I have some Athearn BB heavyweight passenger cars I will eventually ben detailing and painting up. Though the trucks seem ok, they appear to be a bit on the crude side so I'm considering swapping then with better looking trucks. The only problem is, I don't know of any that I would be able to just pop under. Are there decent plastic ones out there or would I have to look at brass ones?
Lone Geep
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lone geep I have some Athearn BB heavyweight passenger cars I will eventually ben detailing and painting up. Though the trucks seem ok, they appear to be a bit on the crude side so I'm considering swapping then with better looking trucks. The only problem is, I don't know of any that I would be able to just pop under. Are there decent plastic ones out there or would I have to look at brass ones?
There is nothing else that is a direct replacement.
The similar trucks from Walthers would require major rebuilding under the car and are not really that much better detailed.
If you can find them, or do some building on your own, you can add brake beams and shoes to them to improve the detail - Central Valley made kits for this many decades ago.
You may not be able to see them in this photo:
But this is an Athearn car with extra underbody detail and brake beams on the trucks using the Athearn trucks.
Assuming you have the newer plastic version of the trucks (the orginals were metal) if you have the wheelsets with one plastic wheel and one metal wheel, Athearn sells updated all metal wheelsets for these trucks.
You will want to use their wheelsets because these trucks have longer than standard axles.
I remove the truck mounted couplers and mount the couplers on the body.
Similar to this ConCor example:
Sheldon
As Sheldon said, there is no direct/easy replacement. Most brass passenger car trucks (except The Coach Yard and a few others) do not have better detail.
I have lobbied Kadee to produce generic 4 wheel and 6 wheel passenger car trucks. They do not believe generic trucks will sell in today's market, and making all the different varieties will not be possible.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
The sideframes don't seem crisp to me but if there is not other options, they'll do.