Pretend engineering

Before we proceed to make a decision about the best path forward for attaching wheels to axles here in North Vancouver, I have one more round of experiments to share. I still believe that a keyed wheel will be superior in holding onto the axle compared to any sort of a glue bond, but the […]

Three ways to wreck split axles

Both #10 and #622 have split-frame current collection whereby the wheels on each side are connected electrically to the frame on that side. This means that the two ends of the axles are in turn isolated electrically. In the case of #10, I used split axles available from the EM Gauge Society, while for #622, […]

Holding onto more Axles

Continuing the “science” from last week, I’ve now seen how CA affects the performance of both a press-fit, and a keyed fit when the CA is applied before pressing the axle into the wheel. Because it would be great to be able to fine tune the quartering after assembly, I also picked up some Locktite […]

Best layout tour ever!

I’ve just finished reading Pete Warren’s article, Morehampstead in 2mm Finescale, which appeared in Model Railway Journal (MRJ) 285. If you hurry you might get to McNews on Lonsdale before John or Brian pick up the last copies. It is worth elbowing your way past my friends to secure your copy, even if you have […]

Holding on to the Axle

We’ve now seen that even reliable old Percy can lose the grip between axles and wheels when things get rough. I’m driven to ask what exactly is the best way to connect the wheels to the axles so they don’t slip? There are plenty of scale locomotives running around with an interference fit between wheel […]