Nystrom trucks

[natelord]

The Milwaukee Road used Nystrom trucks, designed by one of its own people, under passenger cars run at speeds over 100 m.p.h. on bolted rail; by most accounts the cars with such trucks rode very well.
Was there any special or unique feature to the Nystrom trucks that made them give a smooth ride on bolted rail--especially at speed? Were the trucks difficult to maintain? Did any other railroads try them out?

[dknelson]

K.F. Nystrom was engineer of car design, and then chief mechanical officer, for the Milwaukee Rd for many years. I suspect no one truck is "the" Nystrom truck and it is probable that all of the trucks used on all versions of the Hiawatha were his design.
According to Jim Scribbins's book The Hiawatha Story, Nystrom was perhaps the outstanding authority on trucks west of the Atlantic Ocean. His trucks had a distinctive look unlike any other.
In discussing the 1939 version of the train, Scribbins refers to exclusively coil spring suspension, in conjunction with hydraulic shock absorbers and sideways stabilizing devices. There were dozens of rubber mountings in the trucks as well as in the couplings and buffer plates. This virtually eliminated vibration and noise; walls floors and ceilings were also treated with a special plastic sound deadener.
Dave Nelson

[passengerfan]

Only problem I ever heard about regarding the Nystrom trucks was difficult to work on but easy to service if that makes sense.

[samfp1943]

Can anyone put up a picture of a Nystrom Truck, or link to web picture? No idea what they would look like and to my knowledge I have never seen a photo of one.
Thanks, Sam

[jimrice4449]

No pix but they look pretty much like the regular GSC truck of the time except they were (originally) 7 ft wheelbase instead of the "normal"8. I rode the Afternoon Hiawatha behind an F-7 Hudson around 1945 or so and we broke 100MPH 2 or 3 times (timed w/ a wrist watch second hand and mile posts). There was a lot of lateral motion in the observation car. I don't know about the cars forward w/ adjacent cars tending to dampen the swaying.

[dknelson]

Try this for a photo

http://www.coffeecreek.info/restoration/trucks.html

http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/OmrPkgDetImages.aspx?Mnu=MnuCoach&PkgId=Milw_Coach_639

http://www.railwayclassics.com/parts.htm

Dave Nelson