Hello Guys, I need some advice. I inherited a Grafar Ltd 4 wheel wagon. It comes with plastic wheels that are attached by a "U" shape which grabs around part of the axle. The wheels have an axle that stops at the outside end of the wheels. How do I change out the wheels & axles to the pin point axle with steel wheels - so the ends of the axles sit into the axle boxes? That means no "u" shapes holding the axles. I can't remove the axle boxes from the wagon as they are moulded as part of the chassis, so is it possible to pass a drill bit through the axle box or is there another way anyone can recommend. I found that the steel wheels keep the track cleaner. Cheers, AndrewSandbar & Mudcrab Railway
Hi Andrew could you post up a photo to give us an idea of how the Grafar wagons have the wheels Can't say I have seen them before interested to see
Andrew it's not going to be easy to get tapered axel holes drilled esp centred with out some sort of angle drill and a Drilling Jig One way would to be Drill through from the outside and install top hat brass bearings on the inside, and then a piece of plasticard as a new axel box cover plate, covering the hole. http://www.click
The easiest way is as Chris suggests, carve off the axle box fronts, drill through and fit top hat bearings, as the axle box fronts are flat a small piece of plasticard glued over the bearings, you may need to make a small indent on the back of the plasticard for the top of the bearing, I use a small screw driver to do similar jobs when building plastic kits, the hard way is to buy a special tool that go,s between the axle boxes and drills bearing holes, one has been produced recently for drilling out rtr models to fit brass bearings though I don,t know who makes them but I imagine if you google it some thing should come up, mind you you will need to carve of the moulded axle holders. Pete.
Another option may be to just grind off the pin point and push the steel axels into the retaining clips. Paul
They seem to be small hook & loop type, they actually couple ok to dapol couplers on the other wagons. They seem to be held on with a plastic that passes through a hole the coupler and melted on the end so they have permanent fitting. A 7 plank top and steel strip weight are on the top of this chassis. Andrew
Look a bit like the old triang tension locks - maybe repurposed Must admit I've never seen them on N gauge stock before, my pal has been modelling N gauge for nigh on 40 years, and they have always had the big knuckle couplers. Paul
I think I have given you the wrong idea. This wagon is HO/OO guage I have ordered the tophat bearings, so they should arrive in about 2 weeks. Andrew
