Received samples of the modified truck. Wanted to share pictures. These trucks will be on the latest offerings of the scale Covered Hopper that was in the 2019 Big Book.
There are many improvements made over the previous version of the truck:
- Lowered the overall ride height
- Adjusted wheel dimensions on the hi-rail wheels
- S-gauge coupler tooling modified to prevent impact with the car body when the truck rotates
- Improved bushing design for reduced axle friction
- Scale coupler now sits at NMRA height without the use of shims
- Scale wheel sets have been properly gauged and the wheels themselves now meet NMRA spec
The redesign of the truck has the active sprung-bolster feature removed. Like on our O Scale truck, the sprung feature was so stiff that it did nothing to actually improve the tracking of the truck. It only complicated the assembly. Removing the feature also allowed me to drop the truck height to where I wanted it. The springs are still installed in the side frames, but only serve an aesthetic purpose.
I don't have any samples yet of the revised scale wheel sets. Note that they will be offered through Customer Service for those that want them. With the redesign, I don't recommend trying to use the previous version of the scale wheel sets with these new trucks.
It is likely that we will offer separate sale pairs of the trucks in the future for those that want to upgrade their older cars. Stay tuned to future catalogs for that.
