The black plastic wheels supplied with the "One-and-a-Halfth Generation" kits were, how can I say this delicately, not as well formed as we would like.
Oftimes there would be "strings" of excess plastic attached to the wheels. (The same was sometimes true of the trucks as well.) Trimming with a pair of scissors was usually the minimum required.
As I recall, occassionally the wheels would have a bit missing from the flanges. Those wheels couldn't be saved.
I suspect many N Scalers swapped out the plastic wheels in the kits with something a bit better. We could speculate as to whether this was a factor in the discontinuing of the Atlas kits, although there were probably other "good business" related reasons as well. It certainly couldn't have been the difficulty factor in assembling them! There were as close to "shake the box" as we ever had in N Scale in my opinion, at least until the Roundhouse (MDC) kits came along many years later.
Cheers,
George
(your list-owner)
