of wire in the roller brackets to keep them from lowering all the way. Probably some kind of fast Chinese fix. This is the second problem that I've experienced with Williams product in the last two weeks. Hope that it isn't a trend.