General Wheel Size Info
A General List of Wheel Sizes for Your Rolling Stock.
I often get the questions, "What size wheels does this car need? Does it have 70 Ton or 100 Ton trucks?" I made this simple guide to help answer that question for the most part. There are anomalies, but this should cover 95% of freight cars.
As a basic sense:
33in up to 77t
36in 78-100t
38in above 100t
However, we're modelers, what does this mean? I asked around, and this is the guide I was given.
70 ton trucks w/ 33" wheels (2 springs exposed) |
140,000 to 150,000 load weight |
70 ton trucks w/ 33" wheels (3 springs exposed) |
165,000 to 175,000 load weight |
100 ton trucks w/36" wheels | 190,000 to 205,000 load weight |
125 ton trucks w/ 38" wheels | 220,000 to 230,000 load weight |
28" wheels on most tri-level autoracks
38" wheels are common to newer articulated double stack cars, the cars are labeled 125T, they're also used on Flexi-flo covered hopper cars.
©2007/2020, Josh Baakko, https://www.modelrailroadtips.com