Freightcar Trucks - Advice Needed

[Alan]

Some of the freightcars I have acquired require new (better) trucks. Does anyone have any advice as to which make I should go for? Kadee do nice metal sprung trucks, if a bit pricey. I like the ones on my P2K cars, but the siding tracks need to be level, or the car rolls away!

I need Bettendorf trucks, I believe, for my late steam-era cars. Any advice or comments would be helpful. Thanks in adavance.

[CP&E 3207]

I've been using 33" metal wheels from Life-Like on the stock trucks if they are journal box types. If your not too picky just about any type of a journal box truck will be fine. However you can get old style arch bar trucks. Those were quickly phased out with newer, better designs in the 30- & 40's.

[NYandLB_Fan]

Alan,

I needed to replace the talgo type trucks on some old Life-Like freight cars. I switched to body mounted couplers and used Model Die Casting Bettendorf trucks with very good results. graemlins/wink.gif

Glenn

[Gabriel]

Ive heard good thing about Kadee trucks, IM planning on adding some to older cars I want to convert and run...some body mount, some truck mount.

[Mike C]

try just replacing the wheelsets first. on the talgo trucks you can cut off the coupler and they will work fine that way....Mike

[Alan]

I purchased two pairs of Kadee sprung trucks, they are very good, if a bit pricey!

I fitted a pair to one boxcar and it now runs beautifully. I will not be using them on all stock as the cost would be prohibitive, but they will be good to replace sub-standard ones on any used equipment I buy. On others I may just replace the wheelsets.

[friscobob]

I'm in an ongoing process of replacing wheelsets from plastic to metal on all my cars, and so far I haven't replaced any trucks. I have, however, kept roller-bearing trucks on most all of my cars, as I run the mid-to-late 1970s. As with you, I have a slight problem with runaways if a car isn't coupled to a train or a locomotive, so I either chock the wheels or pick up one end of the car & turn the truck one way or the other, deliberately derailing the car. On all the trucks I've equipped with metal wheelsets, they all run fine with no binding. I've got 33" wheels on boxcars, flats, and small cars (anything that would be around 154,000 lb in real life), 36" wheels on 100-ton cars, and I'm looking for 28" wheels for my pig flats.

[Alan]

Bob, what make of wheels do you use? Kadee are probably easiest for me to get over here, and they do bulk packs (of 12 axles, I think).

[Mark_Athay]

The wheelesets I prefer are made by Intermountain. Vastly superior to Kaydees, and cost less.

Mark in Utah

[Alan]

Thanks Mark. Will see if they are readily available here.

[Mike Sheridan]

Alan, I use P2k wheelsets in 12 packs to replace all my Athearn, Walthers, etc plastic wheels. I get them from Porter-Wynn because they come to my local NMRA meets. Can't remember the price now, but they didn't seem expensive. I've had about half-a-dozen packs now and not had a bad wheel yet.

I also use the Kadee sprung trucks when the whole assembly needs replacing, mainly because they were all I could find info about and Kadee have a good reputation. Them I get from MG Sharp.

[Alan]

Mike, I got my Kadee trucks from MGS. They are very good, but cost me £5.20 per pair, plus postage.

Will try to take a look at the P2K wheels, I did not realise they supplied them seperately in bulk packs. Do Porter-Wynn do mail order?

BTW, will you be at the Wakefield show on saturday? I will be there to harass Martyn ;) :D

[Martyn Read]

Yeah yeah, I get harassed enough just trying to keep trains running in public! :D graemlins/wink.gif

I mostly use Proto wheelsets, they are a little cheaper than the others and seem to work well in most places, but different truck castings seem to 'prefer' different wheelset makes to run well with no slop.

I do also have a bunch of Kadee's, Intermountains and a couple of other makes in the fleet. The Intermountains are most expensive but roll most freely. The Kadee's don't seem to roll that well, although that is usually a good point if you are trying to switch cars!

I've only used Kadee's trucks on a couple of cars that I had problems running with, I have a Bowser covered hopper that had a warped bolster casting which ended up lifting one axle on one truck off the rails, the 'flexi-ness' of the Kadee truck cured that one.

[Mark_Athay]

Intermountain wheelesets are available in boxes of 50. All metal wheels with a metal axle and an insulated bushing between the axle and one wheel. Comes in VERY handy when adding lights to a passenger car or caboose. :)

[Mike Sheridan]

Originally posted by Alan:
Mike, I got my Kadee trucks from MGS. They are very good, but cost me £5.20 per pair, plus postage.
The last pair I got were £6+ :eek: , but they were one of the more expensive models :( . MGS are not generally cheap, but they do have a good range.

Will try to take a look at the P2K wheels, I did not realise they supplied them seperately in bulk packs. Do Porter-Wynn do mail order?
They did in the only advert I have (from a 2002 Continental Modeller). I'd be surprised if they don't still.

BTW, will you be at the Wakefield show on saturday? I will be there to harass Martyn ;) :D
Unfortunately not. I was hoping to go as he wasn't at Ulverston to be harassed :D (I drove all that way :mad: ) but I have too much other stuff on the go at the moment. Haven't even done any modelling for a few weeks redface.gif

[Alan]

Ok Mike, I will report my findings on TB (with pictures) :D

[Martyn Read]

Sorry to hear that Mike, we'll have to find another show for you to come and harass us at! smile.gif

[Les]

Hi guy's
Also had this problem of run aways after I changed wheel sets . I solved it by using an old choke cable from a car . when inner cable is pushed all way in it pokes up thru the the track to hold cars.
Regards Les

[Alan]

That is sneaky, Les ;) But a great idea :D