I was watching one of the Working on The Railroads and they built an Athearn BB car kit. One of things they did was file a chamfer to one of the bolsters before mounting the truck. They did this to only one side and it was supposed to have improved handling.
Has anyone ever done this? What is the theory behind this? Why only one side? I have about 20 kits that I am getting ready to build and was just wondering about it.
Thanks in advance and Happy New Year
ratled
The only reasoning for doing this would be to allow that truck to rock as the other only swiveled. This can easily be done by tightening the truck screws so that it accomplishes the same thing. This is the "3 point " suspension to help stop derailments as one truck will rock and follow track irregularities but the truck that only swivels stops any body rocking and wobbling.
I’ve seen something like that done to give the car a more realistic rocking motion too. Some company makes pads that go on the bolster to accomplish this. One goes width wise and the other length wise. My Accurail kits had these molded on already.
Its part of the good ol 3-point suspension. You have to file the bolster down on Athearn and similar kits to allow you to tighten the screw so the truc won’t rock, but only swivel. Done it many times.
I put my rolling stock on the three point. I tighten one truck to just enough so that it will swivel but have no rock. The other truck gets tightened to the same then loosened 1/3 turn or so that it will rock but not exceeding flange depth.