I did a search on this subject and found plenty of pros and cons, but not what I was looking for. The situation is this: I picked up several sets of CV 6-wheel heavyweight passenger trucks at a swap sale for a buck a set. They came in a plastic bag with no documentation. The trucks look very prototypical, the wheels are sprung and the axels are insulated. In the middle of the top of the truck there’s a small metal stud with what appears to be a very tiny hex nut attached to it. Underneath that is a brass washer. The kits also came with metal bolsters which, after talking to a rep at Kadee, apparently were made for CV by Kadee. I guess I’m more curious than anything about what I’ve got although I wouldn’t mind using them if I had any kind of documentation. Does anyone have any ideas?
A buck a set? You got a screaming bargain. IIRC, these were designed to use a “snap” mounting kind of like the snaps on a jacket. It’s been quite a while, so forgive me for being a bit vague. They looked something like this, but were smaller. http://thesnapstore.com/catalog/popup_image.php/pID/992
OTOH, I’m getting old and the memory may be faulty, but I do remember CV trucks being advertised with a “snap on” bolster.
Goat: First off, congrats, not only have you scored on some of the best trucks ever manufactured for HO, but you got them at an incredible price!
What you are describing is CV’s snap on king pins, a quick detachable truck mount. They made these both for their 4 and 6 wheel trucks. The part attached to the truck is the kingpin. The zamac casting is the bolster that mounts to the car. The snap contained in the bolster is a dressmaker’s snap, which you can easily replace…it’s a standard size stocked by fabric stores. There should also be a small washer which goes between the snap and the car floor. This was to keep things at correct height. This once again is a standard size and a bit of experimentation at the hardware store will supply these if missing. The bolster was attached to the car with small wood screws.
The snap on bolsters worked very well, and were one of the best mounting plans designed for six wheel trucks. You simply press the kingpin into the snap and the truck is attached. To release, gently pull until the snap releases and you can easily clean and lube the truck.
Thanks a ton, guys. This is exactly the kind of info I’ve been looking for. What you’ve described is exactly what came in the package. Now I’ve got a starting point and I’ll go from there. BTW I found more of these on eBay. Some guy has 2 sets for $18 + s&h. Thanks again.
Get some experience running Central Valley trucks before you collect too many. They were state of the art decades ago but do not track or roll as well as acetyl sideframes with acetyl axles. Which is probably why I haven’t seen them advertised in quite a long time.
The sprung and equalized feature seemed like a good idea until you freed up the assembly and replaced the factory springs with ones that would actually be partly compressed under a car. When free enough to work like the prototype, the equilazation also allowed the sideframes to be out of parallel, not noticable from the side but enough that the axles were no longer running on needle bearings thus creating more drag to ad to that created by the metal on metal bearings.
All my Central Valley trucks were replaced with slippery plastic in the 1990s.
CENTRAL VALLEY 6 wheel trucks were early metal wheeled metal trucks, and at one time were the #1 ‘cats behind’ passenger truck at a time when 90% of passenger cars were ‘heavyweights’.
Today’s metal trucks look better (Walthers) and roll much better (IHC)(D&G) D&G makes the unique 4 wheeledPullman truck for SP ‘Daylight’ and UP that out-rolls them all.(Secret - Delrin inserts.
Today’s Walthers trucks with metal axles into metal sideframes are medium rollers, but either Teflon grease (or graphite) applied in the jounals removes friction. Graphite ensures good electrical contact for Walthers’ Passenger Lighting assemblies.
Hate to disagree. IMHO CV trucks were the best freight/passenger trucks on the market. I have a 12 car passenger train, all equipped with CV’s pulled by a heavy pacific. The cars roll so well that on a friends layout with a .5% grade, the locomotive lost a knuckle spring (KD#5), and the cars finally stopped rolling 120’ away, (the grade was only about 1/2 that long). I haven’t seen a comparable truck roll as well, including the IHC, or Walthers.
The truck design had those “stiffer” springs in them for a reason. These springs gave just enough equalization to make them track well without being too stiff. Physics doesn’t transfer well from full size to model size at times. Trying to have a spring, or in this case, multiple springs, in a truck to be “free enough to work like the prototype”, given the light weight, relatively, of the cars is to provide a spring that is so weak the truck integrity is compromised.
The reason you don’t see them on the market anymore is George Hook the owner
Carey: DITTO! George Hook was a fine gentleman and wonderful modeler. All those who knew or had dealings with him, miss him alot.
Meanwhile, all you guys who want to get rid of those nasty old CV trucks, please send them to me and I will see to it that an unsuspecting world is kept safe from them.
IMHO the Cv line of trucks was the only equalized truck that worked as it was supposed to. The secret was that the tension of the springs was just right. And you didn’t need “heavyweight” cars to make them operate. My passenger trucks were on (and still are) Labelle’s wooden coaches, which are not heavyweights by any definition.
Goat, if you’re still reading, a couple of points that I should have added to my earlier screed.:
Only the female part of the dress snap is used. The kingpin takes the place of the male half of the dress snap.
During the sixities, George bought a batch of bad snaps. He replaced these, and advised readers of the model mags what the problem was. If you run into problems getting the trucks to snap into place, you either have encountered one of these, or have a snap otherwise damaged. The cure is to replace.
In some of the very last production runs, after CV was sold, a plastic snap was substituted for the metal one. These don’t work worth a darn either, and shold be replaced with the metal snap.
I’ve probably have some CV instruction sheets from the car kits stowed away in my junk. They cover the assembly and operation of the kingpins. If you think they would be useful, email me, and I’ll get one to you.
I treasure my CV trucks. One of my first layouts was modular, and the track joint over the module joint was off vertically by half the rail height on one rail. The CV trucks rode right over, everything else derailed until I fixed it…
Even though I am now in S, I keep them because I plan to have a small display layout in HO after I retire.
