In 2014 through 2016 Lionel cataloged replacement trucks for freight cars. They were 6-49081 70 Ton roller bearing trucks with metal wheels, and rotating bearing caps. Picture below. I bought a couple of sets back then but never installed them, the catalog price was $24.99.
Last month Charles Ro put them on sale for $11.99 so I ordered 70 sets. Enough to do all the Lionel AF cars in active use on my layout plus some for future purchases. Time to finally use these nice trucks and get rid of all the plastic wheels!
There are three different types of mounts that need to be dealt with, box cars, hopper cars and flat/tank cars.
I started with the box cars since they were the easiest with their easily removable sheet metal chassis. The best way to attach the new trucks is with 10-32 socket head screws, nylon insert lock nuts and #8 washers. I tried several alternatives, that worked best. I could not quickly find them black anodized so I bought stainless and painted the exposed part black with a felt tip paint marker. The original trucks are held on with a brass eyelet.
The cars are now completely stable, no shifting or wobbling as they roll along. The trucks are slightly heavier which also helps. Some of the original trucks have needle point axles, older cars do not. These new 70 Ton trucks are much better and more free rolling than any of the factory mounted trucks. The metal wheels are so much better than plastic. These 70 Ton trucks are not power pickup.
There was an even better improvement that was evident when the first car was done. The cars now couple much closer together resulting in a far better train appearance. To me Link coupler cars always looked better because they coupled together much closer than the KC cars. No more! Here are the measurements for the box cars. Link coupler boxcars have a gap of 11/16”, KC box cars have a gap of 14/16’, 7/8”, no wonder they looked so much worse. With the new trucks installed the gap is only 9/16”, closer than the link couplers.
Pictures below, including a before and after of the three bay hopper cars.
