Greetings!
I’m quite new to the world of Lionel trains and have a basic question.
I purchased several boxcars over the past month and have noticed that
some have real springs on the wheels and others only have a plastic
casting of springs.
How can I tell if a certain railcar has real or fake springs when I
purchase them online? Is it according to the listing numbers?
Thanks so much.
Tim
Tim,
Welcome to the world of Lionel trains. If you can get a copy of the Lionel catalog for the year that you are interested in, it should tell you if a given car has sprung metal trucks or not. They started that, if I am remembering right, in the late seventies. They offered billboard reefers that had sprung metal trucks along with some near scale boxcars. All of the “standard O” cars built now have them. I have added sprung metal trucks to cars over the years that did not come with them. I beleive the help a car to run better over rough track than the plastic trucks do. They also add some wieght to the car which helps it track better too.
Hope this helps
George
George, thank you so much! This helps greatly. I’ll grab a catalog. Do you have a good source for the sprung metal trucks you added to your cars? Thanks again. Tim
I get the ones for my lionel cars from Charles Ro supply, but any of the firms that advertise in the magazines, or your local hobby shop, can probably help you. If you decide to branch out and buy Weaver or Atlas cars, those companies make sprung metal trucks for their cars also. If I need sprung metal trucks from either of those companies, I just go directly to them. Weaver offers their cars with either plastic or metal trucks. I strongly recommend you go with the sprung metal tracks on Weaver cars even though it costs more. Weaver cars run much much better with sprung metal trucks under them.
George
I have many cars with sprung trucks; and, although their weight may be useful, I have never detected any benefit from the springs themselves. The force needed to move the bolster at all is far beyond the weight of the car and any dynamic forces that I can imagine. Nor do they add any flexibility to the truck. I can lift one wheel, and the whole truck lifts with it, as a unit.
The trucks might as well be made of one rigid casting and the springs put in for looks. But the looks aren’t right, anyway. Real trucks have more and smaller springs which are never shiny.
A well-aimed “Sharpie” will make those shiny springs look more realistic. I picked up a few new Lionel scale cars this year, and the springs in them are blackened. Looks much better.
A car that has trucks with springs will roll better than one without springs,of compairable weight .Try a car with versus one with out on a small desending grade.Give each car a little push,or just let it go.See which one rolls better.One of my standard “O” boxcars rolls much better than two of the smaller 9600 series high cube boxcars do.And I don’t think there is much differance in the weight,to make that big of a differance in the roll out. I don’t know if it was the intention of the manufactor or not,but it is so.But it does make the car more quiet than those with plastic trucks.[:)]