I have some gondolas and a couple of coal cars that are dire need of new trucks. My question is what is the difference between Die-Cast Metal Sprung Trucks 6-14078 and Die-Cast Metal Sprung Trucks with Rotating Bearings 6-14251. (besides the obvious, bearings) The one with the bearings looks heavier and I could not see if there was a button to release the coupler?
Any help is appreciated, thanks!
-Scott
I didn’t check the Lionel site but more than likely the later one that you reference is somewhat more expensive than the other. Most of the newer trucks have a hidden tab on the side of the coupler. Unless you really like the style of the roller bearings, mite look outta place unless you are running the scale stuff, I would go with the older style.
Here is a pic of both of them.
The cost difference is only like $0.50 or $1.00 I forget, it was not that much of a difference.
Scott, really it’s a matter of personal taste. Consider too, that when the trains are running by, chances are you aren’t really going to notice the trucks as much as you think. What you do notice is how well they track, and operate.
You don’t say what kinds of trucks are currently on the cars you have. I’ve gained a lot of respect for the quality of the postwar Lionel staple construction truck. I’ve taken some real rusted up beaters, cleaned them up and am amazed at how well they STILL work.
Much of the trouble with nearly all Lionel trucks (and others) is the manner is which they are attached to the car body - usually by either a metal rivet (plastic snap-rivet on the cheaper MPC-era cars), a screw or a metal stub with a “C” clip. The trucks as they come tend to have wobble in them: grab the coupler and move the coupler up and down and you can see the truck move. Back when people ran short 3-5 car trains it wasn’t such a big deal. But when backing up a longer train, the loose rivets can and will cause derailments on tight curves and switches.
You might want to try cleaning and lubing your trucks (if they are older postwar types) and if they are more modern, try drilling out the rivet and replacing it with a truss screw and a lock nut. You can get blackened screws for gons and flat cars. You turn the screw all the way tight, and then loosen it up just enough so the truck turns to and fro freely.
Scott, I personally am not fond of the look of the Symington type truck used by Lionel MPC and into the early years of Lionel LTI, and also by MDK K-Line on their plastic truck type cars. But I find when I’m running trains, I don’t notice it that much.
I have a load of Lionel Scout trucks which I recently figured I could alter the coupler, and grind it down to make it compatable with all my other cars. I kind of like the look of that truck for reefers and refrigerator cars. And a cost effective move since I already had them, and they were
Hi brianel and thanks for the response.
I am not sure what trucks I have that I am thinking about replacing. I have added pictures of a couple of them and maybe you could look at them and tell by the pic which ones they are. I am still learning about this hobby and anything I could learn is helpful.
I know this might sound stupid but how does one go about cleaning the trucks? A couple of these seem that they would just need to be cleaned, the wheels run pretty smooth but there are a couple that do not and those are the ones that I really would like to replace.
[quote user=“brianel027”]
You might also want to consider the die-cast trucks used on the K-Line Train-19 cars if you ca
Although both die cast truck sets are very nice there are some big differences between the two. The older stlye with the journal boxes will attach directly to most post war, MPC, and LLC cars with no modification. The newer roller bearing style mount differently and may require some modification of the body bolster. The biggest difference between the two is the length of the coupler arm. The new trucks arms are about 1/4" to 3/8" longer than the old style. This is perfect for modern cars like the 50’ box cars, but would not look right on older cars such as the 6464 series box cars. I’ve replaced all the trucks on my few remaining post war cars and on all my plastic trucked MPC/LLC cars and am extremely glad I did. The extra weight and improved rolling characteristics make a hugh difference in operations.
Lehigh, from the photos the top one looks like a coil coupler truck. This type should have a slide shoe (similar to the operating cars like the milk car) and uncouples off the UCS operating track, not the normal UC track.
The trucks on the Lehigh Valley hoppers are the usual postwar Lionel trucks and the one on the tank car is the Scout truck, which Lionel made for their lesser expensive starter sets in order to compete with MARX trains.
There are probably a number of ways to clean these old trucks. On the all metal ones, I remove them from the car body (via removing the C-clip) and spray them with WD-40 and let that soak for a day or two. If the trucks are real bad, I’ll give them a second spray after the first day. Then using a strong cleaner like Fantastic, I spray them and scrub them real good using a variety of brushes. I’ll use a fine metal brush on the wheels. I rinse with scalding hot water, then wash in dish detergent and rinse again. Then I use a blow dryer to get them dry fast so no rust will appear.
Then I use my Dremel with either a fine polishing brush or a polishing wheel, and do the faces of the wheels. If the wheels are still real dirty or rusty after my cleaning, I’ll use a cleaning brush. This will get the wheel surfaces nice and clean. Then I can lube the wheels at the points where they spin on the axles and I’m always impressed with the improvement.
I’ll also note I drill out the rivet which the C-clip goes into and reattach the trucks as I mentioned earlier. No added weight is needed with this alteration and you can virtually almost 100% eliminate derailments when backing up. This also includes plastic trucks. By my method I can run a light short 8 inch car with plastic trucks at the lead of the train, followed by much heavier cars and have no derailments.
Spraying WD-40 on the Scout truck could potential damage the plastic truck sides if left for a couple days. I prefer to remove the wheel sets and clean those separate with the WD-40. I&#
Brianel:
That is a great idea using a truss screw. It makes you wonder why they didn’t manufacture them that way.
Regards,
John
Gopherstate:
Thanks for the posting, it is very helpful.
Thanks for your response! You answered all the questions that I had asked you. All of your postings I have noticed are very informative and helpful. Thanks again, it was a great help.
I think that it is cool that you too like the LV. I too like the snowbird scheme, I saw a beep in that scheme that I was thinking about getting.
Again THANKS!!