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Hornby Railways Plastic Rolling Stock Wheels Packs: Did These Ever Exist?


NWR-Gordon-4

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I'm looking to get as mnay plastic rolling stock wheels as I can, to have as much scrap as possible.Like the packs of 10 metal wheel packs Hornby sell currently, prior to the 1990's when Hornby was trading as Hornby Railways, most rolling stock wheels were made of plastic. I was wondering if they ever released any wheel packs of around more, less or 10?

 

GNR-Gordon-4 (HF)

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Jacob - Back in 2016 I ordered some plastic wheels from the Hornby Web site...(14.1mm Disc Wheels) £16.99 - 

Contents

10 assembled sets

Here is the Hyperlink if you want to look (I even gave it a review - see bottom of page!!!)

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/14-1mm-disc-wheels.html#product-view-reviews

 

Those are my photos of the BP, Cola Coke & Scwepps Wagons at the very bottom of the page!!!

 

Oh I think that they might have actually been made out of metal on second looks - sorry

 

I've just remember ordering Wheels for my Wagons - couldn't remember if they were plastic or metal - that why I had to double check!!!

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Don't worry about it, Jimyjames.  😀

 

I like the plastic wheels for scrap, as I can cut the axle in half. Plastic wheels are no good for running on track, but are useful scrap loads or similar.

 

It looks if Going Spare is correct, in that Hornby have not released a pack of plastic rolling stock wheels before, unless somebody else comes along and proves otherwise.

 

GNR-Gordon-4 (HF)

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As far as I know, the only retail packs of plastic rolling stock wheels were the plastic wheels on pin point steel axles released, I think, in the early 1970s, with finer flanges.

 

These were to replace earlier, from 1963, Tri-ang Railways wheel sets, for running on the then new code 100 System 6 track.

 

Wheel sets were originally always available as spares from Margate, or Service Dealers...

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Airfix used to sell the wheels they used in their wagon kits as spares, as well as the couplings.

Scrap wheels would only be part of the wagon load sent out to the steel works and there would be other parts of the wagon mixed in. Why not cut up old broken wagons and put the pieces which represent metal parts in as well?

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If you are only going to cut them up I'd get second hand from scrap boxes at train fairs. Many people have replaced their plastic wheels with metal, there must have been thousands that have been thrown away over the years Or maybe someone on here would let you have some for postage? You'd have to go through the administrators to exchange details though. 

 

If you only want the wheels themselves and not the axles the old Playcraft/Jouef wagon and coach wheels were plastic discs push fitted on meal axles. Very easy to take off the axles, and a constant source of derailments as they went out of gauge easily. 

 

There is a chap on a famous online auction site who often sells job lots of Jouef wheels, I think he got them from the factory in Ireland when it closed. It's worth a look. To be aware though, he sells them as suitable for Jouef/Lima and Hornby. They are NOT suitable for Hornby as the ends of the axles are too short being made for HO. They are fine for Jouef and Lima. Similarly Hornby axles can't be used for some of the HO makes without drilling the holes deeper as they are too long. While the gauge is the same at 16.5mm the wagons in OO are that bit wider hence the longer axles. 

 

If you have any  wagons or coaches with plastic wheels you could replace them with metal and use the ones you take off To cut up.

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 Hi GNR,

 

You could of course try an alternative approach and look out for some second hand 1970s Hornby or Triang wagons and coaches that take your fancy and get the plastic wheeled versions (rather than silver seal) and rewheel them with the eqivalent modern metal wheels. This would not only give you the plastic wheels but also a much smoother running item of stock

 

I've recently rewheeled some blue/grey Mk1s and MK2s and find that they are now much better runners. Sadly however, most were silver seal with metal rimmed wheels while the plastic ones had such rusty axles I threw them away.

 

I also know that Bachmann used to sell packs of plastic wheels (with metal axels) so some might still be available as old stock. However, real railway wheels do not have pinpoint axels so metal axeled plastic wheels might be better since you could replace the axels ith metal rod if you are fussy.

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I have no interest in buying some early Tri-ang wagons, but I think I still have some wagons and / or coaches with plastic wheels, that awaiting for metal wheels. Not many are awating that, as most of my collection has metal wheels. Either they are models bought with metal wheels, or were bought with plastic wheels and I have changed them.

 

GNR-Gordon-4 (HF)

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 I too havesome  plastic wheeled vehicles awaiting metal replacements (mostly Airfix, Mainline and Replica coaches to bring them up to the same standard as thir newer counterparts in the same train. However the recent Hike in the price of metal wheels means that I will not be rtewheeling them just yet and I just cant quite bring myself to spend around £120 just on wheels - or at least not in one go!

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 I too havesome  plastic wheeled vehicles awaiting metal replacements (mostly Airfix, Mainline and Replica coaches to bring them up to the same standard as thir newer counterparts in the same train. However the recent Hike in the price of metal wheels means that I will not be rtewheeling them just yet and I just cant quite bring myself to spend around £120 just on wheels - or at least not in one go!

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 I too havesome  plastic wheeled vehicles awaiting metal replacements (mostly Airfix, Mainline and Replica coaches to bring them up to the same standard as thir newer counterparts in the same train. However the recent Hike in the price of metal wheels means that I will not be rtewheeling them just yet and I just cant quite bring myself to spend around £120 just on wheels - or at least not in one go!

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Goodness me, 81F. That's a lot of coaches and / or wagons, that need the plastic wheels removed and replaced with metal wheels. £120.00 worth of metal wheel packs will buy you a few packs of 10, so I can just imagine how many models need wheel replacements, which is a lot!

 

£120.00 is a lot of money to spend on wheels. If I were you, I would buy a pack or two, every few months. Eventually you will get all of the wheels changed. The metal wheel packs are not like the models, that sell out fast. Somewhere always has the wheel pack you want in stock. I have never had trouble sourcing the metal wheel packs, when I want one or more.

 

GNR-Gordon-4 (HF)

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