I have a nice Harbor Freight electronic readout caliper but the age of the model- Mantua all metal boiler, open frame motor and old time electrical pickup with brass wheels on one side of the tender led me to "presume" that the tender wheels are standard 33 inch, as the variety if wheel sizes and tire widths probably had not yet been developed. I think this model dates back to the 1960s...
Cedarwoodron
I am surprised the OP did not get a caliper from Amazon and measure the wheel diameter. About ten dollars.A little math for full scale. Metric marks on them also.
I bought one some years ago. Mine is plastic with a dial. Saved a lot of guessing. Good for re-gearing locos also. They are quite accurate.
Every modeler should have one.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
For the Mantua trucks I worked with, I recall the axles as being a very small diameter. And the truck sideframes having a very small journal hole. Which meant that no other axle would fit. So I dumped the trucks.
Of course, my trucks could have been different than your trucks. But my loco was definitely Mantua.
Ed
I've changed a few myself and I believe they were all 36" wheels. You can check that by removing them and measuring them (you can also eyeball it by comparing them with those of your rolling stock - assuming these are not longer modern equipment). I have used Rapido and True line wheel sets in the past. The latest batch I got was from a Chinese vendor on Ebay. Super cheap and very good quality. Apart from wheel size, I find that the Mantua tenders are very forgiving when it comes to replacing wheels... I don't recall having any issues with respect to the axles. And yes, the good Doctor Wayne is correct about the quality of the contacts. I still have a few "stock" Mantua tenders on my layout, and they work fine. If I have a doubt about the contact between the truck and the frame, removing and sanding the parts is not very difficult. My layout is in a fairly dry environment, so I don't need to do this very often.
Simon
7j43k richg1998 Bitter Creek has all metal trucks and wheels. http://www.bittercreekmodels.com/page4.html Rich Those are, I think, cast in a soft metal. I feel anxious about how durable they will be. Ed Oh, yeah. You can find Central Valley trucks on Ebay. Used to be the Cadillac of HO trucks. I used them when I replaced the tender trucks on MY Mantua switcher.
richg1998 Bitter Creek has all metal trucks and wheels. http://www.bittercreekmodels.com/page4.html Rich
Bitter Creek has all metal trucks and wheels.
http://www.bittercreekmodels.com/page4.html
Those are, I think, cast in a soft metal. I feel anxious about how durable they will be.
Oh, yeah. You can find Central Valley trucks on Ebay. Used to be the Cadillac of HO trucks. I used them when I replaced the tender trucks on MY Mantua switcher.
Cast in lead. Not that soft. I have had a few for some time.
The ring engineering trucks also have a electrical pick up design based on the eotd design. for caboose lighting. If i remember right. The entire assembly comes off the side frames. Being attached to the axles and not the truck allowing for swapping of side frames easily. Worth looking into.
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Bitter Creek has all metal trucks and wheels. They are lead. I have some.
cedarwoodron...I'm looking at trucks with metal wheels at various vendor sites but I'm not certain the trucks themselves are metal. If they are delrin plastic then that would defeat the purpose of metal wheels without some added wiper or wire from the wheels to the tender metal frame, right? So, if trucks are metal and wheels are also metal, then just screwing them into the bolster hole with a metal screw provides an electrical path....
I'd suggest using, if necessary, wipers on the wheels, with wire connections to your decoder or to the motor.
The interface between metal tender trucks and the metal tender at the truck bolster points is not all that reliable. That method is usual for brass locomotives, as well as ones like your cast Mantua, but both Zamac and brass oxidise quite readily, making the connection less and less reliable over time. I can't count the number of brass non- or poor-running locomotives I've "repaired" simply by removing the tender trucks and polishing those contact surfaces.Here's a tender truck on a brass loco. I added wheel wipers made from Kadee coupler centering springs. Note the wire leading through the tender's floor...
....the wires are connected to the motor using mini-plugs...
Small locos are good candidates for all-wheel pick-up on the locomotive, too, as shown on this brass 0-8-0...
Where the tender trucks are Delrin, it's easy to add all-wheel pick-up to the tender, using either Kadee centering springs, or, as below, phosphor bronze wire...
Because my layout is DC-powered, I re-wired this Bachmann locomotive so that the all-wheel pick-ups with which it came (like most plastic steamers nowadays) connect directly to the motor, so it will run even without its tender...
...but just to ensure reliability, I added all-wheel pick-up to its tender, too...
...and to the auxilliary tender...
Wayne
If I were looking for "old style" metal tender trucks, I'd call Bowser. They MIGHT have some. If they don't, they're the kind of people who probably DO know where to find some.
Also, Precision Scale has sold trucks like that. And also might still do so.
Yes, 33" would be the right size wheels.
PS: I see other-Ed beat me to it. The Precision Scale part numbers you might try:
HO-31651-1 Leaf spring Andrews, 33"
HO-31542-1 Archbar, 5'6" wheelbase, 33", appear to be not-coil-spring
Hi, Ron
Kadee, Bowser and Athearn all make various trucks with electrical pickups. I like the Atheran ones best since they pick up from all four wheels using bronze needlepoint contacts. You solder your own leads on them. Downside to the Athearn is that they all represent modern rotating-cap roller bearing types.
http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATHG6138
I have been begging Athearn to produce these trucks in a solid-bearing type journal but apparently I'm the only one who would want them.
Kadee ones pick up from wheel pairs on one side only. this would be fine for your tender and could be arranged to pick up from each rail, say front truck left, rear truck right.
https://kadee.com/htmbord/page590.htm
Kadee has a 593 Archbar truck that would look pretty neat under your tender:
https://www.micromark.com/Kadee-593-Arch-Bar-Trucks
By not using metal trucks the tender underframe isn't part of the electrical path. I think your power pickup would be more reliable with these wired trucks. just a small hole for the wire to pass through is all you need.
Same goes with the Bowser pick up trucks. These are primarily designed for use on cabooses but you could probably get away with them on such a small tender. The Bowser kit is a bronze pickup that snaps into their PRR style caboose truck.
Good Luck, Ed
I'll insert links as I find them...
The original metal trucks on the tender may not allow all metal wheels to be substituted, as suggested in an earlier post about improving electrical conductivity. So I'm looking at trucks with metal wheels at various vendor sites but I'm not certain the trucks themselves are metal. If they are delrin plastic then that would defeat the purpose of metal wheels without some added wiper or wire from the wheels to the tender metal frame, right? So, if trucks are metal and wheels are also metal, then just screwing them into the bolster hole with a metal screw provides an electrical path. Problem is- who has metal trucks with all metal wheels, as I can see that the advertised wheels are metal but no info is given about the trucks. Also, given the age of this old Mantua model, is it safe to as some that the wheel size of the tender is an old standard 33" size?