Which Trucks?

[Anonymous]

I'm building an old Rail Power Products kit for a 56ft well car, but I'm not sure which trucks I need to buy to complete it - can anyone offer any advice on what type the prototype car runs on? According to the instructions, they should be 70 ton trucks with 33inch wheels, but there's no further information. Can anyone recommend a particular brand (ideally with metal wheels)? I've looked at the Kadee website and they don't seem to offer anything suitable. Any help would be much appreciated!

[Anonymous]

I used the Kato Barber S-2 with the rotating bearing on mine. Kadee sells a similiar truck. The Railpower instructions are a bit vague. How did you like decaling it?

[Anonymous]

I've not got to the decalling stage yet - have just completed the basic assembly, still need to paint it and add decals. I agree about the instructions - they seemed a bit vague to me as well - had to guess a few important bits (like the orientation of the brake cylinder in relation to the hole provided to fit the triple valve) from looking at my other double-stack cars. Now all I have to do is track down an approximation of TTX yellow as a spray can...Finding proper RR paint shades over here is almost impossible! I'm not looking forward to the decalling - there seem to be a lot of them and some are quite small. Thanks for your help!

[Anonymous]

Brit:

If you can get a look at the December 03 issue of Model Railroader there is an article on
freight car trucks and an index of HO manufacturers.

Have a look at the Fine Scale Modeler forum for a HUGE thread on decaling. One tip I find valuable: Use small pieces of 3M modeling tape to 'true the registration' of your decals. Once the decals are set simply peel off the tape.

Good Luck

Randy

[Anonymous]

Thanks rda, I'll try to find my copy of Dec '03 MR and take a look there - only snag is I seem to recall looking there before and not finding much useful advice! I've since discovered that Tamiya yellow applied with a brush over spray undercoat seems to produce a pretty good approximation of TTX Yellow - should have the paint finished in the next day or so, then have to decal it...

[DTomajko]

How about the new 70ton truck from Athearn Genesis? They look and operate well. By the way, as far as I know, UPS doesn't ship 28' containers that way anymore. At least in Pittsburgh, the container and chassis are never seperated and always loaded as a trailer. I believe the practice of stacking 28's ended because the logistics of having the right chassis where it's needed became a constant headache. All of the 56' well cars I have seen have been changed to handle 20' to 53' boxes while retaining the original 56' lettering.Good luck and good modeling.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DTomajko

How about the new 70ton truck from Athearn Genesis? They look and operate well. By the way, as far as I know, UPS doesn't ship 28' containers that way anymore. At least in Pittsburgh, the container and chassis are never seperated and always loaded as a trailer. I believe the practice of stacking 28's ended because the logistics of having the right chassis where it's needed became a constant headache. All of the 56' well cars I have seen have been changed to handle 20' to 53' boxes while retaining the original 56' lettering.Good luck and good modeling.

That's interesting - I was wondering if the need for particular cars would cause operational problems. The kit came with a couple of 28ft containers which I'm currently trying to work out the correct colour scheme for - looks to be mid-grey. I'll probably load mine with the 28ft containers as I've already fitted them with ballast weights. Are the Athearn trucks available seperately? I should be able to get Kadee trucks over here, but I've never seen Athearn trucks as spares. I've finished the paint and decals, now it just needs a quick blow-over with some varni***o seal in the finish and blend in the decals. Thanks for your help!

[Anonymous]

Have you tried Macs' Model Railroading here in Helensburgh macsmodels.co.uk ?

He stocks Polly Scale paints, has a wide variety of trucks and does good mail order service (although you can't order online).

anything to help the fellow brit modeller who can't find what they're after , know that one well. I've seen moreblue moons than Jordan's kits over here. :(

neil

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by neilmunck

Have you tried Macs' Model Railroading here in Helensburgh macsmodels.co.uk ?

He stocks Polly Scale paints, has a wide variety of trucks and does good mail order service (although you can't order online).

anything to help the fellow brit modeller who can't find what they're after , know that one well. I've seen moreblue moons than Jordan's kits over here. :(

neil

I've ordered a fair bit of equipment from them in the past, they seemed to have a lot of things that had sold out in my local shop (Totally Trains, about 1hr 30mins away in Ross on Wye). I obtained my only set of Impack cars from them. I might be more inclined to order from them if they had a full online store service (Look at www.ehattons.com for an example of how it should be done, they're superb). I'll just have to keep an eye open for the trucks - I "borrowed" a set from one of my other husky stacks to do some testing only to discover the car won't go round the curves on my test track, so I'm not in much of a hurry to complete it. It'll be fine on my scenic layout though.

[DTomajko]

Yes they are available sperately, Athearn # G4598 for 70 ton trucks. I have them sitting above my workbench now. I have the 100 ton trucks on order from my LHS and don't have that part number. The price for four trucks was $11.98. I do have pictures of the 56' well car filled with four UPS 28' containers from approximately 1995 passing through Berea,Ohio on Conrail. They may still be handled that way in other parts of the country, as I can only speak for the Pittsburgh ramp. All UPS shipments into or out of Pitt are handled as trailers. Also, a day spent at Joliet,Il. in 2003 alongside the BNSF "Transcon" produced no UPS 28' containers without wheels attached. I can only think of one time in the last 3 years that a 28' box was seperated from its chassis. An "All-Purpose" had a broken auxilary hitch lock on an end platform,(on a 5-pack car,the ends must be loaded with no more than a single empty hitch before the next load,i.e.:both ends & the middle hitch at a minimum). The hitch was dropped, the pedestals raised, the box was put on the pedestals and the bare chassis was put on the next good hitch.This is a rare occourrance and usually the bad car would be not loaded and cut out to the RIP track or used for the Chicago train later in the day to carry containers. Good luck and stay safe.

[Anonymous]

I've fitted Kadee Barber S-2 trucks to the car - had to open out the mounting hole on the trucks to fit over the pivot but they look great - I especially like the working springs!