Garden Railway Forum

Good evening,

I have been building some of the Plateway SM32 wagon kits recently and would like to add some weight to improve their running and stability. I know about Liquid Lead (and have some) but one obvious measure to me seems to be to replace the Binnie nylon wheels with metal wheels. I have purchased the detailed axleboxes/sealed bearings option from Plateway, so have the bearings and aesthetic detailing parts. Their journals are 3mm diameter and you can press the Binnie wheels (24mm diameter) onto them and then into the bearings. However, looking around online, most of the wheels shown are sold attached to axles - usually with different journals. I don't want to start adjusting bearings (or cutting down Accucraft axles) so I wondered if anyone knew of 24mm diameter metal wheels which are not already pressed onto axles with holes for 3mm journals?

Any ideas or pointers?

I’m not aware of any all metal wheels available that are press fit on 3mm axles. Slaters 7/8ths scale wheels have metal tyres with a nylon centres but have decent weight due to the thick profile of the tyre. They can be fitted on a plain 3mm axle and are a tight fit so will keep to gauge, but the range is limited and none are 24mm diameter. 2215WD is about 27.5mm diameter, shown in the photo with one wheel removed from the Slaters axle and fitted on a Binnie axle, the other wheel being a Binnie 29mm diameter curly spoke wheel. 2212HUD is 22.2mm diameter.

Also worth saying, in my experience Accucraft axle journals are a little over 3mm diameter and wouldn’t fit in a 3mm ID roller bearing without turning them in a lathe, even if you were to cut the axle length down.

Durley wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2025 9:40 pm Also worth saying, in my experience Accucraft axle journals are a little over 3mm diameter and wouldn’t fit in a 3mm ID roller bearing without turning them in a lathe, even if you were to cut the axle length down.

Thank you. That's a useful warning and turning them down certainly sounds more trouble than it's worth. And I don't have a lathe, I know a man who does but he's done a couple of favours for me recently and he is rather busy. I'll have a look at the Slaters wheels; 22.2mm sounds better than 27.5mm.

If you do go with the Slaters option, Slaters may be prepared to sell just the wheels without the axles. If they don’t, I know someone who’d be happy to buy the unused axles from you