Jamie... Good to have you jump in on this subject. And thanks for covering (again) the actual designation for the trucks. The "Budd Buddy" outside swing hanger trucks are the correct prototype truck for the BUDD car conversions we created (The Supply Car), as well as most of the post 1949 P/S and AFC cars, as you mentioned. Ed did a great job on them (the only piece of a BUDD car/train project that actually came to production). The castings are outstanding, but just try to find them, even on eBay. IF you do find them, they will be expensive and you will still need to add NWSL 36" wheelsets for them.
Either version of the AM truck is an approximation of a 41-N-11 type, probably the most commonly used truck in passenger service. As for the old vs. new AM trucks, after many hundreds of hours of operation on both my layout and the Bristol Club modular layout, YES, I still believe the "new" AM sprung trucks operate best and are more trouble free. To each his or her own on this, I guess. I use the stock dummy couplers on the "new" AM trucks, except for head-end cars that might require switching, to ensure good operation, even on my 48" minimum radius layout. They are foolproof (meaning even I can't screw them up). No matter which AM truck you chose, however, if you want them to look right you will still need to add the BTS brass brake cylinders and torsion bar castings to them. For some reason, no one seems to have ever commented on the fact that the "new" AM trucks have the brake cylinders on the wrong end of the truck. And they are undersized. Thus, I remove the existing brake cylinders and add both of the BTS brass castings to even the "new" AM trucks. Of course, the "old" AM trucks did not have this problem as they did not come with any brake cylinders. If you are modeling a modern car, remember that most used disc-brakes so you will also need to cut the older style "clasp" brakes off of whatever truck you are using. The Budd Buddy trucks are already equipped for disc-brakes as that's how BUDD built 'em. If you want to know what truck type is correct for your prototype road and a specific car, the Railway Prototype Cyclopedia Vol. 6 had a terrific presentation of lightweight passenger truck types (with photos) and a detailed listing of roads and specific car types with correct trucks (as delivered). Hope this helps! Bob Hogan --- In [email protected], "Jamie Bothwell" <vze4cs43@...> 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], 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 > ------------------------------------ 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/
