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Can anyone identify this wheelset/truck/booster assembly?

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  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
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Can anyone identify this wheelset/truck/booster assembly?
Posted by SeeYou190 on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 11:39 PM

I did an internet image search for something, and among the results were this neat looking truck.

It looks like a booster engine from a tender, but not 100% sure. The link that went with the picture did not work.

I am not even sure if it is HO scale.

Does anyone know what model this truck goes with? What scale is it? Is it a booster engine?

Thank you.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, July 29, 2021 1:16 AM

If I had to guess I'd say it might be a chassis for a British-style 4-wheel switcher, the kind that would use one traction motor or gearbox and drive the other pair via rods. Might be a power truck for a railcar of some kind.

Those angle brackets at one end are likely diagnostic clues.

I'd expect a tender booster to be heavier construction, with heavier counterweights, for any North American prototype likely to justify installation of a tender booster...

In retrospect, thd very rudimentary detail says to me that this might be intended to mount up underneath some sort of vehicle or locomotive, so you'd see the mechanical action of the rods working but not the utter absence of sideframe detail or practical counterweighting for American practice...

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Posted by Southgate 2 on Thursday, July 29, 2021 2:19 AM

Looking closely, theres a big stack of leaf springs that center at a pivot. That indicates it's a pivoting bolster mounted truck such as, but not necessarily limited to a booster.

Wouldn't a pair of those under a diesel, or electric body shell make for an interesting locomotive?

  • Member since
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  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
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Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, July 29, 2021 9:43 AM

Overmod
If I had to guess I'd say it might be a chassis for a British-style 4-wheel switcher, the kind that would use one traction motor or gearbox and drive the other pair via rods.

That is a good possibility. I wish I had more to go on than just one random picture.

Southgate 2
Wouldn't a pair of those under a diesel, or electric body shell make for an interesting locomotive?

That is exactly what I was thinking! It even looks like there might be a gear tower. I never saw a part much like this one before.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Thursday, July 29, 2021 10:03 AM

Could this be Jouef or Lima, from something like a French BB 71000?  No, I think those had inside-frame trucks

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Posted by 7j43k on Thursday, July 29, 2021 10:06 AM

That looks to be a remarkably narrow wheel tread for HO, or thereabouts.

 

Ed

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, July 29, 2021 10:27 AM

From the treads and the gauge of wire, combined with the utter lack of sideframe construction detail,  I'm tempted to say a relatively large scale.  Note that it has that funky four-cast-ear snap-on gear tower cap construction that Hawks Rule had such trouble with on his 844 model... does that whittle down the potential manufacturers any? Bachmann?

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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Thursday, July 29, 2021 10:48 AM

 

It is a truck assembly to a Bachmann On30 Wittcomb switcher.

https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/On30%20Whitcomb%20Chassis%20Assembly.pdf

Sheldon

    

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
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Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, July 29, 2021 11:02 AM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL
It is a truck assembly to a Bachmann On30 Wittcomb switcher.

Thank you Sheldon!

What a neat looking locomotive, and the power truck is available as a detail part!

I just ordered a power truck for this, and a spoked 4 wheel pilot truck from the Bachmann 4-6-0.

This will be the core of a great little locomotive.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

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