Timken Roller Bearing Truck

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Gentleman: I am building an old Ambroid kit of a Southern Railway Tobacco Hogshead Car and the instructions ay to use “Timken Roller Bearing Trucks”. Is this just another name for a Bettendorf truck?

Thank you

2

Nope, You need a pair of roller bearing trucks. Timken is a supplier of roller bearings. Jim

3

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/mdk/mdkk5004s.htm

4

Looks like these things get typical 50- or 70-ton roller bearing trucks.

I pulled the above photo from this page http://southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/freight/tob/tob.html , click on the link for more photos showing the trucks.

5

Hi, Jim

If you want to go fancy, Kato makes a quality truck and the bearing end caps actually rotate! I have a few pair and they are pretty neat.

There may be other manufacturers by now but I know Kato has had them for quite some time now.

http://www.katousa.com/HO/accessories.html

Happy modeling, Ed

6

How well do the Kato trucks roll? I remember the Intermountain trucks with spinning bearings were pretty stiff.

Many others make roller bearing trucks where the bearings don’t spin that roll like any other truck.

7

The Kato trucks seem to roll pretty well. Tangent makes the same truck with needlepoint axles, and they roll nicely too https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/product/50-ton-asf-cast-steel-spring-plank-trucks-normal-tread-metal-precision-wheelsets-copy/ . The link name doesn’t match the truck description for some reason.

It’s this one.

8

Thanks again for the info. I will probably end up with KATO trucks as they are sold through Walthers. But I checked out Tangent as well, I had never heard of them before this. Guess I need to get out more…

9

Be aware that not just any roller bearing truck is going to be accurate for this car. It might be that the Ambroid prototype used 33" wheels (it was huge but the loads were relatively light) while many roller bearing trucks available today have 36" wheels and a somewhat different looking profile and spring array.

I can’t tell from photos that Rob linked to whether the wheels are 33" or 36"

http://southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/freight/tob/tob.html

Have you looked at these photos of the prototype car? I’d do so before buying just any roller bearing truck.

Back in the “Blue Box” era for example, Athearn had two types of roller bearing trucks: Timkins and Hyatts. You can actually see the tiny letters Timkim Roller Bearing on the bearing! I think Walthers had a similar truck back then.

Dave Nelson

10

Athearn still has two types of roller bearing trucks available, 33 (70 ton) and 36 inch wheels. Don’t know if they say Timkin on them.

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH90390

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH90386

(A little more expensive than the $1.98 for a pair that I remember)

11

Those are 33" wheels, and the prototype for that truck is the Barber S-2A 70-ton design. The photos I saw of the hogshead cars appear to have the same or similar Barber trucks, at least in the few where the trucks were readily visible. Many years ago, Athearn had a truck that looked a lot like the same Barber prototype, along with another version that was more of a generic 70-ton truck with different visible springs and bearings. Neither of those are still produced but can turn up at train shows and so on.

I think the current Athearn products you linked to are the same truck with different size wheels. It’s another generic stand-in that doesn’t seem to be a very close model of anything in particular.

Maybe the instructions for the hogshead car kit date to when Athearn was selling trucks labeled as “Timken” and “Hyatt,” although the names really have nothing to do with the trucks themselves, as they refer only the the bearing manufacturers. I think the one Athearn labeled with Timken was the Barber S-2A type, further suggesting the Tangent or Kato model of that truck would be appropriate.