I have a cunning plan.
There have been times when I wished I hadn’t but in a saga that has gone on for too long finally we may be getting there!
For a long while I have wanted to wheels to suit specific narrow gauge models as these are my speciality. They are poorly provided for by the wheel manufacturers although some progress was made when Alan Gibson Ltd was still run by Alan and the turned parts produced by the other two Alan’s in the Alan triumvirate. Tyres weren’t a problem and Mr G produced injection moulded centres for several loco’s.
The likely sales quantities always made it difficult to justify the tooling for injection moulded centres but Mr G always did his best to help.
Time moves on inexorably.
- Alan G retired and sold the business.
- The Alans of AHB closed up the shop
- 3D printing matured and gave us an alternative method for the centres
If only I could get the tyres now. Initial optimism was frustrated by deliveries taking over a year and needing nagging to get a burst of activity leaving me with a bunch of kit designs with no wheels and for a long while nowhere to go so they stalled.
A breakthrough was made back in May when, at a model “do” in Wales, I was introduced to a machine shop probably best described and a CNC machine enthusiast and collector looking to keep them busy. The second spur was Bachmann with their NG7 Hunslet and my need to regauge them. This resulted in my new CNC friend producing axle and bearings to match. The economical quantities means it makes sense to adopt these as a standard.
This lead me to wonder if he could do tyres for me. I figured it would be more expensive than my previous source and result in my having to buy them in larger quantities than I really need but actually getting them trumps cheaper but not getting them.
He wasn’t fazed when asked so it lead to some learning time with my CAD system to work up a spec then to get some samples and onwards to the first two diameters delivered.
The first two diameters arrived today in two different materials
The smaller tyre is sized for the NG7 Hunslet and some of my wagons and are mild steel.
The larger tyre suits Lilla, and a bunch of other engines, and is produced in Stainless steel.
The two materials have their pro’s and con’s. Mild steel is cheaper, takes to blackening, paint and so on but is prone to rust untreated. Stainless is more expensive but doesn’t have the rusting issue but lives up to its name if you try to colour it.
A simplification would be to say blackened mild steel for wagon wheels and stainless for loco wheels. The result of that might be that, over time, some of the diameters produced will be produced in both.
These two tyres plus the axles and bearings will be available from my website in due course. The tyres will initially expand to around ten diameters in the range of 9 t0 20mm covering a list of prototypes. The cost of production isn’t insignificant so it’ll take awhile to add them all. If anyone wants a specific diameter I’d be happy to discuss getting that produced.
