12-10-2010, 09:35 PM
Gary, that is the biggest mystery! The wheels are definitely brass but there is the tiniest magnetic attraction. It's confusing. Before I stripped the paint off I though they were nickle silver, but I was not thinking about the age of this kit when I thought that ... however, the slight magnetic attraction was clouding my identification. The axles had major magnetic attraction, again, not something I expected, especially since they sit in a die-cast Zamac "channel" and are captured by a brass plate.
Almost all of the paint is stripped off the wheel sets (photos next time ... I keep forgetting ... the wheel sets are still out in the garage on the paper towels next to the little aluminum disposable loaf pan that I was using to hold the lacquer thinner when I was stripping all of the kit's parts.) I am still puzzled as to the material ... I'm just hoping whatever it is, the wheel sets are insulated on one side. I think they must be ... plus there is a "groove" in the axles about three sixteenths of an inch from the back of one wheel on each axle. I have been hoping thaqt the groove is an indication of some sort of insulation. I'm thinking maybe they are made from an early metallic alloy know at the time as nonconductium.
This is an old kit, produced by a very small, limited run, cottage industry kit producer in Philadelphia. We must all recognize that back at that time, much of the hobby's kit suppliers were part of a small, but growing cottage industry. There were the biggies; Varney, Mantua Ambroid, Northeastern, and a few others, but much of what was available to the model railroader came from small manufacturing facilities in the garages and basements of private homes. Plus, there was a lot more scratch-building going on then ... a bit of careful page-turning through some of my Model Railroader Magazine issues from the forties and fifties will attest to that. There was very little RTR and what there was, was very toy-like and aimed at the "beginner" (read that as, "young child.")
Owing to that, "standards" were pretty much non-existent except for the following of electrical convention. I'll be very happy if the wheels are insulated from each other (somehow) and I can use the set that came with the kit, at least for now!
Almost all of the paint is stripped off the wheel sets (photos next time ... I keep forgetting ... the wheel sets are still out in the garage on the paper towels next to the little aluminum disposable loaf pan that I was using to hold the lacquer thinner when I was stripping all of the kit's parts.) I am still puzzled as to the material ... I'm just hoping whatever it is, the wheel sets are insulated on one side. I think they must be ... plus there is a "groove" in the axles about three sixteenths of an inch from the back of one wheel on each axle. I have been hoping thaqt the groove is an indication of some sort of insulation. I'm thinking maybe they are made from an early metallic alloy know at the time as nonconductium.
This is an old kit, produced by a very small, limited run, cottage industry kit producer in Philadelphia. We must all recognize that back at that time, much of the hobby's kit suppliers were part of a small, but growing cottage industry. There were the biggies; Varney, Mantua Ambroid, Northeastern, and a few others, but much of what was available to the model railroader came from small manufacturing facilities in the garages and basements of private homes. Plus, there was a lot more scratch-building going on then ... a bit of careful page-turning through some of my Model Railroader Magazine issues from the forties and fifties will attest to that. There was very little RTR and what there was, was very toy-like and aimed at the "beginner" (read that as, "young child.")
Owing to that, "standards" were pretty much non-existent except for the following of electrical convention. I'll be very happy if the wheels are insulated from each other (somehow) and I can use the set that came with the kit, at least for now!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln