I am working on a WWII German flatcar and would like to know the color of the wheels on RR cars.I know or think they are made of steel,that is an easy color to do.But the part of the wheel that is running on the rail,what color would that be?
Thank you.

AFAIK military trains had black wheels, while civilian trains were red.

Hi Jody,

Freight car wheels were usually either painted black or delivered in bare metal. They would quickly rust but railroaders have told me that the rust never gets to the point that it will destroy the thick steel wheel - except maybe in 200 years.

Eventually, those wheels are caked with dust, dirt, metal particulates, grease, oil, soot, and mud. They can take on the color of the terrain they roll through, and vary by season.

Here is a small feature I put together: Train Wheel and Truck Muck

Where railcar wheels contact the rail (called a "Contact Patch") in more of an ellipse that flat on flat surfaces. Elasticity of the steel and wear patterns change over time. But a new wheel on a new rail will have a very small surface of contact, perhaps 5mm IIRC. (Here is a highly technical paper on railcar wheel-to-rail contact: The geometry of wheel-rail contact )

This is even better and easier to understand without a PhD:

Wheel‐Rail Interaction Fundamentals

But to answer your main question, where the Contact Patch is steel. Sometimes bright, sometimes dull due to impurities ground in, but a nice steel. I have replicated it with steel, but nowadays I use pencil lead.

Jody, here's a great site: Railways of Germany

This thread is about weathering. Nothing really about wheels, but a start.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/germanrailfr/viewtopic.php?t=6892

I don't know about the color of the wheels during WWII but the tread and inner edge of the flange can range in color from polished steel where they rub on the rail to shiny steel to just bare metal color depending on wear and tear and if the train has been sitting for a while the bare metal parts could have a rusty patina to them.

Not positive about the Germans, but US practice at the time was to leave the wheels and axle unpainted so any cracks or imperfections could be more easily detected. They quickly developed a harmless thin layer of rust that would look a dark "earth" brown. But the axle-boxes of that period were grease-filled friction bearings that leaked like sieves, so the outer face would build up a layer of blackish-grey greasy crud, decorated with all manner of track dust. The contact surfaces (the outer rim and the flange) would rub themselves raw on the rails and be shiny polished steel when in use, but quickly bloomed with orange rust if left standing any length of time. Local weather conditions naturally affected the speed of polishing and rusting, of course!

Since wheelsets do get damaged and worn out, they get replaced. That means you might find a clean wheelset and an old greasy one in the same two-axle truck.

Hey everyone!
Thank you very much for all the info given.