3 rail freight trucks without couplers?

Well, there are the Atlas freight trucks.

I know that Lionel has some freight trucks without couplers, and I'm sure MTH does as well.

Weaver trucks have separate couplers. You can just use the truck itself. Anything with 3R wheels is going to have to sit a little higher due to the pizza cutter flanges. 2 Rail wheels with a .172 tread might work fine if you're on flat top rails (not old school tubular) and you're not negotiating super tight curves.

You can also just dremel off the coupler of just about any 3 rail truck.

Most lionel steam tender cars have a front truck with a separate drawbar.  Some of the passenger cars have no permanently attached coupler.

Weaver would be the easiest. Expect to pay a Kings ransom for them. MTH reissued them with the same tooling. The big dealers may still have some available. 2 rail wheels may work on some layouts. From my experience it’s best to stick with 3 rail wheelsets.

I’m guessing you are going with Kadee couplers. I’ve been buying 2 rail brass milk cars. I convert everything to 3 rail trucks. To many derailments and most brass trucks that I’ve  come across aren’t that free wheeling.  I’ve modified both Atlas and Lionel trucks. These may be easier to find and get the ride height you need. Which is critical if you go the Kadee route. Some brass strips, a drill press, maybe taps and some trial and error. What you remove can be used as a template. You will basically just be using the side frames. The new centerpiece can be adjusted with washers etc. to gain clearance for the larger flanged wheels.

Weaver O-Scale freight trucks come in 2-Rail and 3-Rail, you can simply change wheelsets for 3-rail wheels, that's how I revived a bunch of Weaver 2-rail cars.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Weaver O-Scale freight trucks come in 2-Rail and 3-Rail, you can simply change wheelsets for 3-rail wheels, that's how I revived a bunch of Weaver 2-rail cars.

Are the sideframes removable? I assume they come apart somehow if you can swap the wheelsets, but it doesn't appear that way in the picture.

@Dave_C posted:

Weaver would be the easiest. Expect to pay a Kings ransom for them. MTH reissued them with the same tooling. The big dealers may still have some available. 2 rail wheels may work on some layouts. From my experience it’s best to stick with 3 rail wheelsets.

I’m guessing you are going with Kadee couplers.

I'm actually going with 3 rail couplers of my own design which will mount slightly closer to the car ends than the wheelsets. The key, of course, is getting the wheelsets sorted first so I can get the coupler height correct.

@Magicland posted:

Something similar to Athearn's 2 rail trucks would probably work fine. I'd try them, but I'm afraid the 2 rail wheels might have issues.

Just put 3 rail wheelsets in the Athearn trucks -- need to use right length and pointed end axles, but I've seen more than enough of them to know that can be done.  And, someone will probably buy your excess Athearn 2 rail wheelsets - I have no problem selling mine off.

@Magicland posted:

Are the sideframes removable? I assume they come apart somehow if you can swap the wheelsets, but it doesn't appear that way in the picture.

The wheels pop right out with no problem, I swapped a bunch of the 2-rail wheelsets out.

With the older MTH trucks, you can remove the coupler pretty easily with just one screw. The later ones require complete disassembly.

The Weaver plastic trucks use a coupler bar that lifts up the car. You will get chassis interference using three rail wheels without the couplers in place.

Atlas trucks might be your best shot since the coupler can be removed easily, either by removing the coupler arm screw or by removing the entire cross brace on the trucks (put the screws back to stabilize the side frames).

If the rail is "flat-top" like Atlas or MTH, you can use Weaver plastic trucks with Intermountain metwl wheel sets (#20050 and readily available on eBay or from Scale City Designs). You can also use Atlas 2-rail trucks. The caveat is that they'll have issues being pushed through curve-replacement 3-rail turnouts and they will find the bad spots in your layout.

If you have Gargraves and/or Ross trackwork you might be able to use the Athearn...or Weaver, et al...2-rail trucks just fine.  The rail cross-section for their track is quite suitable for 2-rail flanges...NOT Proto 48, though!

I have GG/Ross on my layout.  I've built several cars from kits and used 2-rail trucks which work just fine.  I try to use the 2-rail trucks on cars that will not typically have mid-train loading, such as cabooses/waycars.  I've also used O2R trucks on custom MOW rail equipment.  Just completed an old Walthers Water/Tool Car kit which is of the truss-rod, arch bar truck era.  It's not going to see a lot of running.  The Athearn arch bar trucks are perfect for this application.  Rolls through the Ross switches smoothly.  Also used Athearn arch bar trucks on a couple of Ambroid caboose kits, replacing the coil springs with PSC leaf springs as per the prototype. 

Also have used old Athearn die cast metal 2-rail truck kits on several boxcar kit builds.  The old 2-rail wheelsets that came in those kits had deeper flanges than those made more recently to NMRA standards.  They also work just fine on my Gargraves/Ross track.

Just a couple suggestions...

KD

MTH DA-0100013

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Weaver O-Scale freight trucks come in 2-Rail and 3-Rail, you can simply change wheelsets for 3-rail wheels, that's how I revived a bunch of Weaver 2-rail cars.

To clarify GRJ's comment, its thr Weaver PLASTIC TRUCKS thst uou can change, maybe the bettenforf die cast if you have the tools and skills but certainly NOT the Weaver die cast Rollerbearing trucks. The D/" Rollerbearing trucks one must buy in 3 rail or 2 rail.

@dkdkrd posted:

Just completed an old Walthers Water/Tool Car kit which is of the truss-rod, arch bar truck era.  It's not going to see a lot of running.  The Athearn arch bar trucks are perfect for this application.  Rolls through the Ross switches smoothly.  Also used Athearn arch bar trucks on a couple of Ambroid caboose kits, replacing the coil springs with PSC leaf springs as per the prototype.

Good fun there!