Atlas trucks on Weaver cars

Matt,

The ride will not be right.    Atlas trucks (and MTH and Lionel) have higher truck bolsters (and thinner bolsters on the cars) due to their 3 rail heritage.    this allows them to incorporate their own couplers.    Weaver cars have bolsters at the NMRA reccommended height for O scale.   The cars will set too high unless you rebuild the underbody, and it is at least an 1/8 inch.  

Athearn trucks work fine and they do have a roller bearing version or  used to.   Not sure if 70 Ton or not.    They are or were cheaper than Atlas trucks.    Most any of the older traditional 2 rail trucks will work, but some of the diecast ones do not roll very well.   If  you use Athearn or Weaver trucks, the cars  will set at the correct height per NMRA gauge for Kadee couplers without using shims.

@AGHRMatt posted:

 I recently acquired some Weaver covered hopper kits and need to get some trucks (70-ton roller bearing). Considering that the Weaver plastic trucks and Intermountain wheels can get costly now, I was thinking about Atlas 2-rail trucks. Has anyone mounted them on Weaver cars? Is the ride height correct?

Thanks.

The Weaver trucks are Barber S-2 100-ton; the Athearn are Symington 70-ton. What hoppers did you get?

@PRRMP54 posted:

The Weaver trucks are Barber S-2 100-ton; the Athearn are Symington 70-ton. What hoppers did you get?

PS-2 covered hoppers. I have some that I converted using the existing 3-rail Weaver plastic trucks and substituting Intermountain 33-inch wheels.

I occasionally see Athearn roller-bearing trucks out on eBay, but they stopped making them. Too bad, because they take the Intermountain wheel sets.

@AGHRMatt posted:

PS-2 covered hoppers. I have some that I converted using the existing 3-rail Weaver plastic trucks and substituting Intermountain 33-inch wheels.

I occasionally see Athearn roller-bearing trucks out on eBay, but they stopped making them. Too bad, because they take the Intermountain wheel sets.

I do the Intermountain wheel replacement to most of my Weaver and Athearn trucks. Those PS-2 hoppers could use either Bettendorf or 70-ton roller bearing trucks. I have two Western Maryland ones with roller bearings as the WM ran them that way; all of my others have Bettendorfs.

Engineer Joe, I am not familiar with the MTH trucks.    All my experience with their older stuff was high bolsters.   I have quite a few trucks in my parts box, so I have not bought any for some years.   Do the truck bolsters sit at NMRA reccommended height?    The weaver car should sit on the trucks so that a Kadee coupler box comes out at the height of their gage.    The rear of the Kadee gauge has a flat surface that should fit right at the underside of the car floor as a second check.    The gauge works sitting on the track, so the wheel treads are on the rail, it won't apply on a table with the car sitting on flanges. 

The weaver plastic trucks, take the same axles as Athearn.    they are totally interchangable, IM wheelsets will drop into the Weaver trucks.    I personally like the engineering plastic trucks.    They roll better than any all metal trucks.    The newer stuff with plastic journal inserts do very well too.

I am not sure, but I think the 70 ton weaver trucks should have 36 inch wheels - to get the load rating on the prototype.

 Matt, I have done this to a few cars. Though not a Weaver. Sara on the 2 rail forum showed how to do it in one of her posts. . I does involve drilling 3 holes sort of precise in some flat brass stock. The Atlas truck needs to be filed down and the top piece removed. I added Atlas 3rail commonwealth Trucks to a brass milk car. Ended up with the same ride height.

All:

Thanks for the suggestions. Got and E-mail from Clem K and he has some lying around.

Dave C:

That's a brilliant idea! I'm going to look into it for future projects .

Thanks again.

New Atlas wheel sets will cost around $25 a pair, not cheap.

Dick

@AGHRMatt posted:

 I recently acquired some Weaver covered hopper kits and need to get some trucks (70-ton roller bearing). Considering that the Weaver plastic trucks and Intermountain wheels can get costly now, I was thinking about Atlas 2-rail trucks. Has anyone mounted them on Weaver cars? Is the ride height correct?

Thanks.

Matt, While not the least expensive route, you might look into Jim's replacement bolsters from Shapeways...   I've used them on some projects and they work out very nice.  Be sure to get the Ow5 versions, and watch for the older vs newer atlas truck sideframes. 

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/batsbyjim

A Weaver truck on a caboose model kit.  I added a #8 hex nut as a spacer. 

The coupler drawbar attachment to the truck adds almost 1/4" height.  

I have a set of MTH three rail trucks for this project.