Freight car trucks: How much should they wobble?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi, When attaching trucks to freight cars, they can be screwed more or less tightly.

For reliable performance, how tight should they be?

Obviously they should turn freely, but I suppose they should have a bit of play, sideways and lengthwise, so that they could equalize irregularities in the track.

Is it important that the surfaces around the screw on which the carbody rests are perfectly flat?

Any guidelines? Advice?

sverk

2

I tighten mine till the screw is tight and I then back the screw of 1- 1 1/2 turns until it swivels freely but,still tight.

Yes the area should be flat.

3

I screw mine in till I can rock it side to side about .030 or roughly 1/2 the thickness of a penny. It’s not much. They should be snug but loose enough that you can rock them side to side. They also need to turn freely. That way your cars will not rock and will also track thru curves nice.

4

to all

Plus I like to make one almost tight (swivel but no rock) and the other half a turn looser.

Karl

5

One truck I tighten just loose enough to swivel readily. The truck at the other end I allow to have some wobble. This way the car has “flexibility” to travel over variations in the track but not enough so the car wobbles or leans.

Mark

6

I do exactly what Mark does. It’s worked for me for the past 40 years or so. Makes for good tracking, on even less than ‘bulletproof’ trackwork.–if there actually is such a thing. [:-^]

(Okay, Mark, don’t get a swelled head, LOL! [:P])

Seriously, it really works. It seems to offer some kind of ‘triangular’ stability for the cars with no wobble and very stable tracking.

Tom [:D]

7

I tighen the trucks then back the screw off until the truck can swivel a bit side to side and back and forth. If the car still wobbles too much, i’ll glue in some weights to counter balance the car.

I use old used 1 ounce weights that you can get out of the old part bins for free from a tire shop. The flat type that the tire shops use that have the sticky side work great. I’ll just ask the tire technician for any used weights and the’ll usually give you a hand full of them. I’ll take them home and clean them up and glue them into the car after I find the spot to place them where as the car doesn’t wobble anymore.

Another thing i’ve found that helps lessen car wobble is getting rid of any plastic wheel sets and use metal wheel sets.

chuck

8

One more vote for one snugged up (swivel, no rock) and one slacked off (able to rock.) That gives the ‘three-legged stool,’ geometry that tracks best.

For articulated carbodies (2 carbodies, 3 trucks) the center truck is the one that’s left able to rock, while the other two are snugged up. I don’t have any multi-platform container carriers, so I’m just assuming that you’d want a rocking truck at one end of each platform.

My search for bulletproof trackwork isn’t driven by bogie stock. It’s a reaction to running long wheelbase, totally rigid four wheel wagons. If a string of ToMu45000 drop-side gons can run through the newly laid puzzle palace, ANYTHING will be able to run through it.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

9

I’ve operated on several layouts where track (and rolling stock) was bulletproof, meaning there were no derailments except for operator error. Rick Fortrin’s layout was was my latest such experience.

Mark

10

Hi, and thanks to y’all for the several good advice.

One truck rather tight and the other a bit looser makes sense, rings an old bell (I’m recently back to model railroading after being away for about twenty years).

What other things might there be to be done to make cars run well?

Have there been any articles in MR about car tuneup? There’s a gap on my shelf for MR back issues from 1988 through 2008, so if it’s in there, how could I get a copy?

sverk

11

Metal wheels have been mentioned, I use InterMountain for most of my equipment however, Reboxx, Proto 2000 and Kadee are all good enough.

I also use one of the Reamer Tools that Micro Mark & Reboxx sell, that gets the wheels rolling freely every time.

Finally I have Labelle oils to use on the occasional squeaky wheel or tight bolster.

While not truck related per se, I also recommend using a Kadee coupler height guage to avoid performance issues with couplers & trip pins.

Have fun and welcome back home to the hobby!

Mark Gosdin

12

On some cars the truck centering boss on the bolster may be too long, not allowing the screw to tighten enough. You can file the boss a little shorter to correct this, but don’t do so until you have the couplers adjusted for proper elevation.