Hi. All the HO passenger offerings (Lightweight Smoothside) have 4 wheel trucks (2 axle). Well I was looking through a very old model railroader and saw a picture of a prototype Nashville Chatanooga & St. Louis lightweight smooth side Passenger car with 6 wheel trucks??? (3 axle)
I only saw this once before on lt. wt. passenger cars w/ a circus train
I have been unable to find a mfg. offering such. Changing trucks out offers challenges of it’s own…i.e. recentering the truck, swing angle…etc
Anyways, anybody know of a mfg making such ans/or any suggestions on swapping 2 axle trucks for 3 axle.
Well, first are you sure the car was truly a lightweight?? Pullman - Standard built some heavyweight “semi-streamlined” coaches in the late thirties which had the low flat roof (and reclining seats)of streamlined cars, but had six wheel trucks and were really heavyweights. GN had some for the Empire Builder. Later, many railroads converted heavyweight cars to look externally like streamlined cars, but they still rode (for the most part anyway?) on their original trucks.
Do you have a link to a pic of the car you’re asking about??
Hi and thanks for responding. I considered that (converted hvwt) as a possibility. I do not have a link to the pic but when I get home tonight I can let you know the issue Mo/Yr.
Any ideas on kitbashing one of those?
lt wt car body on heavy wt floor? I may experiment with the trucks and see what happens.
Yes, just no skirting. Trucks just like the next to last pic (Observation car) and body like the one pulled by the geep (3rd from last)… I’l try to scan / post the one I have tomorrow.
It depends which brand of car is going to be used for the base starting point. There is one company that makes bolster offsets for the Rivarossi/AHM/IHC passenger cars. They are usually used to correct the location for center-pivot trucks, but there is no reason they couldn’t be used for the opposite. Actually the original offset truck pivot point on those cars might be perfect for a center mount 3-axle truck.
If you get a chance, check out commercial videotapes of N&W 611 excursions. The round end observation car is an ex-IC City Of New Orleans coach observation rebuilt w/ the original 6 wheel trucks. IC did a bunch of these at the end of and shortly after WWII and they lasted quite a while, particularly diners.
Judging by the louvers on the end with the 6 wheel trucks, I’d say they use the 6 wheelers to help carry the steam generator/? on that end of the car.[8D]
Actually, the IC did this mostly with coaches. The IC was very image conscious about their streamlined passenger trains, and did a great job keeping up with making sure that EVERYTHING matched. They were so obsessive that they regularly leased dome cars for a few months a year. They’d repaint them before they went on trains, and repaint them BACK to their original colors before handing them back to the parent road. They’d do this EVERY YEAR.
Anyway, the IC was also “frugal”. Instead of buying a large fleet of all streamlined coaches, they rebuilt a large number of them into “faux streamliners”, by changing their sides, roofs and interiors. But the frames and three axle trucks remained, which was an easy way of spotting the older cars. Besides the trucks, you couldn’t tell the cars from brand new P-S coaches.
Thanks, I looked at some IHC cars I inherrited (if I mess it up I can model a wreck [:D] )that I was saving for just such a project. I turned it upside down last night and noticed the off set. Thanks everyone for your responses.
There were a few other examples of “lightweight” passengers with 6 wheel trucks. One I know well was on the New Haven, where their 1949 PS-built diners and grill cars both had them.
I put the workd “lightweight” in quotes because when a car got heavy enough to require 6-wheel trucks, however modern a design it was, the whole question of whether it was legitimately a “lightweight” becomes debatable!
About 1 1/2 of 2 years ago Model Railroader — sorry, but I forget what exact issue(s) — had an article, maybe a couple of articles, on passenger car trucks, and the technical information in there may answer your question further.
Hey everyone. Thanks loads for all your really good information. Stix, you were right. I dug around on the internet till I fouond it. The original picture I saw appeared in MD Dec. 2000 page 87.
Some interesting info (no pics) I found was it rebuilt, was referred to as a “Stremlined Heavyweight”.
See below:
56-Seat Modernized HW Coach – ex-L&N mod HW coach #2589, ex-NC&StL mod HW
coach #1100 (City of Memphis), ex-NC&StL std coach #731, ex-Pullman parlor
“Loudonville”; currently at Great Smoky Mountain RR
This car was a conversion of a heavyweight car done by the NC&StL West Nashville shops. It was used for segregation purposes. It had 34 coach seats, 10 lounge seats and 8 table seats. (note: this text is from the following link: http://unionstationproducts.com/_1100_7.html
Text:
NC&StL coach 1100 at New Orleans, LA, 1961; Charles K. Marsh; MR Dec 00 pg 87
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indexed publication/magazines/model/general/Model Railroader (MR) issue/2000 Dec - - (CRM Train 10 Track 3) location/United States of America (USA) prototype/ (category) images, pictures, photos, photographs/black and white, b&w company name/Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis (NC&StL) (Dixie Line) rollingstock, rolling-stock/passenger, express/chair cars, coaches road number/1100 location/New Orleans location/Louisiana (LA) …state date/1961 (year) contributor/Marsh, Charles K. images, pictures, photos, photographs/side
