Dan what are you working on the 2 or 3 axle truck? The drill you will need Ted posted 15/64 a little hard to find but it is the one to use.
Richard
I’m working on 3 axel trucks. The only size that is a problem is the hole left in the axel box after removing the Aristocraft brass bushing, it’s 4.29mm diameter. If I have to drill it out an “A” size drill will work the best, the difference between 15/64 and an “A” drill size is .000375". The ball bearing is 6mm diameter so a 6mm drill is what is needed. I’m in Canada, we’re metric, so it’s down to our local drill shop if the “A” drill ends up too small. :>) These bearings are so cheep, I’m just going to buy them and have a go. Any more suggestions would be great, thanks all.
Dan you said you were going to use a A drill you may be ok I just measured 3 different bearings and a Aristocraft bearing and they were all under 6mm around 5.8 plus but under 6.
You want a light press. The 3 axle tk has a lot of drag I’m sure know this that is why your doing this, what i did was put a double ball bearing axle in the center on top of the bearings in the side. This axle the wheels are a little smaller and allows the end to axles to ride better it also let the suspension work better sense the center axle is solid it reduced the drag around corners. It worked for me and help going thru switches also.
My stock side bearings had a much large axle hole,aristo must have thought it would help.
have fun Richard
The first generation HW cars had the split axles, a plastic center part. The second generation has axles like the last freight cars, single metal axle, one wheel insulated.
Aristo NEVER sold streamliners or any passenger cars, or any rolling stock with ball bearings standard (only the prime mover gearboxes had ball bearings, and the later generations of 2 axle old style motor blocks)
It appears that the HW cars do not have the plastic pull out bushing like the freight cars do, nor is the diameter of the hole after the brass ferrule is removed the same size as the freight trucks with the plastic bushing removed.
I’ve been trying to gently point out the freight trucks have no relation to the heavyweight trucks (other than the wheels may be the same in the later generations)
Greg
David Maynard said:
I replaced the 3 piece wheel assembly (2 gray cast wheels with the plastic center part) on a heavyweight Aristo car with a set of Aristo wheels. So the freight wheels fit and work on the heavyweight cars. The newer Arsto streamline cars already have the ball bearings in them, but I do not know if the older ones, that had the brass bushing, had the same size hole in the journal, or if they had to be made with larger holes to accommodate the bearings. And since all my trains are now in a Pod while we do repairs to the garage, I cant go and find out.
You are correct Greg about the bushings being a different size. The brass bushing when pulled out of the heavyweight trucks leave a hole of 4.95mm. All my coaches are second generation and have solid axels. The coaches have been repainted GN Green and had GN graphics applied, they are for my Aster GN S2. I have a 6mm end mill, I’ll use that to make the hole larger to fit the ball bearings.
Sorry guys I have been away I will measure the axle for the bearing I am using. I do know that I have to turn down the end of the axle to fit the bearing with emery paper and axle chucked in a drill.
Greg Elmassian said:
Thanks Travis, I sort of forgot, were there 2 sizes for Aristo rolling stock, the freight cars and the heavyweights, or do this work for both?
Greg
Not sure Greg I am only doing freight right now…
Greg, I have an Aristo streamline passenger car with their cheap vacuformed interior, and LED lights, and it has ball bearing inserts in the journals. It was from the last run Aristo made of these cars. So they aren’t very common, but they are out there.
I know they are more costly…
But with the LGB wheels all you do is pull the old wheels out (put them in a freight car that needs them) and install the new axles in the same bushings and connect the leads.
You now have all wheel power pickup, independently rotating wheels for superior cornering, and stainless steel wheels for excellent conductivity.
The journal bearings are still a great way to go too, but if you have corners as sharp as 15ft diameter you will still experience significantly more drag than with independent wheels.
That’s what I was trying to point out… the OP asked about Aristo Heavyweight Cars only, not freight cars… Greg
Travis Dague said:
Greg Elmassian said:
Thanks Travis, I sort of forgot, were there 2 sizes for Aristo rolling stock, the freight cars and the heavyweights, or do this work for both?
Greg
Not sure Greg I am only doing freight right now…
Sorry David, I did hear that some of the streamliners did have bb wheels… never seen them… anyway, since the OP has requested BB wheels for the Heavyweights, I guess it does not help him. But please accept my apology… was this the very last run? I have seen lots of the streamliners (not talking about the smoothsides) and they did not have BB wheels. Regards, Greg
David Maynard said:
Greg, I have an Aristo streamline passenger car with their cheap vacuformed interior, and LED lights, and it has ball bearing inserts in the journals. It was from the last run Aristo made of these cars. So they aren’t very common, but they are out there.
RE: Streamliners did have bb wheels in last production run.
Thank you David for that info. I did not know that, too.
I think the last production run Aristo Streamliners were the somewhat lowered ones marketed by Scot Polks “Polk’s GeneratioNeXt” after Lewis Polk’s Aristo-Craft company went out of business.
-Ted
Yes, we did stray from talking about the heavyweights.
I think, but I am not certain, that it was the last run of streamliners by Aristo that did the ball bearings, vacuformed interior and LED lights. I don’t think it was Polks, because when I got mine, Polks was still playing with streetcars. Maybe it was Polks, but I know the box said Aristocraft. Maybe Aristo did more then one run of them with the ball bearings, again I cannot say for sure, but I do remember being rather surprised when I went to check the wheel gauge and saw them ball bearings. As for being lower, yes, I seam to recall that I didn’t have to lower that car to have it match up with the ones I lowered.
I think those were from Scott Polk/NextGeneration, who was forced to buy a number of things that Lewis polk/Aristo ordered and never paid for (and sat on the docks).
Greg
OK, I ordered 250 bearings from,
They are only $11.84 per 50 bearings. I received them yesterday and did one car today, Aristocraft Heavyweight. The car now rolls like it’s on air. With the heavyweight cars you need to pull out the brass bushing the trucks came with and drill out the hole that is left with a letter drill “A”. You now need to press in the bearing, an easy job I used a small pair of pliers. Turning down the axle to fit is an easy job, very little material to take off. I have a Myford lathe but it could be done with a drill press or even an electric hand drill. The whole job took about 30 minutes after I figured out what to do, what drill to use and how to resize the axle.
Thanks to those of you who answered my initial post.
X
Dan, did you wire them for power pickup? (trap thin wire between journal and outer race)
Also, they almost certainly have metal balls, but can you check one for continuity between the outer and inner race?
Thanks, Greg
No I didn’t wire them for pickup. I’m a live steam guy and have put LED strips in each car that’s powered by a 9V battery using the original switch. I checked the continuity between the inner and outer races, it’s not great. It varies between 1 or 4 and 35 to 60 ohms. The change occures as you turn it If you are set on track power you could use the original wires and attach them to a small springy piece of metal rubbing on the axle between the wheels or against the back of a wheel.
Again thanks for everyones input.
Dan
Thanks Dan, yes BB’s can be weird when not turning and no load. It’s a lame way to do power pickup, but it can be convenient.
I would look for no added rolling resistance, and no wipers, but I don’t want to derail the thread, thanks again for checking that they were all metal ball bearings.
Greg
I looked into these bearings. The size is good for Bachmann trucks (both freight and passenger), but they are not stainless steel. All my freight rolling stock stays outside 24/7. These bearings would rust. What I need would be SMF63zz but they are priced way too high.(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-frown.gif)
*Edited to say I went for the 50 pcs of MF63zz anyway as I can use them on my 6 Bachmann J&S passenger cars which are not left out on the pike. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Not being stainless steel, I didn’t think about that. Are the ones used by Accucraft in their streamlined passenger car stainless? These are sealed bearings. Joe, you’re in Florida, does anything rust?(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif) All I know is they work. I have done 3 coaches. With them coupled I gave them a push on my railroad and when they stopped they rolled back 8 or 10 feet. I thought my railroad was level, my 6ft level says it is but I guess not.
