# Kitbashing freight trucks



## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Has anyone tried using parts from plastic freight trucks, such as the Delton sprung truck, and built a truck of a different configuration? I've been pondering using the journal boxes and center section of the Delton trucks, removing the cast on archbar frames and building a different shape truck using appropriate sized brass strips for the archbars. There are some types of trucks that are just hard, or impossible to get in G scale. The Quincy & Torch Lake trucks being one of those.


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

I've done it to make a master that I then molded and cast the sideframes from. Might put a piece of brass or wire in to re-inforce them. Mine were just on the outside of motor blocks, so did not have to be strong.


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## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

They are unusual trucks.

Q&TLR Truck

Andrew


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

There are a couple variations of the Q&TL trucks, they're basically the same, but have detail differences. Here's one... 
 

Here's a variation, notice the different spring arrangement. 
 

Another view


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Also, you might find 2 different trucks on the same car.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Similar to my scratch built 1.5" arch bar trucks on my gondola.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

They look very similar to the Carter Bros freight trucks. Here's a pic I found on an O scale site: 











Bob Hartford makes a whole bunch of obscure wesern trucks, like these 3' 8" Carter Bros. swing motion trucks:

His trucks are all on this page: http://shop.hartfordproducts.com/ca...egoryId=56


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## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

That Carter Bros truck looks like what was used on West Side Lumber cars and caboose.



















The QTLR trucks have a distinctively steep arch and the bars don't extend for the brakes.
They may be fairly short wheelbase too. 










Andrew


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

The trucks are listed as having 24 inch wheels and a 3 ft-7 inch wheel base. It's funny, all the measurements that I've taken of those trucks, and I didn't write down the wheel base measurement. I can tell you the length, width, and thickness of the bars and the hole spacing and size in them, but I don't have the wheel base written down. For instance, the center pedestal castings measure 11-3/8ths long where the arch bars fit. The overall length of the casting is 12 inches. The top of the casting is flat where the upper arch bar sits, and the bottom of the casting has a notch cast into it for the middle archbar to sit in that's 5/8 inch deep and 3-1/4 inches wide. 
The local museum in Lake Linden, Mi has a pair of these trucks, one of which is disassembled. I was able to take measurements directly from the parts. 
The bearing journal castings measured 8-3/8ths inches tall by 6 inches wide, and the casting is 9 inches long across the top and 11-1/2 inches long at the longest part. Where the bolt hole flanges for the archbars are cast on, the journal is 9 inches wide. I have lots of pictures that I took at the time I measured the truck, but they're not digital pictures. Some day, I need to get a scanner and scan them all into the computer, or perhaps take them to a place that does that service.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

If Bob Hartford was still making the full kit for the zee braced rock car, I'd be tempted to try and talk him into casting the proper trucks for it. I don't know if they would sell without having the kit for the car. 
A number of years ago, I measured the remains of a flatcar that was rotting into the brush behind the Quincy and torch Lake roundhouse. That car, a 30 foot car, also used the same trucks and stake pockets as the ones on the straight braced rock cars, like the top picture I posted. 
The last time I was up there, a couple months ago, the remains of the car had been removed and that area cleaned up. I believe the natural gas company laid a pipe through that area and the museum cleaned up all the parts and stored them in the re-roofed roundhouse before the gas company went through. 
I go up to that area several times every summer for "mini vacations".


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

Amber, that's the way it goes. When I collect pix and measurements, I always think I got all I needed. Then when I sort thru it at home I always wish I had done more measuring. Problem is too much excitement for getting up close to something real, and getting tired at the same time. It takes a lot of time to photograph a subject. Which I do first. Then out comes the paper and pen. And a tape measure... 

Seems like it might be time for another mini vacation for you! Collect the missing data!! 

Good luck, Dirk - DMRR


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Good idea! It's almost time for the fall color trip anyway.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Another truck that I can't seem to find much information on is the Gilpin Tram truck with the 28 inch wheelbase and 14 inch wheels. Mostly, I'm trying to find out what the size of the journal boxes was, and the measurement of the space between the archbars where the bolster and spring plank sit. The rest I could figure out from the drawings that I have of the cars from a magazine, I think it was Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette. 
Of course, those are the early trucks, the later trucks had a 33 inch wheelbase and 20 inch wheels. Those trucks may have used the same size journal boxes, but I don't know.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Here's a good picture of a Quincy & Torch Lake archbar truck that's not under a car. I took these pictures with a 35mm camera in 2006 and finally got them scanned into the computer. 

 

The underside of a truck bolster, from a truck that was in pieces. 

 

4 of the 6 archbars. I didn't see the bottom bars or the journal boxes. 

 

A closeup of the bolster.


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