Trucks

Thanks to Dave and Earl for clarifying the great truck switcharoo. Glad to hear of the trip to Montana to bring some strays back and get all this squared up.

Incidentally, regarding trucks, I recall that the Feds were beginning to outlaw the archbar design in which the journals are connected to the beams via straps (or bars) bolted together.

So some smart folks started investigating ways to create a new truck that could address the weakness of the archbar design and satisfy the Feds, but re-use some of the archbar components and save the railroads some bucks. Seems like a good business plan, and a fellow name of Andrews was one of the Patent holders, I guess

Eventually some engineers got really involved and figured that they could just cast the whole thing as one piece, including the journals. Bettendorf was one manufacturer--they made lots of other parts too. I am certain there are others.

What the table above does not allude to is the size of the journal, and this may be different among similar looking trucks with the same wheel base. I learned that from a brilliant Friends volunteer who is a mechanical engineer who I am embarrassed to say I cannot recall the name of just now.

I am sure that Earl and Dave can clean up the facts above. Note many names were omitted from the story above, mostly because I don't know all of them. What I want to know, is what is the correct truck to show under a circa 1939 34' stock car? Guess I have to hit the books for that answer!

Keith