Subject:
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Re: Question on Train Wheel Diameter, Minifig Scale
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Tue, 19 Apr 2005 18:41:46 GMT
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Viewed:
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1649 times
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In lugnet.trains, Paul S. D’Urbano wrote:
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Tim/Lar/John thanks for the info. I suspected the wheels were undersized.
Ignoring the track, I’m curious now which ratio is more prototypical: LEGO
wheel-diameter to 6-wide locomotive/rolling-stock or LEGO wheel-diameter to
8-wide? I guess this could vary around the world and across equipment, but
I’m most curious about modern North American stuff.
I’m thinking that wheel diameter is one of the main constraints on LEGO train
modeling, although perhaps less discussed than the track gauge and the curve
radius. I suspect the wheel diameter has a dominant effect on a designer’s
sense of “looks right” when they set the height of their models, even if they
aren’t thinking it.
I also think that the wheel diameter would start looking wrong sooner than
track-width as someone increases the size of their models. With my
hypothetical of building a freight car for transporting the Ferrari Truck, I
would think the wheel size would look wrong before the track-width would. Of
course you could model some sort of low profile piggy-back car with smaller
diameter wheels but then whatever locomotive you designed to pull it would not
be able to have wheels that look right.
Alternately you could build a steam locomotive, in which case you can use
larger non-LEGO-train-specific wheels for the drivers. This leads me to my
next question: Has anyone ever considered a way to design larger wheels into
a modern diesel-electric or electric locomotive using some non-train wheels
aesthetically and then hiding the standard train wheels inside some
undercarriage detail just to keep it on the tracks? I’m thinking of the
tricks folks use for steam locomotives.
Has the topic of alternate train wheel diameters ever come up in discussions
with TLG? (besides in the context of asking for steam drivers)
Thanks to all for considering my questions. I’ve been thinking about this
topic for a while but never found time to ask.
Regards,
Paul
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In most of my engines I use wheels that do the functional job, leaving the
aesthetics to the facias on the bogies. The Peak is a good example:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=116478 Each bogie has 4
wheelsets, the middle 2 being the motor, the inner ones a 9V wheelset and the
outer ones a 12V wheelset. They are all hidden by the facias and the yellow
dots are where the wheels are supposed to be.
In that sense I don’t care about the size (within a tolerance) but more about
the fact that it works reliably!
All my steam engines apart from Toby use different wheels aesthetically from the
ones that do the work. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=77376
For large wheels I have some BBB wheels, representing 3’9” and used from 3’ to
4’6”, and some 40-tooth coga and model team wheels, representing 5’3” and used
from 4’6” to 6’6”. I don’t use them for diesels simply because each bogie has a
motor in it because the power requirement is greater than the aesthetic
requirement!
Mark
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Question on Train Wheel Diameter, Minifig Scale
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| (...) Tim/Lar/John thanks for the info. I suspected the wheels were undersized. Ignoring the track, I'm curious now which ratio is more prototypical: LEGO wheel-diameter to 6-wide locomotive/rolling-stock or LEGO wheel-diameter to 8-wide? I guess (...) (20 years ago, 18-Apr-05, to lugnet.trains)
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