Jamie, I'm sure I mentioned this before, but I've been running a test (a running test!) using two Bud Buddy's equipped cars, two that Ed Loizeaux made up many years ago and another 2-3 with the original AM trucks with BTS parts. I'm checking for rolling qualities, appearance and durability.
All have similar rolling qualities with the older Loizeaux trucks with the typical Ace type bearings being a bit less freewheeling. Appearance I would give to the Budd Buddy's, with the updated AM's coming in second. Obviously the durability phase is yet to be determined, but would probably favor the brass bearing on the Loizeaux truck. Gil Freitag, one of our local HO kings, once had a problem with a Santa Fe train he had been running for years. He finally examined the trucks and discovered that the needle point axles had totally worn into the plastic trucks. The bearing hole was worn into a slot. I think most of us have added some additional weight to our cars plus extras, there has to be added stress in that area. I also might mention that none of the trucks produced in S match the Nystrom trucks used on most Milwaukee Road equipment. I'm not certain how many cars were built after that 52' date, but the Milwaukee equipment might match the PRR in uniqueness. Many preserved and or/stuffed Milwaukee cars have had these trucks removed because they road so well. but nobody seems to know where they went! Bob Werre On 9/12/11 12:39 PM, Jamie Bothwell wrote: > > Hi All, > The trucks Bob speaks of as "Budd Buddy" trucks are officially labeled > 41-NDO which means they have four wheels, one bolster, a 9' wheelbase, > disc brakes, and an outside swing hanger. The swing hanger part is the > very visible change from previously produced trucks. I read somewhere > that "virtually every passenger car produced after 1952 had a version > of these trucks." That translates to cars built for any railroad > except the PRR. The PRR did have them under the "Keystone" which was a > low-slung train built by Budd and used on the NEC. The Santa Fe had > some 6 wheel outside swing hanger trucks (61-NDO?). On the El Capitan > high level cars I think. > I know Bob Hogan disagrees with me on this, but my favorite passenger > car truck is the old AM one. Without getting into wheelbases, both the > old one and the now ones are 41-something trucks since they have four > wheels and one bolster. The newer ones are often called "AM Budd > trucks" because AM produced them to go under their Budd cars. I prefer > the old truck with the BTS detail kit added to the "working" springs > on the newer AM trucks. The BTS details are much nicer than the cast > on bits on the newer AM trucks. And that is probably more than most of > you wanted to know about trucks. > Jamie Bothwell > Waiting for River Raisin to produce 43-R trucks in > Bethlehem, PA > > --- In [email protected] <mailto:S-Scale%40yahoogroups.com>, Bob > Werre <bob@...> wrote: > > > > ... I like the appearance of > > the old Budd Buddy trucks with the reliability of the AM trucks, whose > > appearance I don't really like. > > > >... > > > > Bob Werre > > PhotoTraxx > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
