The Home Machinist!

Got a package in the mail today, a fellow railroader sent me a vintage truck pattern he got when he bought some railcars. I have to figure out a bolster for it but that shouldn't present much of a problem.
I had been thinking of building something similar but I kind of like the idea of using a pattern that was probably made decades ago.
I wasnt going to do anything with it for a while, but I was already doing some casting today, sooo, couldnt stand it and had to do a test cast. Didn't quite get the risers right so I got some serious shrink on the heavy sections. Not too shabby though.
The original has some minor condition issues, I am going to cast a copy in aluminum and make the repairs on that. I hate to alter an original pattern if I don't have to. It'll shrink a bit, but I don't think this is an exact copy of a specific truck, so it won't be noticeable on the finished product.

Using a pattern from decades back is a neat way to keep somebody else's "genius" alive in the hobby today. Good luck with these, Pete!

What would these types of truck be used on? Looks like an old-time 1800's style passenger car, maybe. Or was it something else?

Multi-use would be my guess. Early passenger, and later MOW cars supposedly using older equipment. They look like the C B & Q truck plans that I have, and PRR5406 sent me pics at one time showing very similar trucks on the MOW equipment used by the Conway Scenic railroad. They are beefy enough that you could use them on just about anything you wanted, really.

My guess is they're probably meant to look like wooden beam trucks, something like you might find on a self-contained narrow-gauge. They might fit well on a mining railroad, or local branch line from the back-woods. Certainly they are of late 19th Century, into an early 20th. The advantage of Odd Duck's casting them is the durability, strength, and lightness of aluminum. How you work the journal/axle interface is my question. I would think you're going to want these to flex and spring.

Yeah, they are supposed to represent wood framed trucks.I have a few thoughts about springing, possibly a floating beam bolster with the springs on the inside. They are almost overly beefy, really. Plenty of room in the journal boxes for whatever bearing you want, though.

Here's a picture of a Burlington waycar truck. I took it up in Billings, Mont. when I went up to my 'local' Railroad Retirement office to sign up.
For a bolster, you could use the system we used at Sandley's. The ends of the bolsters are 'pins' that rotate in a 'spring plank', so that the frames can rotate separately for equalization. The pin center is just above the journal box centers. You could get the same effect by bolting a plate with a pin in the center onto the backs of your castings. With sockets on the ends of your bolster that fit the pins, you could build a sprung bolster assembly. Thread the ends of the pins, or put a washer and cotter pin to keep the side frames attached, and there you are. Here's one of our regular 'bar stock' trucks, in 14" gauge, that we built for Elliott Donnelley's railroad, and one of the flame cut frames that we put under some Excursion Cars we built for Milwaukee Zoo in 1974. The principle is the same.
Mike

Interesting, simple is good. Perhaps even add a pivot stud during the casting process. That would help the shrink on the relatively heavy section "elliptical" spring too. Might have to try a few different options.

note the striking similarity to the trucks on the C&S #20 combine.
What I can't figure out is where/how the ends of the equalizer bar go...

senorgilamonster wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 11:56 am note the striking similarity to the trucks on the C&S #20 combine.
What I can't figure out is where/how the ends of the equalizer bar go...

On the 'Big' ones, they sit on top of the journal boxes. The casting is only a representation, and it wouldn't really work, if it were separate parts like that.

Mike