I’m looking for a good quality 6 wheel passenger truck to upgrade my Branchline heavyweight coaches. The trucks that come with the coach kit look good, but I would like something that rolls smoother and more freely. Years ago Central Valley had a line of good trucks, but their web site doesn’t show them now. Same for NWSL. Anybody have an idea[?]
The Branchline trucks roll much more freely if you replace their wheels with ReBoxx 36" wheelsets with 0.99" axles.
I’ve done that to two coaches so far and the difference is very significant.
tpatrick:
CV trucks are mostly gone, about the only place to find them is on E-bay, and then you’ll pay a real premium for them. After George Hook’s death in the late '70s (I may be wrong on the date), the family sold all the dies to another company, as well as the name to even another company. The truck dies were crated and loaded onto a truck, which had an accident on the way to the new owners. All of the dies were severely damaged and rendered unusable. They have since been destroyed.
A good substitute for CV passenger trucks are, believe it or not, the super rollers from IHC. These ARE NOT the plastic trucks and POS wheels that come underneath their passenger cars. These are metal framed, sprung and equalised with VERY free rolling RP-25 wheels. MSRP on a pair of these trucks are between $24-26 US. They come in two styles, 6-wheel for HW and 4-wheel (commonwealth?) for streamliners. They are the only truck on the market built very similar to the old CV’s , have a real heft to them, and I was very surprised by their quality and rolling characteristics.
Funny you should mention sprung passenger car trucks. I’ve given up hope in finding any. Thus I wasn’t running passenger trains since they jump like flees compared to my Kadee equipped freight cars.
IHC doesn’t mention anywhere that trucks are sprung. Perhaps you own some and can give me some more details and/or post some pics ?
That post of yours may very well have changed the way my hobby will go from now on [:)]
So THAT’S what happened to CENTRAL VALLEY trucks!! [:O][:(] I have been wondering for several years.
Precision Scale Models of Montana also has quality trucks and wheelsets, though I have never tested them. I would say - ream out the trucks, and replace the wheelsets with Kadee, or similar as indicated above.
I personally don’t own any at present as I bought 12 pair of CV’s back in mid '70s. However, the gentleman I work part time with has many pair. I’ll see if he’ll let me take some pics and post them. They really are worth getting.
All;
Go here http://www.internettrains.com/ihchosc6patr.html
These are the silver 6-wheel trucks, they also come in black.
I heard a rumor that Branchline has upgraded their wheels on more recently produced passenger car kits. I’d try to get them to swap the ones you have for their newer, supposedly improved wheels. . .
The trucks for the Branchline Pullmans roll quite well.
Yesterday I talked to Bill at Branchline. He told that indeed the newer kits have upgraded trucks. Mine is an older kit which sat on the bench until now when I got around to building it. He suggested replacing the wheels with Branchline (naturally) wheel sets, saying they should improve the rolling qualities without breaking my bank. Incidentally I broke one of the trucks during construction and they are sending me a new one - gratis. You can’t beat that kind of customer service. Thanks to Branchline.
cjcrescent, thanks for the lead on the IHC trucks. They’re a little pricey for me but they look like a top quality item.
I have a old set of unused Central Valley 6 wheel passenger trucks. I don’t have the snap in kinkpins. Anybody have ideas on how to mount these trucks and what passenger cars would they go with?
I am looking for 4 wheel trucks for a set of old Con-Cor stainless steel lightweights. The ones it came with roll terribly and have truck mounted couplers that are way too long for close coupling. Carl Lewis couldn’t go from on car to the other on this train.
Any recommendations?