Large Scale Central

Accucraft Tender Truck Pieces

I am changing the wheels on an Accucraft arch bar tender truck this week, and discovered (a) that the truck was entirely bolted together and (b) that it had to be almost entirely un-bolted to get the wheels out. I thought you might like to see the pieces.

Covers on the axle boxes are hinged, although most are glued by the paint. The square things are spring quads - 4 springs with a bolt through the top and bottom to hold it together. [I was clamping the truck bolster pieces together to avoid losing the springs when one fell out and I realised they were already held together.] 4 springs each side ?

As Murphy would have it, the dismantling was because the brake gear is soldered to the bolster (not bolted) and you can’t get the wheels out without taking off the side frame, which means . . .

Been there-done that…they sure don’t make it easy.

And to add to the mix, on a freight truck, there is an obscure nut size, like a 2.2 mm.

To both Pete and John,

Are Accucraft arch bar tender trucks similar to AMS arch bar trucks?

I bought a pair of Accucraft tender trucks from Cliff (they were off a C21 tender) and used them on a Connie bash. I removed the wheels from these trucks and replaced with Phil Dippel’s ball bearing axles. I don’t remember having to take apart the trucks completely to do this. In fact, I can replace the axles, wheels and bearings on my 1/8th scale arch bar trucks without taking the entire truck apart. I’m confused :(.

Gary,

Accucraft made about 9 different Archbar trucks over time. (tender, caboose, long and short archbar, , inside/outside brakes etc.) each one slightly different. I have not worked on all of them, but I am familiar with the ones Pete is working on.

John Bouck said:

Gary,

Accucraft made about 9 different Archbar trucks over time. (tender, caboose, long and short archbar, , inside/outside brakes etc.) each one slightly different. I have not worked on all of them, but I am familiar with the ones Pete is working on.

Interesting :). I have been involved in 1/8th scale longer than 1:20.3…just found it strange that you would have to go to so much extra work just to “change-out” wheels or axles. Not so much “fun” (in my case) when your dealing with trucks that weigh 25-30 pounds each :).

just found it strange that you would have to go to so much extra work just to “change-out” wheels or axles.

Me too. And think of the expense of making separate truck types for each loco.

FYI - I’m swapping the wheels because the tender is going to EBT #1, an Aster 2-6-0 being converted to butane firing using an Accucraft 4-4-0 tender (with gas tank.) The Aster wheels are spoked and the Accu ones are not so I want to use the Asters. Here’s a pic I posted a while ago - note the front truck wheel.

Pete Thornton said:

just found it strange that you would have to go to so much extra work just to “change-out” wheels or axles.

Me too. And think of the expense of making separate truck types for each loco.

FYI - I’m swapping the wheels because the tender is going to EBT #1, an Aster 2-6-0 being converted to butane firing using an Accucraft 4-4-0 tender (with gas tank.) The Aster wheels are spoked and the Accu ones are not so I want to use the Asters. Here’s a pic I posted a while ago - note the front truck wheel.

Pete,

In the photo of the arch bar trucks you are taking apart (at the beginning of this thread), why can’t you just remove the two vertical studs and nuts holding the journal (one side only) to the bars and simply remove the entire wheel and axle assembly from the truck? That’s what I do with my 1/8th scale trucks.

Gary Armitstead said:

Pete,

In the photo of the arch bar trucks you are taking apart (at the beginning of this thread), why can’t you just remove the two vertical studs and nuts holding the journal (one side only) to the bars and simply remove the entire wheel and axle assembly from the truck? That’s what I do with my 1/8th scale trucks.

Gary, I would have loved to do that. Unfortunately, unlike all the other bolt-together construction, the brake gear is one piece and soldered to the bottom of the bolster, which prevents the wheels from going downwards. With only the journal removed, the axle ends are still inside the archbar frame and can’t slide out because of the brakes. Sigh.

ANyway, I got my 3mm and 4mm drills today. 5/32nds (3.96875mm) didn’t cut it on metric axles. So I drilled out the axleboxes and put it back together - looks great, apart from the paint that peeled off.