Roll Models Industrial Railworks

The following was posted on Chaski.org, 13 January 2015:


 * Portions of the Real Trains Inc business have been sold. RMI posted on Facebook that they bought all of the 2 1/2" and above scale product lines.

RMI-25 Profile
David Coster of RMI wrote:


 * I would like to talk to you about a flange standard for 2.5 & 3-3/4 scale equipment on 7.5 & 7.1/4 gauge track. As you may know, we are one of the biggest manufactures of these scales in the US.  We have developed and tested a flange that is comparable with 99% of all the railroads built to this standard.  It has proven itself with many of the modelers in 2.5 and 3-3/4 scale.  A few of the other manufactures are or will be offering this flange.


 * Attached is a specification sheet on the RMI-25 flange. We call this flange RMI-25 for two reasons, one it is a .25 tall flange and two it was designed for 2.5 scale.  But as time passes, the .25 tall will be the main definition, as it is used on the above scales.  It could also be used on 1.5 and 1.6 without any problem.


 * * RMI-25 Wheel Specification


 * Question - Since the flange is much larger than the standard 7.5/7.25 inch gauge flange, how does that inter-operate with frogs and guard rails that might not be 1/4 inch deep?


 * Answer - The flange is only 1/16 inch taller then the normal IBLS flange but the width of the flange is the same as IBLS. After two plus years of running these flanges on a number of railroads, we have found no undue damage caused.  In fact they do less harm to the rail than IBLS flanges.  In the case of the frogs that are .25 inch deep or less, the wheel rolls through on the flange and does not drop the wheel on the frog point.  The only thing one might want to do is file away at the entrance and exit of the flange ways to add a 1/16 inch tapper. But we have not found that to be necessary.  In the case of curves, the 1/8 inch filet moves the flange further away from the inside head of the rail making it harder for the wheel to pick and climb up and over the rail.  The 15 degree tapper keeps the flange from making a three point contact on the inside edge of the outer rail on curves and reduces or eliminates the grinding off of the head of the rail.  These are but some of the benefits we have found with this flange.