I am looking at the old time wood beam trucks for those 64' passenger cars. Can a simple swap.of the wheel sets occur to change from 2 to 3 rail?
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On the MTH roller bearing 2 rail freight trucks, the crossing bolster plate is lower so that the car will sit lower than with their 3 rail trucks.
I don't have the trucks you're asking about to know if they're the same height. I do know that some of their 2 rail pass trucks actually have the 3 rail couplers still on them. I believe they are the same trucks. So I would guess that that these maybe fine for use in 3 rail if you swap out the wheels.
Mike,
if you have 2 rail trucks and want to swap for 3 rail trucks you could probably find someone who is trying to do the opposite and just swap with them. That way there is no mangling and everyone gets what they want. The three rail cars have the roller pick ups for lights. Just swapping wheels you don’t get those.
I have a three rail 64 ft MTH passenger car and want to make it two rail so if you are willing we could just swap trucks. I know you are in NJ. Personal Message me if you are interested.
Generally you can switch the wheelsets on trucks to convert from 3- to 2 rail. You might find a set of trucks someplace that have the bolsters riveted to the sideframes. On these, you may have to drill out the rivets to disassemble them to replace the wheels. Then to reassemble you would have to tap the holes adn reassemble with screws.
Most trucks however are assembles with screws and very easy to convert.
