You Never Know What ....... so I'm asking.....

[Sumpter250]

I was out to the Illinois Railway Museum, in Union Il. yesterday. was having a great time until I stumbled across this:
   
I have never seen a truck like this, and have no idea what "type" of truck it is, and I couldn't find anyone at the museum who could tell me.
SO - - - I have to ask, What is it ? !? !? .......and does it exist in HO scale. I'd like to purchase/build/acquire a set of these, for one of my vanderbilt tenders.

[doctorwayne]

Here's a LINK to a site showing a picture of the same tender behind its locomotive.

I couldn't find any info on those trucks, although I did find a N&W "Pilchner Patent" 6-wheel truck with some similar characteristics, and a Barber-Timken roller bearing truck with separately-sprung journals, somewhat like the ones in your photo. For some reason, though, the first thing which springs to mind for me is a Pennsy design, but I couldn't find any additional information.

Wayne

[Sumpter250]

I cannot find any specific reference to these trucks, and have to assume that Alco, either invented them, or helped KCS with their design.
I'll wait a bit, and if there is no " answer" to this question, I'll simply build the trucks as close to the photos as I can, and so be it.
Maybe, once they are built, the "nitpickers" will descend from their perches, and inform me of my errors.....the greatest place to live life really is on the sharp leading edge of a learning curve..........regardless of the source of the information.

Thank you, Wayne, for your response, and the link,
Pete

[Charlie B]

You could start with caboose trucks and add to the side frames if nothing else is found.
Charlie

[Tyson Rayles]

The trucks on F unit locos look a lot like that.

[MountainMan]

Indeed they do.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.wig-wag-trains.com/MRC/Pictures/DCC/1659_K_F-unit.JPG">http://www.wig-wag-trains.com/MRC/Pictu ... F-unit.JPG</a><!-- m -->

[teejay]

I know in the steel mills and perhaps other heavy industrial settings , the repair shops would throw any configuration truck ( that met specs ) on their "house rolling stock " ....appearances didn't matter , they had to get the cars back to work .

[railohio]

They're definitely not EMD Blomberg ("F unit") trucks.

What does the museum staff have to say about them?

[Sumpter250]

What does the museum staff have to say about them?

The people who were there, at the time, didn't know.

These are just too unique, to not try to model them. I might just do them in narrow gauge. The outside frame 2-6-6-2, has a Vanderbilt tender, that would look good with that style of truck, and the foundries at Sag Harbor Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. could easily cast the frames.
Yessss, there was a madness to my method, of making the parent company of my "home roads" a Shipyard.

[cnrglen]

Those are certainly the most unique looking trucks I've seen. No numbering or lettering cast into the them? Those usually give you some clues as to who cast them.
Trying the scratchbuild such an animal would be a challenge

[doctorwayne]

In my 1973 reprint of the 1925 Locomotive Cyclopædia, there's a photo on page 189 of an Alco-built Florida East Coast 4-8-2 with what appear to be similar tender trucks. On page 622, there's a drawing of an equalised pedestal tender truck, built by Alco for the Kansas City Southern, but it's definitely not like the one in the photo.
On page 169, there are photos of Light and Heavy USRA Pacifics, and both are equipped with USRA-style tender trucks, a top-equalised design not that well accepted by many railroads. They feature a top member similar to that of the KCS tender in the photo, but do not include the drop portion with the leaf springs as an integral part of the sideframe casting. They do, however, appear to have a similar drop casting and leaf spring arrangement inboard of the upper casting. The photos are too small to tell if the journal boxes are individually-sprung, but the pivot arms are definitely not visible - perhaps, if the journals are so-sprung, they pivot from that drop-frame. A picture on page 179 shows a USRA Light 4-8-2 built for the NYNH&H, also with USRA-type tender trucks, but it's no clearer.
It's easy to speculate that Alco may have attempted further development of the USRA tender truck - perhaps someone can comment on the origin of the original design - if it was an Alco creation, it might be reasonable to think that they'd pursue it further.
I also found this photo of a FEC Pacific with a fairly similar style of tender trucks.

Wayne

[Sumpter250]

Emailed the KCS, and got a response back.....someone will be looking for information on those trucks and will send me what I need.
A scratchbuild isn't as big a challenge when you have all the needed details, available, or you have the information needed to build those details.