I just noticed this: Here’s the trucks on my USA Alco s-4.
And the trucks on my USA EMD NW-2.
Both identical! Remember one is an Alco. The other is an EMD. Now the question is: Is the Alco using EMD trucks or is the EMD using Alco trucks. I think the latter. Or I could be wrong. Maybe Alco and EMD bought their trucks from the same manufacturer. If not, so much for USA’s attention to detail. Actually I don’t even care—just an observation I made. jb
Yes, they are identical. But both EMD and Alco switchers rode on AAR style trucks which is what those are. Some earlier Alcos rode on Blunt style trucks. Larger Alco locomotives generally rode on a larger version of the AAR truck…though some did ride on Blombergs that were traded in…same as some EMD’s rode on AAR’s that were traded. It 's quite common practice for a Railroad to use the same trucks under a new locomotive that was under the old one traded in. They rebuild them and add new traction motors.
I guess you learn something new every day.
I’ll meekly go back down and play with my trains. 
jb
I didn’t mention later model EMD switchers because none are made in large scale, but the SW1200 and newer generally used either Flexicoil or Blomberg. This was so that they could be MU’d with road locomotives if necessary. The older switcher style AAR trucks had a max speed of 40mph…if I recall the figures correctly. This made running with the big boys impossible.
I was always amazed at the large numbers of Southern RR new GP-35s that ran on refurbished old Alco loco trucks .
Remember, the folks who built these dismals survived the Great Depression, where nothing was wasted. “Use it up,” was their motto.
Is the same practice in place, now?
madwolf
John,
Another example of these truck swap outs is, if you look at all the GP30’s that GM&O R.R. had, they all where riding on Alco style trucks. Thanks Rex
Sometime do a similiar comparason of different Aristo two-axle trucks.
Jim Carter
Somehow I think the fact that both use the same power block has more to do with this coincedent than the historical accuracies of which actually rode on what.
Methinks if they came out with a model of a Baldwin Shark that was using the same drive bricks it would still have the same sidebars regardless of what trucks the prototype had.
Vic, not necessarily. So far I’ve not seen a locomotive with the wrong side frames just because of a block they used. In the case of the 1:1 Alco S4 and the EMD NW2, they used the same trucks…new from the factory.
Those ugly screws make them look gaud awful
Fred Mills said:Somewhere in a past GR they included a quick fix fior those screws by adding styrene strips to cover them and then repainting the sideframes. did look alot better after. ;)
Those ugly screws make them look gaud awful
Sharks, we can only dream !