I am making home made trucks for my freight cars out of wood. The wood I have now is plywood and I was aiming to use 3/16" for the main structure. Would Plywood be sturdy enough for outdoor use?
Modeling the Bellefonte Central Railroad
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PJ: Plywood for trucks? I’m not certain about this but there are a few issues I see here. What type of trucks are you planning on building? Is this plywood from your local lumberyard or from a craft/hobby type shop? I’m thinking the ply from lumberyard would be too coarse to maintain good strength after carving. How heavy are the cars, I’m thinking plywood trucks would not stand up to well under heavy cars. Hobby grade plywood just might be strong enough when carved as the veneers are much thinner and there are more of them than lumber grade ply. Not having done this what I have said is just conjecture from one old man. Let’s see what anyone else has to say. I have one project in progress where I am making journals from wood (100-year-old black walnut). Having said that, there is an entirely different load wear between journals and trucks.
Tom Trigg
I am making a basic truck for my field railway from something like the log train trucks in 2008 December Garden Railways issue. I have some stronger woods from a model lumber yard. Is magohony better than cherry?. Also what is the difference betwwen basswood and plywood?
Mahogany is softwood; cherry is an almost hard wood. Most lumberyard plywood is quick growth fir with coarse grain, basswood is a much tighter grain and therefor stronger for its size.
PJ
I built trucks for a fleet of passenger cars from G/R plan #53. They are made from Aircraft Grade Birch Plywood ( 7 ply) 1/4 inch. Inset a piece of brass tube and then fitted that with another piece and the truck axle runs inside that. Inner piece of tubing can be replaced as wear dictates.They seem to be fine. Never tried freight trucks though. Be interested in seeing how you make out.
Ron
Wait, so you would drill a hole through the brass tubing for the axle and solder the two together with a cross piece?
No, the brass bushings are installed in the side frames. I will try to explain with some pictures.
In the first you can see a set of side frames for the six trucks that I made. In the holes near the end is where the axle mounts. First it is drilled out for a 5/32 ID brass tube. This is pressed in and the wood around the brass is soaked with thin CA glue. The ends are then filed flat with the sides of the truck. Then a second piece of tube 1/8 ID is slid inside the first one. This one is lubricated with a very light grease. This one cannot be any longer and should be slightly shorter. It is retained by the journal box cover visible in the second photo. The axle then fits inside this piece also with a thin coating of light grease. In time the piece of tube between the axle and the outer tube will wear. It can be replaced easily without any damage to the truck. There is also a photo of the completed truck. If you still have questions please ask.
Ron: Now thqat's a handome set of trucks. Well done!
Thanks Tom
I actually built 4 sets of them to go with the four passenger cars. I posted some pictures a couple of weeks ago on this thread. Look for 'Passenger Cars by Vulcan00'.
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