I ran across an ebay item, Kadee self centering caboose trucks.
Why would one need or want this?
It works by having a taper of sorts on the bolster so when you pick the car up and the trucks drop down, they are forced to line up with the car. Just makes it easier for some peopel to put them on the track. I don’t (yet) have any issues putting HO traisn on the track just by graphing the truck sideframes and lining up the wheels, but the few Kadee cars I have are even easier because of the self-centering trucks. If it ever gets difficult, there’s always the Rix Rail-It tool. And if I ever get to the point where even that doesn;t work, I guess it would be time to go to O scale.
–Randy
This one doesn’t want or need it.
But some Kadee trucks I bought came with “self centering” anyway. I don’t much care, really. Only negative is that, when you install the trucks, you have to tighten the truck screw just-so, to get the centering centered.
Ed
Once the car is placed on the track and is comfortably resting on the trucks, the feature doesn’t interfere with the swivelling of the trucks (if that was your concern).
I only have a few of these. The 70 ton AAR trucks are only available in this style.
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Advantages I see are two.
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- As noted, they are easier to put on the track. This is advantageous on some fgreight cars like tank cars with lots of fragile detail. You can pick up the car by the tank where it is safe, and set the truck on the tracks.
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- You can tighten the truck mounting screws down all the way. With some truck mounts you leave the screws a little loose to allow the truck to turn and pitch a little. With these trucks the screw tightens against the centering cam ring, so the screw will not back out. A truck screw backing out killed my Spectrum 2-8-0.
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The only disadvantage I have found is that I have found is that the truck bolster on the freight car must have a flat surface at least 9/32" in diameter or the car will be prone to wobble.
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-Kevin
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Thanks guys. I have a couple code 83 rerailers, which are much narrower than code 100. I haven’t decided where to permanently install them, but they are cosmetically better. I also have a Rix rerailer.
The other advantage to this system is that the special bolster pin is a vary nice fit in the truck, so when doing a retro fit on an Athearn car for example, you shave off the boss on the underframe and install the Kadee truck with is screw and special pin - no side to side slop just a nice smooth swivel once the car is on the track.
A large percentage of my Kadee trucks refitted with Intermountain wheels are the newer self centering version…about 600 cars worth…
Sheldon