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Category: Freight Projects
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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