[BCRR] – New Archbar Trucks ??

Hello,

I spend some thoughts on new trucks for my bogie freight cars. The two I have were originally designed to run on pairs of disconnects and got simple made archbar trucks some while ago. During my recently started redesign of my railroad, I like to add two more 8-wheel freight cars and therefore I’m in need of additional trucks. I did some research on plans of Yosemite Short Line and Maine Two Foot rolling stock and came to the conclusion, that my existing truck design would fit my new goals I have in mind…

But how to make prototypical archbar trucks. Especially those journal boxes were an issue in my thoughts. For making Castings, I need a good model and at least, I’m not able to make my own castings. Making them from stock material is a mess if you have a total of 32 pieces to go…

One or two weeks ago, I visited another model railroader and he showed my wonderful pieces on his 2.5″ rolling stock made by 3D-printing. I was impressed by the strength and some days later, I got the idea to print the whole journal boxes. So I made a 3D-model of such a journal box by using details from the drawings and existing parts. It’s 31mm high and 28mm wide, designed to take a 8x22x7 ball bearing. It will be hold in place by two 4mm bolts. I added my own BCR letters to the lid.

The typical arch bars will be bend from 12x3mm flat bar and the bolster section will be made from multiplex plywood. The springs were fake dummies only and I’ll use a 3-point-cushion on the frames underside.

These are my thoughts so far on the new trucks. I would need four pairs, but when I look at the 3D-model, I can’t wait to start. One journal box will cost less than 9,-€ which is totally okay for me. I’ll go to order some soon for testing.

Cheers, Gerd