Anybody know where I can get some? And before you jump in and answer, I’ve tried the ones at PSC, and they don’t work as a replacement for coil springs, because the holes in the ends of the springs don’t line up vertically.
TIA, guys!
I’m wondering why you’d want them. The PSC springs will fit just fine into Kadee sprung trucks, but they’re way too stiff to actual function like a spring, unless your caboose weighs 8 or 10lbs. [:P][;)]
I’ve also found that by the time the leaf springs have been manipulated into place, much of their springiness has been lost, and I end-up adding the original coil springs to hold them in place.
Here’s an example:
Trueline and Tahoe both offer good-looking caboose trucks (with solid leaf springs) which perform well.
Tahoe:
Trueline:
Wayne
I have a package of so-called working leaf springs, actually just a v shaped piece of copper with some detail pressed into it. The product was sold either by Bowser or Walthers – it might have been intended for the tender trucks on the old Bowser/Penn Line steam engine kits. I bought a package and installed them as replacements for the sprung trucks on one caboose. The caboose neither looked nor ran better as a consequence.
Frankly you could probably fabricate something just as good from shim copper or brass or even tin can stock with a little work.
Then, someone, possibly Eastern Car Works, offered a solid gray plastic casting that was also a drop in replacement and it looked much better. It did not however drop in to just any old truck.
But they seem to have disappeared. They had many interesting caboose detail parts in their line. A pity.
Dave Nelson
Silver Streak offered working sprung trucks but for them to accually work you needed to add a lot of weight. Same is true for most of the sprung trucks out there.
You don’t need the caboose trucks to be actually “sprung”. There are no little people in there that will complain about the bumpy ride. But “equalized” could be useful.
“Equalized” means that the sideframes can twist a bit to allow all four wheels to stay on the rails if the track isn’t totally flat.
So, I would say the springing would be useful if you can put a teeny blade under one wheel and lift it off the track without also lifting the other wheel in that same sideframe.
From what I see, non-sprung trucks look more prototypical than sprung. The real springs are made from MUCH thicker wire (in scale) than what is used in our sprung trucks. You can’t see through a stack of real coil springs in a real truck. You can in an HO truck. That observation doesn’t hold with leaf springs, though. But the model leaf springs I’ve seen aren’t nearly as nice looking as the cast-on ones I’ve seen.
Someone out there likely has track laid so poorly that they have to have working springs in their trucks to avoid derailments. I’ve got to ask if they also have working springs in the trucks of their locomotives. Generally, a derailment on a layout means the track should be fixed, not that the trucks should be changed. Generally.
Ed
Yeah, guys. I’ve used about every kind of truck ever made, in the 60 years I’ve been scale model railroading. And I know about the appearance factor. But, I like sprung trucks - and they’re the standard on the FHN. Yeah, I know I’d need really heavy cars for the springs to actually work, but I’ve found that the full equalization with improved tracking outweighs the appearance issues. Oh, and I really would like to have some for the tenders of my 63 locomotives… So, anybody who wants to get rid of their old leaf springs, contact me off-forum.
BTW, “need” has nothing to do with it.
Of course that has nothing to do with this hobby, either, for that matter… [swg]
gmcrail,
I hear you. Ever since I was a 13 year old kid back in 1975, always fantasized having enough $ to buy Kadee trucks to fit my entire fleet of cars. That “need” (no pun intended [:D]) has stayed with me today. My entire fleet of cars ride on sprung Kadees. I am mesmerized by the action of sprung trucks gliding on the undulations of my handlaid track.
I also replace the factory springs that are too stiff in my fleet of brass C&O steam with NWSL “Wimpy” springs. Love the way drivers follow any vertical deflections!
I am a stickler for many details on my C&O, BUT do not mind any loss when it comes to sprung trucks. For me, like you, gotta have them running my rails because I “need” them. [;)]
Joel
Kadee sells an arch bar caboose truck which has the leaf springs (maybe simulated?). They describe the truck as highly flexible, fully equalized. http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/page583.htm
Interesting, but, they’re arch bar. In 1953 (the cutoff date for the FHN), the ICC had alreaady banned them from interstate commerce.
But cabooses are not interchanged (usually) - so it was OK to still have archbar trucks under a caboose, and/or any MoW equipment or anything else in captive service that wasn’t interchanged.
–Randy