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Okay, I found a link via old issues of Railway Age website regarding the ABC-NACO tri-axle truck: http://railwayage.com/may99/ridequality.html The three axle offering from ABC-NACO was called the "TA2000 tri-axle" which was based on the Unitruck components of the Axle Motion truck. If I read it correctly, ABC-NACO was basing it's future offerings on the Unitruck single axle component, simply doubling or tripling the Unitrucks for two and three axle offerings, respectively. Makes sense from the standpoint of manufacturing standardization, and the Unitruck bogey had independent suspension on each axle, so ride quality and rail/wheel interaction would have been much improved over the simpler three piece two axle designs, regardless of the number of axles in the truck. And from the picture in the article, it does look as if the TA2000 had a longer overall wheelbase than comparative two axle designs, but with the independent suspension and radial steering the rail/wheel interaction is still improved over rigid three piece two axle contemporaries. What isn't clear from the article (nor from inspecting the picture) is what if any tare weight increases would be involved. Overall tare increase yes, but relative tare to lading increase? Doesn't seem so. Too bad ABC-NACO went under, because it seems they had the pulse of the future. Did the US railroad industry's reluctance to implement the advanced Unitruck design play a role in ABC-NACO's eventual bancruptcy?
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