Walsall Model Industries was formed in 1987 but has existed under various other trade names since 1967. The original company was founded to provide a machining service to Gauge 0 railway modellers for their wheel castings. Gradually other associated components such as axles, crank pins etc were added. In 1980 a range of shell moulded wheels were introduced and the range has been steadily expanded to over 50 different types of casting.

During 1988 and 1989 the range of products was further expanded to include Gauge 1 wheels and other gauge 1 components, as well as model engineering materials and supplies.

Our wheel castings are produced by the shell moulding process which gives a superior quality casting to that obtained by the traditional green sand moulding technique. The castings are free from hard spots and have good machining properties unrivalled by any other manufacturer in Gauge 0 and Gauge 1. This is achieved by selection of a suitable grade of cast iron to British Standards and subsequent carefully controlled heat treatment this ensures that hard areas of carbide are converted to a soft graphitic structure.

Our finished wheels are machined to close tolerances with the aid of gauges, jigs, fixtures and the use of tungsten carbide tooling, allowing consistent quality between batches.

Standard wheels have squared centres with Allen screw fixing to fit axles A1000 and A1001 and similarly in gauge 1. This gives easy assembly and removal with automatic quartering (Allen key S2003 is required). Crank pin holes are tapped 8BA. Driving wheels for outside framed locos e.d D48B, D108, D120 are tapped 5BA at the centre to suit extended driving axles A1003 and A1004. Bogie, pony, tender and other wheels are tapped 5BA at the centre to suit our standard screwed axles.

Castings can be machined to special requirements other than the standard fine or coarse scale dimensions shown in the gauges page on this site. Please add 15% to normal prices for this service.