Could you please recommend a good quality truck and wheel set for 40-50’ freight cars used during the 1950s?
I just finished my first layout and found out why certain freight cars were so inexpensive like $5 or less. Cheap plastic truck and wheel sets which can’t track not to mention the couplers…
After reading up on “how to” inspect and adjust to NMRA standards and than doing it I found the more expensive cars (Atlas) have high quality truck and wheel sets that perform well and needed minor adjustments. The cheap cars look ok from a distance but that is as far as it goes. I figure they need to be retired to a box untill upgraded.
I have been looking online at Kadee, Atlas and others but could use some help selecting a good one. Or do you think the cheap cars should be kept in a box or on static display?
The Bettendorf-style truck was used from the 1930’s until restricted from interchange in 1993. It features a friction style journal. Until I moved to the modern era three or four layouts ago, I used the Kadee version, although today I’d probably try something that’s available with metal wheels.
There are lots of quality trucks on the market for the 1940-1950 time period.
Accurail makes some of the nicest on the market, and sells them in bulk packs without wheelsets (Life-Like metal wheelsets fit perfectly). They make Andrews and “Bettendorf” trucks that are appropriate for the era.
Life-Like makes several styles of period-correct trucks, which come with their own line of metal wheels.
Walthers makes several styles of appropriate trucks, with either metal or plastic wheelsets. But the ones witht he plastic wheels, throw away the wheels, and add Life-Like.
ECW makes dozens of freight trucks, as metal sideframes with isolated metal wheelsets. They’re more expensive than the others above, but come in styles you can’t otherwise get.
BCW also makes several appropriate trucks. But they’re kits, and difficult to keep square.
Ticky makes several excellent trucks. Just be sure to NOT get the multipiece equalized trucks, since they like to fall apart.
Kadee makes several appropriate trucks. Their wheels aren’t the best though (IMO), and (IMO) sprung and equalized trucks aren’t worth the expense and effort in HO scale.
You should try getting a few metal wheelsets (Intermountain makes them, among others) and just replace the wheels rather than the whole truck. If that gives you satisfactory performance, then you can save some money by replacing just the wheels rather than the whole assembly. I’ve been doing that with all manner of junk cars, and most of the old trucks work OK. When you replace the truck, you also might have the problem that the new truck won’t match the fitting on the car.
I did buy a conical tip for my Dremel to gouge out the bearings on the trucks. Some of the ones I have actually used cylindrical bearings rather than cones. Yuck!
Ok, now that you have a pretty good idea of what brands of trucks are good, thanks to the excellent advice of those on that forum, I’d like to offer a web site that will help you with the style of trucks that are correct for your application. Just click on any of the links on this page and it will give you a picture and description.
I replaced the plastic wheels with metal. First, I used Kadee, the switched over to Atlas. You can buy shiney or blackened. They stay cleaner longer. Try a few, it can improve the appearance and performance.