Model Forum / General / Railroads / January 2008

Re: Ultra fine scale wheels and commercial code 100 track:

Ultra fine scale wheels means wheels with a different wheel profile
(tire width, flange depth, shape of tread to flange transition, etc.),
and gauge point (where on the tread "gauge" is measured, generally just
before the fillet that connects tread to flange), and back-to-back.
There would probably be little or no trouble running such wheels on
plain track, but turnouts (points) are another matter. Without specs of
Finney's ultra fine scale wheel profile, there's no way of telling. Do
you have those specs? If you do, it's a fairly simple matter to tell
whether the wheels will roll smoothly through the turnouts.

A related matter is curve radii. Depending on how Finney has designed
the chassis, those locos may not like curves tighter than about 24"
radius, and perhaps even larger on the larger locos. Anyonew wqho'se
built one of these kits can advise you on that.

HTH

Peter Abraham said the following on 27/01/2008 18:17:

I assume you mean Martin Finney kits?  They are the dog's wotsits,
although when you ask if they have sufficient weight it makes me wonder
whether you've built this type of kit before.  Basically, you weight
them to suit your needs.

You might also need to check whether Martin Finney kits can actually be
built to OO gauge.  I know that some of the high end kits can't be.
Wheels and track standards are very closely tied together, so if you
went for something like Ultrascale OO wheels you might find that it
doesn't run as well on "standard" OO track.  This is not intended to be
a criticism of what you want to do, but more to point you in the
direction of things to check out.

If you really do mean Frank Finney, then ignore all the above as I've
never heard of him!