I have just dug out my Spectrum Heavyweights and put them next to the Rivarossi 60’s Heavyweights and one of the new Walthers Heavyweights and there is a slight difference in height!
The Spectrum coaches are about 1-2mm shorter and it looks like this height is lost in the trucks. Also when looking at the Walthers/Rivarossi trucks they are so much better than the Spectrum ones. (The spectrum ones were good for their day, but have now been slightly outclassed).
Does anyone know if replacement trucks are available for the Spectrum coaches, and if so are they easy to fit? I also have an issue with the coupler height on the spectrum heavyweights - they are so low, I have to have an alternative coupling put on my GS-4 tender! Anyone got any suggestions to rectifying the situation?
Regards,
Stephen.
There are a few ways to fix this issue, but I don’t think replacing the trucks is one of them. One of the few places that still makes heavyweight passenger car trucks is Bethelehem Car Works (http://www.bethlehemcarworks.com/Products/Kit_Bits/index.html#Trucks), but the real problem will be in the car’s bolster, not in the truck bearing surfaces. You could try to raise the car by adding a washer between the truck and the carbody, but that will probably make the car visually unappealing by raising it too far in the air.
Probably a better solution would be to body mount the couplers, removing the odd Bachmann swivelling coupler box. If you’re running Walthers heavyweights (which don’t have this feature) then you have curves which will allow fixed couplers. Adding a coupler box to the carbody will most likely fix your coupler height problem as well.