Brake Shoes on Athearn Trucks

Saw that Butch. It installs in place of the Flat bottom Spring keeper?

Yes, that's right Chris. Doesn't make installing the 3 springs any easier or harder....just replaces them. 

Anybody in the UK (or nearby!), I have some sets, more than I need (immediately?) coming over from Ted.  Let me know if you'd like to try them, priced at whatever my cost with postage turns out to be and a cup of tea from you when we meet next(?)!

Jason 

That does add a lot to the look.

Interestingly, the '70s Atlas Austrian-made O scale freight trucks had this feature:

...just clips right in...

I remember reading the O scale magazines at that time that this plastic stuff was poo poo'd for not being made of metal: in retrospect, some of it was actually pretty good, I think. (Sorry for the thread drift...) 

Mark in Oregon

No doubt, for its day they were ahead of their time, and probably why the stuff did not sell well at all.  Most O Scale people in those days had little interest in ready to run equipment and even less interest in anything plastic.  They virtually gave that stuff away eventually.

@oscaletrains posted:

No doubt, for its day they were ahead of their time, and probably why the stuff did not sell well at all.  Most O Scale people in those days had little interest in ready to run equipment and even less interest in anything plastic.  They virtually gave that stuff away eventually.

I think you are right.

Perhaps another reason for the lack of success was that Atlas tried to be "all things to all people"; in that they made stuff that looked like realistic 2 rail, yet offered their stuff with large flanges, huge couplers and a track radius of only 24". So it was at once a little "scale" and a little "tinplate"...long before there was "3 rail scale"...I think.

Sorry; more thread drift.  

Mark in Oregon

@Strummer posted:

That does add a lot to the look.

Interestingly, the '70s Atlas Austrian-made O scale freight trucks had this feature:

...just clips right in...

I remember reading the O scale magazines at that time that this plastic stuff was poo poo'd for not being made of metal: in retrospect, some of it was actually pretty good, I think. (Sorry for the thread drift...) 

Mark in Oregon

Atlas also offered two-rail wheelsets for these trucks; I wish that I could find a dozen or so sets. I never had any problem with the Atlas/Roco products but found it rather odd that the locomotives were two-rail DC with scale flanges and all the cars were scale-sized but built to three-rail standards.

@PRRMP54 posted:

Atlas also offered two-rail wheelsets for these trucks; I wish that I could find a dozen or so sets. I never had any problem with the Atlas/Roco products but found it rather odd that the locomotives were two-rail DC with scale flanges and all the cars were scale-sized but built to three-rail standards.

Exactly.

Leads one to wonder if that helped contribute to the less than enthusiastic response at that time...although there does seem to be quite a bit of it still out there. 

Mark in Oregon

This didn't get any traction on Facebook, maybe to young of a crowd.  Anyway, going through some old truck sets it seems that there are far more different types of trucks out there over the years than I thought. I have some trucks that have only 2 springs in them on each side, die cast looking side frames and I am assuming those are All Nation products. Some others look very similar but they have 3 springs and have a very thin metal piece under the springs made to hold the bottom part of the spring. Are they old metal Athearn or what? I also have a set that again, looks identical but has 5 springs on each side, what the heck were they?

I noticed a pair of MG trucks on Ebay which have brass or bronze looking wheelsets in them, what steel steels could replace those?

What are these?

And these say ATHEARN on the box?

Some really crude Walthers sprung ones...

@oscaletrains posted:

And these say ATHEARN on the box?

Those look like Auel trucks. Came in 2 and 3 rail and also in 17/64ths

These have a part number of 1921 but no manufacturer.  They look like plastic Athearn but not...

The black plastic ones 2 posts above appear to be Athearn.  They  offered Delrin trucks with 4 different side frames.  

- Bettendorf friction bearing

- Bettendorf roller bearing  (50T??)

- Andrews

- arch bar

The other components of the truck kits were common to all 4 variants.  The metal version of the Athearn truck had steel wheels with deeper flanges than the later Delrin ones.  To the best of my knowledge all versions of Athearn trucks had 6 springs and small spring keeper plate.  If you can find them, the Intermountain metal wheel sets work well in Athearn, Intermountain, and Weaver trucks.  

@mwb posted:

Those look like Auel trucks. Came in 2 and 3 rail and also in 17/64ths

So maybe in the wrong box?

@oscaletrains posted:

So maybe in the wrong box?

Entirely possible; there's nothing sacred about people putting things into the correct box.  Last pile of Auel trucks I got came in a 2lb coffee can.

I found one truck that says MONARCH on the broken spring plank that goes across the bottom of it, but otherwise it looks like an All nation truck except the wheels are rib back. Don't have a mate for it though.

I discovered that to put brake shoes on the All Nation 2 spring trucks, you have to take them apart and file away the two nubs on the bottom of the side frame. They also use a fairly large spring that I cannot get back into the things so substituted PSC #356 instead.  Rails Unlimited should have these to fit All Nation eventually also.

@Keystoned Ed posted:

The black plastic ones 2 posts above appear to be Athearn.  They  offered Delrin trucks with 4 different side frames.  

- Bettendorf friction bearing

- Bettendorf roller bearing  (50T??)

- Andrews

- arch bar

The other components of the truck kits were common to all 4 variants.  The metal version of the Athearn truck had steel wheels with deeper flanges than the later Delrin ones.  To the best of my knowledge all versions of Athearn trucks had 6 springs and small spring keeper plate.  If you can find them, the Intermountain metal wheel sets work well in Athearn, Intermountain, and Weaver trucks

 

 

 

Yep, probably right, my mistake.

@oscaletrains posted:

Old Pullman.  Were these Ace or someone before?

 

Looking at the photos better, I believe that these Old Pullman trucks are what is now being offered by Scale City Designs, apparently previously offered by Keil Line before Scale City also.  Since these are figured out I have deleted the 2 other messages about them.

@oscaletrains posted:

And these say ATHEARN on the box?

Those are Auel Andrews trucks; the "AUEL" name is visible just below the hole in the bolster. This is the first time that I have seen brass wheels in an Auel, all that I have have lettering on the front of the wheel and a ribbed back. Also, Auel trucks are actually 17/64 scale. They are really great trucks but, unfortunately most of mine have un-insulated wheelsets so I can not use them. The difficulty of swapping them out is just not worth it to me. I have put a few Andrews aside for traction freight cars but the rest will just continue living in their box homes.

@PRRMP54 posted:

Those are Auel Andrews trucks; the "AUEL" name is visible just below the hole in the bolster. This is the first time that I have seen brass wheels in an Auel, all that I have have lettering on the front of the wheel and a ribbed back. Also, Auel trucks are actually 17/64 scale. They are really great trucks but, unfortunately most of mine have un-insulated wheelsets so I can not use them. The difficulty of swapping them out is just not worth it to me. I have put a few Andrews aside for traction freight cars but the rest will just continue living in their box homes.

Great!  At least we know what they are.  Do you think the wheel sets are something different just put in those trucks?  Interestingly, that makes 2 different brass or ronze wheel sets, the ribbed backs from MG and the solid backs that these have.

These trucks offered by K Wiseman, looks like the plastic brake shoes from Rails Unlimited would easily fit these already.

@DaveJfr0 posted:

I'm guessing the Rails Unlimited is basically a plastic clone of the Scale City Designs (Keil Line) product (not sure on price), but the pro's might be that the RU product doesn't require painting nor flash cleanup. Correct?

http://scalecitydesigns.com/48...scale-fka-keil-line/

Correct for the most part though most friction bearing trucks were sort of a "black oily dirt over rust" color for the most part rather than just black.