Old Steamers

[gna]

GNA, I just want to put a disclaimer out there first before I continue, I am not a Pennsy expert by any sense of the imagination. As a matter of fact I have a very limited knowledge of the PRR. There are many more out there who could answer your question about Pennsy tender trucks better then I. That being said, I'll see if I can show you with pictures Bowser and Bachmann Tender trucks.

Bowser parts page used to have a picture of all the tender trucks they used to sell separately. Here is a photo of the Kiesel trucks that I used to buy from them. 20 bucks comes to mind, but its been a few years since I bought these:

To my knowledge, Bowser supplied these with all they're PRR tenders (the spring style trucks) except the long haul tender. The Pennsy most certainly could have had other tender trucks.

I was looking in my parts box, because I thought I had a couple of these (still in the package) tucked away for future builds, but I haven't been able to locate any new ones. Shame Bowser stopped producing these. Here is a photo of the Bowser 318 Kiesel trucks(left) next to a set of Bachmann K4 trucks(right):


And this is a bottom view:


I also checked out Bachmann's website after what you reported in your post. At least you can still get them in parts. Maybe they'll do another product run of the K4 and add some more trucks to the parts dept. Or keep checking eBay or train shows for junker Bachmann PRR tenders. They do show up.

As far as, your question about dolphin trucks. If you check out some online photos of the PRR's G5, you can see these tenders seemed to have rode on dolphin trucks. Here is a shot of them on a tender common for the G5 that I have for a future build:


When I was collecting my Bowser kits some years back, these trucks were already sold out at Bowser. I ended up finding these after constantly searching eBay and I got the tender I wanted, too.

Hope I answered some of your questions and good luck with your search.

Thanks Mark. There are some SPF on other forums, so I can ask there, but what you say makes a lot of sense. The E-6 trucks look like Kiesel trucks:

   

The Bowser trucks from this kit were stripped off a different Bowser Tender, which may have come from an H-9 kit. They do have a brass pickup strip, and they work about as well as the brass Cal-Scale trucks. It stalls on turnouts no matter the trucks. My K-4 kit has similar trucks.

I tried yet another set of trucks on my Vandy tender, this set from an old New One/Aristocraft 2-8-2. The other trucks have 33" wheelsets, and these seem to be 36", but after cleaning they pickup fine and my Connie ran well, though the tender looks like it's on stilts:

   
   

Oh the tinkering...