Wheelset finishes?

[rkcarguy]

Got a fairly simple question for you guys. I'll be using steel wheels on steel flat bar "groovy track". Wheels and track are obviously going to rust and the shiny machined surfaces on the wheels are going to be short lived.
Leave the wheel sets bare?
Shot blast and paint with red oxide primer? I've found the SW stuff to be very tough.
Or?

[Glenn Brooks]

Ryan, most people leave them untreated, although you could give them a shot of Ospho once a year to keep the rust at bay. I’ve got some old painted wheels off an amusement train of some Sort. Nasty looking with the old paint cracking and flaking off. Probably looked nice in the day. But doesn’t last long...

Glenn

[Pontiacguy1]

Paint it all, then forget it. The paint will wear off of the wheel surfaces in about 100 feet or so of use, and the rest will get covered in dirt and oil and will look rather prototypical. Use that rusty red primer, and it will look pretty realistic after a while. That's my opinion.

Like one old guy told me at a meet down in Texas quite a long time ago: "if it moves, oil it. If you're not sure if it moves or not, oil it anyway. If you're absolutely sure that it doesn't move, then paint it."