Robo,
Just curious, but why aluminum for the wheels? This seems like a soft material this use.
Tom
Hi Tom, unfortunately my best answer to your question is that I'm cheap. Seriously, I'm not well-off financially and so keeping cost down is paramount. I would love to make these wheels from brass, but we're talking significantly greater cost. Also, even if I go with a more expensive material later I'd like to start out with the cheap stuff to make all my mistakes on. I can always switch over to brass or some other metal later if things are going really well.
There is also other important factors that I haven't explained. And I'm almost afraid to explain because I'm sure they will be highly controversial. But just to clarify this project I guess it's best to explain everything. I'll try not to get too bogged down in all of this, but some lengthy explanation is required to best understand what I'm actually doing.
The Long Story Made as Short as Possible:
I was cleaning out my attic and found 5 G-Scale Bachman trains. I bought these trains years ago with the intent to build an outdoor garden railroad in my front yard. I planned out the track layout I would like to have and even started working on preparing the garden for this layout. However, when I went to purchase the outdoor G-scale track the cost was simply formidable. I kept putting off the project year after year until the trains finally ended up in the attic collecting dust and no railroad ever got built. When I found these trains I ask myself, "What do you want to do? Sell them, or build this railroad you've always dreamed of?" And I answered myself, "Dog gone it, I'm going to build this railroad if it kills me!" But not financially! I'll find a way around the cost factor. And that's what I did.
The Story Up to Date:
After deciding to build this railroad with determination I joined a Model Train Forum to see if I could find a way to build my own cheap track. But the cheapest way out seemed to be using 1/8" aluminum bar stock for the rails and building my own track from scratch. And even that would be fairly costly, plus everyone was warning that it would be an electrical nightmare because the aluminum rails would oxidize overnight and I would end up having tons of electrical problem. But THEN a guy suggested going with Battery-operated R/C trains. After thinking about this it really made sense. It will actually be so much easier to control these trains using R/C and not need to worry about electrified rails and all the isolation circuits, etc. So I decided to go the Battery-operated R/C route. I can easily convert these Bachman trains over to R/C control using a small computer board called a "Raspberry Pi". The Raspberry Pi already has PWM drivers for controlling the train motors precisely, it also has WiFi for the R/C control to my notebook computer. So I'm sold on the Battery-Operated R/C trains. This freed me up to making the track out of WOOD! Really CHEAP!
The Wooden Track Controversy:
This of course brings us to the wooden track controversy. There were mixed feelings about this on the Model Railroad Forum to be sure. Many model railroaders wouldn't touch wooden track because all they could imagine is rot damage. But my tracks will all be elevated and I'm not concerned with rot damage. I've built plenty of outdoor wooden projects that have lasted for years. So the idea of wooden track doesn't scare me off, and the prices is RIGHT! I can make my own wooden track for peanuts.
In fact, I already drew up jigs and a router table for constructing wooden track compete with wooden rails. Here are some of my drawings:
This is a drawing of the totally assembled wooden track complete with wooden rails.
The annotations were for an instructional post I made on the Model Railroad forum.
End view of wooden track and rails:
Just for interest I'll include a drawing of a homemade wooden turnout:
I can even build my own turnouts really cheap. So this solves the track cost problem significantly. And the Battery-operated R/C trains will actually be more versatile for programming and running independently. Like I say no need to be wiring isolated electrical circuits on the track. In fact, the track won't be electrified at all.
Here's my proposed bogie sitting on my wooden track:
So now you can see why aluminum wheels won't be a problem. They'll just be running on wooden rails anyway. Also it won't matter that the wheels are shorted together by the stainless steel axles. There's no electricity in the track. Nothing to short out.
So yes, this whole project is highly controversial. Many of the model railroaders have totally trashed the idea and have suggested that it's a total waste of time and effort that can't last more than a couple years at most. Others see the potential in it and the HUGE cost savings. It's a "Poor Man's Railroad" to be sure. No question about that. It makes model railroading in G scale available to the poor man. It's not intended to be the epitome of Model Railroading. And the controversy over how long the wooden track will last is up for debate. I think this is like the difference between boat-builders who argue that fiberglass is the only way to go and it would be stupid to build a boat out of wood. Yet there still exist die-hard wooden boat builders.
The wooden track doesn't scare me. I think it will last quite a long time. Like I say, all my track will be well-elevated off the ground and well-drained. I don't think it's going to rot out anytime soon. I have many wooden outdoor projects that have lasted for many years. So I'm confident that it's worth building.
Buy yeah, COST is a major factor in this whole process. If I could afford to pay the big bucks I could just buy commercially made finished products.
In short, these aluminum wheels should be more than sufficient for this project. I was originally thinking of casting the wheels, but then I decided that just making them from bar stock would be a lot less of a hassle. I was even thinking of casting them in bronze, but even casting bronze can get expensive. So I'm taking the CHEAP way out. I confess, I'm cheap, cheap, cheap!
I don't really have any choice in the matter. It's either keep the costs down or sell the trains and forget the whole project.