Hi John:
That is great news about the Friends working on trucks for passenger cars. Do you know if they are slated for the RPO 54 which is on the Friends work schedule for June? BTW long RPO's used a cast steel truck with inside hung brakes which is quite different from the passenger truck as shown in the photo below.
I just ran across some correspondence with the late Bob Richardson I had in my files from about 20 years ago regarding this very subject. Apparently I contributed to a CRRM passenger truck fund that was to help build patterns so that a truck "kit" could be produced thereby lowering the unit cost.
The bigger point is if we review existing NG passenger equipment that could use passenger trucks for restoration i.e. C&TS, CRRM, SV, D&S, D&RGHF, RGS, WP&Y etc. etc. the total is probably a couple of dozen truck sets without factoring any new "recreation" cars into the mix. If somebody could coordinate the requirements/ logistics I think all the RR's could benefit. If not the Friend's then perhaps the SV boys as they definitely have the capability and their profits go to a very good cause
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Dave Dye photo of #284 @ CRRM 6/2005