Quartering wheels

[AdeV]

Earlier today, whilst generally cogitating and setting the world to rights - my mind turned, as is only natural, to the question of quartering a model loco's wheels. In particular, I have a Farish GP tank that resists all of my efforts to run smoothly, consistently and continuously. I suspect one wheel may not be quartered to perfection, and thus making a sticky spot in the rotation, which is occasionally enough to stop it at low power.

Anyway, whilst that may or may not be the case, it got me wondering: Since quartering is such a pig of a job, why dont model manufacturers put square ends on the driving axles, and corresponding square holes in the wheels? The machinery to mass produce such wheels and axles is not especially complicated or expensive, and it would make the job of quartering quite trivial.

I'm sure the answer comes down to "why bother", but istm that when it comes to repairing and maintaining old models, square ended axles could be a real boon.

[ntpntpntp]

Well, some manufacturers do square the axle ends.  Others at least spline the axles which helps.  Unfortunately yes there are some out there with simple round axles and the wheels can twist a little on the axle, especially if abused. Early Dapol steamers such as the 54xx suffered from the quartering drifting IIRC.