Converting Oxford Rail 6-wheel GW Brake to EM

Hi Tim,

I haven’t seen one of these Oxford wagons, and I’m highly unlikely to. However there are a number of pictures on RMWeb which show one being disassembled.

The wheelsets look to be standard plastic spoked wheels on steel axles. Therefore you should be able to simply pull the existing wheels out along the axles, and set them accurately using your favourite back-to-back gauge. If you feel that they may be a little loose after adjusting them, then a spot of superglue or Loctite at the interface between the wheel and axle will fix them securely in place. It’s a procedure I use to ensure all of my P4 wheels stay where they are intended.

To my eyes, the Oxford tyres look excessively thick as well. As a next step you may want to consider sliding the Oxford wheels off the axle, and replacing them with ones from (say) Alan Gibson. The Oxford axle should be a standard 2mm one, so the new wheels should just slip back on. Then you have decent finescale wheels on the over-long axles which concerned you.

HTH
Paul Willis (10060)

I wish Oxford Rail and all the others made life easier for EM conversions and for coupling conversions. My bugbear is superfluous under frame bracing that cannot be seen, but needs removal for S&W paddles and for wheel clearances. Easy to design, but annoying to remove out. Let’s ‘design clever’.
Ps. I am doing the same conversion , so shall add any comments over the next few weeks—if I have any to add, that is.

I have converted the 4 wheel version by pulling the wheels out on the existing axles. Runs through my trackwork fine.

As per Alan Rhodes, I too have pulled out the original wheels on the 6-wheel and 4-wheeled toads: they work fine, very free running even on smallish radius points. Obviously, the brakes have to be realigned to avoid fouling.
I also put Alan Gibson wheels on the existing axles, not a success: too loose even with the help of Loctite.

As David Davies has tried above I have put Alan Gibson wheels on the existing axles. There is only a matter of a couple of thousands of an inch difference in the diameter but it enough to allow the Gibson wheels to be quite loose.
I hand-knurled the axles along where the wheels will be fitted with a pair of pliers to provide a locking point for the wheels. This was a success.

Secondly they are using a non-standard (short) NEM pocket and as I use Kadee couplings throughout I had to secure the coupling into the pocket with epoxy!