As some of you may know, I'm a bit of a freight car "truck nut". I usually try to have the correct truck under any given freight car model I have. I've been asked a couple of times over the last two weeks about good references to freight car truck types. I submit the following: o Model Railroader, December, 2003, p72, by Jeff Wilson o RP Cyclopedia, Volume 4, p35, by Richard Hendrickson (the truckmeister!) o Railmodel Journal, February, 1990, p28, by Richard Hendrickson (also April, 1990, December, 1993 & February, 1995 for parts 2, 3 & 4) o Mainline Modeler, November, 1993, p23, by Robert Hundman (also December, 1993 for part 2) o Mainline Modeler, January, 1994, p65, by Robert Hundman o Mainline Modeler, September, 1993, p50, by John Ryczkowski (also October, 1993 for part 2) Does anybody have any others to add to the list? Ken ps - With the Frisco, it is often easy ..... put an ASF A-3 "Ride Control" truck under it and more times than not you will be correct. That was their favorite truck (MoPac too!)
Nice post ... For someone who does not know the difference between an ASF A-3 and a 235/55/R19, is it possible to post a very closeup photo of one of these? Model and prototype would be nice? Even better - Are the trucks on the Accurail gon the correct ones? PS .. I do not have any of those references - too "new".
Sherrel - Do you want a pic of the freight car truck or of the tire? See the following URL for an easy way to get the December, 2003 Jeff Wilson article in MR. The ASF A-3 is shown in Fig 9. Its main competitor, the Barber S-2, is shown in Fig 8. The Frisco also used the S-2, but not nearly as often. www.trains.com/mrr/objects/pdf/mr_pi_5-06_freightcartrucks.pdf Ken ps - The easy way to quickly identify an ASF A-3 is to look for the "pouch" on the bottom section of the truck side frame holding the springs. Notice the S-2 does not have that, nor do other types of generic "Bettendorf" trucks.
Sherrel - The two best A-3's in HO are made by Kato (#31-601) and by Kadee (#380-504). The standard "Blue Box" Athearn truck is also an A-3, but it is a poor rendition in my mind. Ken
Whooo-Boy ! Ken .. tanku, tanku, tanku. Just what I was wishing for. Very nice article. So much to learn .. so little time.
Thanks for posting this info. I had asked this question a while back for when ever I rebuild my tyco auto rack.
The two Accurail 11-panel gons I already have (PRR & NYC) ride on Accurail's standard AAR generic "Bettendorf" truck. It's a very nice truck, but I'm not sure what it is specifically. There were many truck manufacturers and most all made some type of generic "Bettendorf" style truck. The Accurail truck is close enough to a Barber S-2 standard bearing truck that I call it a S-2 and use it as such. The diagram for the SLSF 55000 series of gons (12 panel) are probably the closest ones to the Accurail car as has been noted by others in the postings above. The diagram indicates these cars ran on trucks with ASF side frames, and were built in 1951. Thus, the trucks were very likely ASF A-3's. So, the Accurail trucks are likely not correct for this car, but ..... neither is the number of side panels (11), so don't worry about it. The Accurail truck is a very good looking truck, and nobody but some truck junkie will ever notice it is not exactly correct for this Frisco car. Ken
OK, I'll try and not lose sleep over it. It fits my time frame and length. Thanks, Professor, for your impeccable knowledge. Just don't tell Mark. He will be pounding his chest, and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Actually, he is a Jewell)
Here's a neat ad I found for the ASF (American Steel Foundries) A-3 "Ride Control" freight car truck. The GM&O liked 'em too! Ken
