Passenger cars

[iwbaugh]

Most of the passenger cars you purchase have four wheel trucks. I cannot recall seeing 4 wheel trucks on any prototype equipment.
Do the manufacturers know something that I'm overlooking by not putting 6 wheel trucks on their equipment? What would be the minimum radius for 6 wheel trucks versus 4 wheel trucks?

[Anonymous]

The new Walthers HO Budd Cars have four wheel trucks.
The prototypes were Santa Fe, Up, NYC, CB&Q, Northern Pacific that I know of.

[Anonymous]

Radius varies so be extra careful when selecting HO cars. The lateral truck swing varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.
The Budd cars require 24" where as the Athearns, Rivs will run on 18"

[CNJ831]

You need to look at a better cross section of prototype examples. In general, older, full-length "heavyweight" passenger cars rode on 6-wheel trucks. With the advent of "lightweight" cars in the late 1930's most cars came equipped with 4-wheel trucks...all that was necessary to distribute their weight effectively. Virtually all modern passenger equipment rides on 4-wheel trucks. Thus, wheels-per-truck on a given model is based on the prototype, not the manufacturer's whim.

John

[dknelson]

I am not aware of any Amtrak equipment with 6 wheel trucks. There were some streamlined cars with 6 wheel trucks -- such as the very heaviest dome cars. Some standard cars were converted to look streamlined and retained their six wheel trucks. Also some old standard cars had four wheel trucks, such as many commuter coaches.
I suspect most model cars have the correct number of wheels