The thread on Burlington Northern Trough Train put a danged ole thought in my head. Looking at the articulated design, much like Trailor Trains; cars sharing a central truck i thought;would offset trucks on the long cars help alleviate the problem of wide swings in the turns. Have the trucks in the same location relative to the car, but have the swivel/mounting pin/post either forward or back of the centerline? Has anyone ever done this? What would be your thoughts? Now I know some of you might not like the idea because you want the unexposed areas to be "scale" also, but those that might relent on that aspect and would like to improve the visuals...........?????
Might just work. I would love one in N scale and things that don't show when on the rails wouldn't bother me. Looks like the HO model used printed trucks but for the two axle trucks, I'd think M/T trucks would work, and for that single axle truck, you could possibly use the one from the Atlas front runner cars that were done years ago. Might not look exactly right but might work
You're trying to have an off-center bolster on the truck? I'm a bit confused by what you're asking. The net gain is going to be basically nothing, since you can't shift the bolster that much on a two-axle truck. The change will hardly be noticeable. You also run into the issue of asymmetric truck motion. since one axle is farther from the bolster, that side of the truck swings out more. That could cause the wheels to hit the center sill of the car if you don't design it properly. Passenger cars with three-axle trucks do it to reduce overhang on curves, but part of the reason is that a centered screw is blocked by the middle axle.
It was just a thought. If it ever bothers ME that much I might try it. Everybody complains, or at least comments on the swing of long cars, a little might mean a lot. Can't you replace the wheels on those 3 axle trucks? Meaning, can't they come out to provide access to the bolster screw. I could see the bolster screw over the front axle of two axle trucks, and that would be about it; just a slight improvement and maybe not worth the effort for most, but there might always be a few that would maybe try it, of course they probably already have wide curves.
