Shorting on points.

[Dad-1]

Ahh, Yes, Bufferstop is correct that opening up to the current B2B standard of
14.5 mm will if anything make shorting on points worse. At 14.2 they may clout
the check rails rather heavily, but if you keep as narrow as possible the check rails
may prevent wandering onto the diverging line at the frog.

Against that by having too narrow a B2B you're likely to short out on Peco slips
where the switch rails never move too far away from the stock rail. Rather a
case of damned if you do, damned if you don't !!

As to Hornby, it's often the inconsistency of wheels. As an example the Railroad
Black 5 came out with a nice loco drive chassis, brass bearings and flywheel. BUT
the tender was from all the old tooling used in the tender drive version - very wide
wheels, VERY draggy pickups, and the motor castings adding about 90 grams of
weight exactly where you don't want it !!
Many will scream OH NO, but as I don't use it much I painted all the tender wheel
tyres matt black - a couple of coats if I remember correctly. This acts as an insulating
barrier and I can't say I've noticed it adding any dirt to my rails. It will now go
slowly through points on my Two Short Planks layout where insulated Streamline
points and slips are used.

Best to remember what works close to the edge on one layout may not function as well
on another.

Geoff T.

[Mike Parkes]

There was obviously going to be some carry over of standards from Margate to China, and the odd wider tread may still be around in some of the old warhorses, unless they are ones that have gained a new chassis since the transfer. .

The T9 is hardly an old warhorse in Hornbys range

[Bufferstop]

I'm not saying it was but some of the older wheel dimensions seem to have been adopted for some models produced in China. Perhaps some of the design work was already done. The 0-4-0 chassis still has the wide wheels and they were carried over to the revised version shared by the Thomas range "twins" and the tram engine.

[End2end]

As B2B spacing has been mentioned can I ask, I have the DCC concepts B2B gauge which is excellent for getting the the correct spacing between the wheels but is there a tool that can site the wheels on the axles in the proper place? Or perhaps do both jobs?
Some of my rolling stock wobbles a little and I'm almost sure this is the cause.
Thanks
End2end

[Tiddles]

Update

Fitted IRJ to the offending sections and problem fixed

I am running relatively new Bachmann American sound locos.

The little 0-6-0 switcher stalls on the insulated bits but all the tender locos run ok.

[RFS]

I cured the B2B of my early Horny Light Pacific with the time-honoured method of a hammer and a nail. You lay the loco on its side on some soft padding, place the point of the nail on the axle end and GENTLY tap the nail with the hammer. Use the B2B gauge to check all is well, not forgetting to do all the wheels including those on the tender.

I use a micrometer to do accurate B2B measurement, eg this one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LCD-6-150mm- ... Z9L0o1cCrA