Does anyone know the name of the type of truck that is shown in this picture? Were they used exclusively on passenger cars, and what is the date range associated with these trucks?
Thanks in advance.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/5487413557
Shock Control Does anyone know the name of the type of truck that is shown in this picture? Were they used exclusively on passenger cars, and what is the date range associated with these trucks? Thanks in advance. https://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/5487413557
I'm not sure of the name, but such trucks (or similar) would appear under cabooses:
ETA: I believe they were called "Q" trucks. They had a wooden beam and some cast parts.
Gary
These trucks, from Central Valley, are similar, and I use them on several head-end cars.
This one was formerly an Athearn coach...
...while this one is a combination of two Athearn baggage cars, using the ends with the wider doors...
The underbody is all scratchbuilt, but there's no identification on the maker of those all-metal trucks.
I'm currently scratchbuilding ten mail and baggage cars for myself and a couple of friends, and some of them will get the four-wheel trucks from Central Valley.
I scratchbuilt four of these...
...about 40 years ago, one for a friend and the others for myself. I later decided that they weren't all that prototypical and decided to scrap them, but keep the trucks. Three fellow modellers, on my "home" forum, asked to buy the carbodies, so I simply mailed them, without the trucks. As far as I'm aware, they're still in use.
I also have some headend cars with similar, but shorter trucks, which are plastic, I think from either Athearn or Model Die Casting...
Most of these latter cars are in multiples on my layout.
Some prototypes in the style of four-wheel trucks represented by the Central Valley ones lasted well into the '60s, and a few, at least, into the '70s, as I've seen in photos of some older CNR baggage cars.
Wayne
doctorwayne...Some in the style of four-wheel trucks represented by the Central Valley ones lasted well into the '60s, and a few, at least, into the '70s, as I've seen in photos of some older CNR baggage cars. Wayne
Thank you! I have some of these trucks, and I wanted to use them on mid-century MOW cars, so I guess I'm within the era.
garya I'm not sure of the name, but such trucks (or similar) would appear under cabooses: ETA: I believe they were called "Q" trucks. They had a wooden beam and some cast parts.
Thank you! Do we know if "Q trucks" is the only name they went by?
They are a "wood beam truck". They have leaf springs so were used under passenger cars or cabooses. What determines that is the wheel size (33" vs 36" ) and the wheelbase (passenger cars have longer wheelbases). I've never seen them called a "Q" truck, although that specific truck may have been made in the CB&Q car shops, similar trucks were used across the nation and made in many sizes by by many manufacturers. By WW1 the wood beam truck had been replaced with cast steel truck frames on new cars.
For cars in non-interchange service they could have lasted into the 1950's.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Walthers has made 6-wheel wood beam trucks. I got some to put under my Palace wood cars. The part number is 920-2200. 920-2201 is the same truck with roller bearings--interesting.
I would think Walthers did 4-wheel wood beam trucks, but their famously effective search engine isn't turning anything up [sarcasm].
The truck in the sample picture is very light duty. I would think it might work for 1880, or so. If demoted to MOW service, I doubt it would have lasted much beyond 1920, if that. The problem is that it's for a very light car, and that may not be so attractive in use.
Ed
Thanks all.
Is there any chance that the same style truck was ever used with an iron beam instead of wood?
Shock Control Thank you! Do we know if "Q trucks" is the only name they went by?
I found that in a UP reference. I'm looking for my passenger car books to see if they say anything different.
Here's a caboose with similar trucks:
Except that I don't see the drop equalizer on the caboose trucks. I think they're quite different, except that they are both old and spindly.
Shock Control Thanks all. Is there any chance that the same style truck was ever used with an iron beam instead of wood?
I think the wood beam trucks WERE copied with steel replacing the wood. And that it was relatively common.
PRR called them
2A-P1 "Old Passenger Truck"
It is listed as part of the passenger truck series, so I think its use would be restricted to passenger and maybe head end and/or cabin cars
PRR Passenger Truck diagrams (railfan.net)
And since everyone knows the Standard Railroad of the World's terminology was definitive, that's what they must be called
Your car is 1870/1880's vintage, so I think by the turn of the century they would have been replaced by newer equipment riding on 2A-P2 or 2A-P3 trucks. The older equipment and trucks may still have been running in commuter or branch line service
If you want to really pursue the question, have your library get you a copy of John White's The American Railroad Passenger Car, which includes details of components such as trucks, on inter-library loan It's a two volume set, so ask for both. White was Curator of Transportation at the Smithsonian, so you can regard this work as the Holy Grail on the subject
The American Railroad Passenger Car, Parts I and II (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology): White Jr., John H.: 9780801827433: Amazon.com: Books
Did you know many of the most modern railroads of 1880's and 1890's had their best passenger equipment rolling on paper wheels?
No, that does not mean the wheels were made from paper.
I was shocked to find there's even a Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_car_wheel
Yes, the Allen wheel was made from paper.
The finished wheel was what we'd call 'composite construction' today: a very large number of parallel sheets of paper soaked in glue and hydraulically pressed between metal face pieces. The chief trouble with them was the brittleness of the glue: the rim was riveted, and stress raisers at the rivet holes could not be seen or progressive cracking detected before the core failed, sometimes dramatically at speed.
I thought of this as analogous to the fault in the Allied Full Cushion truck. Just as there, the problem couldn't be solved with contemporary technology and the Allen wheels disappeared as quickly as they had been popularized. (We would see this story repeated with 'elastic' wheels on some transit equipment a few decades later...)