Man i haven’t posted on here in a long time, but I just bought a crap load of rolling stock from a buddy of mine, and all of his cars have actual springs on the trucks…real metal springs.i think these were made throughout the 60’s and 70’s and some of the 80’s… i think these give a real amount of realism to my railroad, does anybody else have these still?
I believe what you have there if it’s HO scale is KADEE trucks, they’re the only ones i know of that have real springs in the trucks…personally i don’t like them because the truck gets too springy when it goes thru turnouts and make the cars wobble and you can loose a spring never to find it again…chuck
I also bought a big lot of stuff from a neighbor and most had these trucks. I had the same experience: While I’m usually in favor of metal construction of about anything, and the actual springs were definitely a “cool” feature, operationally they were terrible and I ended up replacing them all.
I too have some of them on older stock, I reall have no problem with them, but I have been changing trucks on all my stock lately to Atlas trucks.
I have one car fitted with these. They look ok and don’t seem to pose a problem, but I’m not rushing to replace all the others. The problem to my mind is that a HO scale car doesn’t really weigh enough to make the springs work as per prototype. The car I have with them is a double stack that runs empty so it may be a problem with lack of weight, but adding a solder reel as a test load didn’t seem to make much difference. The drop if they were compressed would also be enough to have your Kadee trip pins whack the uncoupler ramps or anything else between the rails!
I have some Walthers freight cars that came with sprung trucks. I find that they do not run as smoothly and are more likely to jump the tracks.
Are these Freight Cars Athearn? They made plastic freight cars with the spring trucks from the late 1950’s to about 1966. These cars came in kits, RTR, and were also included in train sets. You can view pictures of these car kits and train sets at the link below.
http://hoseeker.net/swapgallery/athearnkits19601966
http://hoseeker.net/swapgallery/athearntrainsets
Larry
http://www.hoseeker.net/
MOST old trucks came with springs.It was looks, not function. Then ATLAS and KATO marketed trucks W.O. springs, that rolled exceptionally well, and stayed on the thrack.
At NMRA recommended car weights, springs do not enter the ‘better tracking’ equation, as they do in the Prototype, So their benifit is largely ‘looks’. At one time, pre- Athearn model cars were made of metal (anyone remember ULRICH?), and some modelers actually had cars that could depress metal springs. That provided a theoretical - if not phsycological - benefit. Adding weight provides downward thrust (Trackability), but at the expense of pulling fewer cars and added-expense of more powerfull motors. Anyone still have a HOBBYTOWN drive with a DC-91 2.5amp. motor?
THE WORLD IS A PLACE OF ‘TRADE-OFFS’.
Once upon a time, all of the better-quality HO trucks had real metal springs. They also had square-end axles and cast zamac bolsters and side frames. I recall unpacking a small box that allegedly contained Varney trucks. I had packed it some years earlier, before the first of my several overseas tours of duty. Imagine my disgust to find it full of loose wheel sets, springs and crumbs of crumbled zamac.
Today, most plastic-framed trucks are just a leetle bit flexible, so the springs aren’t needed for equalization.
Compare the puny wire in the springs of model trucks with the beefy coils of prototype springs if you’d like a good laugh.
Those real springs do look very realistic. In fact I have a Overland Brass engine and it has real springs on the trucks too. The one thing I do not like with the boxcars trucks is the wheels fall out pretty easy.
Some of my brass passenger cars have sprung trucks (41 CDO, outside swing hanger type). Because of the weight of the cars, the trucks actually “work”. They take rough track very well. The only problem is that if you get a short across the carbody, it can cook the springs like a fuse. I have noticed that the springs in the Overland passenger trucks are entirely to rigid to be effective.
The springs in trucks are so stiff that the trucks are effectively solid units.
I remember my first Athearn kit – before metal springs they had a rubber block that was shaped like a B, the bumps were supposed to be springs. They were impossible to install and didn’t do much if you could install them.
I have a few old Varney cars with springs. They roll OK, but they’re too wide and can’t hold Intermountain wheel sets.[:(]
It’s kind of funny to read all the comments about how bad sprung trucks are, how they jump the track, etc. My experience is just the opposite.
Makes me wonder if the problem is the trucks or the trackwork itself.
I use sprung trucks exclusively (mostly Kadee, but there are a few Old Pullmans in there, too), and they stick to my rails like glue (maybe I’m the one with questionable trackwork? Then again, my steamers NEVER derail, so it can’t be all that bad).
Although the cars are WAY too light to compress the springs, the sideframes will twist a bit relative to, and independent of, each other, allowing the wheels to follow any irregularities in the track. A rigid-sideframe truck does not do that - as the wheels roll over track irregularities (like frogs, etc.) you get the short table leg syndrome. Sprung truck sideframes move enough to prevent a lot of that.
Then again, I’ve had little experience with metal wheelsets in rigid trucks. I had the plastic wheel rigid trucks (Athearn) when I decided to try sprung trucks with metal wheels. The sprung trucks tracked so much better that I changed everything over and never looked back.
Now, with the exception of three old Roundhouse ore jennies and one very old Varney gondola whose trucks I’ve never replaced (which cars make up my work train, one jenny carrying spikes, another track nails, and the third picking up the ties I cut off the ends of the flextrack to allow the rail joiner to be installed. The gondola carries the rail joiners), no freight car hits my rails until it has sprung trucks.
I have some Varneys with them and some KD’s and some sprung plastic ones. They all run equally bad. They look good sitting on a spare parts track though.