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A friend of mine recently bought a large lot of Weaver cars that do not have any trucks or couplers. He did some research and found out that Weaver is no longer in business and all there supplies and molds got bought out. Does anyone know where to find these trucks and couplers? We have both searches sites including eBay and can't seem to find them.  He needs approx 208 couplers and 150 trucks. He may just uses Kadee couplers but not sure. Anyone have any info? 

Thank you for your help

 

Dewitalldesign@gmail.com

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He needs to wait a little longer. I have a box of 12 Weaver hoppers with no wheels or couplers. At the Lionel sale yesterday I saw the first group of LionScale Hoppers by Lionel. Lionel purchased the Weaver tooling and they are using the same style trucks that Weaver used (screwed in from the bottom) I would think by this time next year Lionel parts would be available to complete his rolling stock.
Scott Smith

For what it's worth, there are two different types/designs of Weaver 3-Rail trucks. One, is the older plastic trucks with sintered metal wheel sets (which I wouldn't give two cents for). The second, are the top quality die-cast 3-Rail trucks with proper gauged metal wheel sets (the only kind I use). The the Weaver 2-Rail scale trucks are also excellent, for those folks that desire to operate 2-Rail SCALE freight cars on their 3-Rail track.

What Barry L Lewis said. Lionel also makes trucks for Weaver, because Lionel bought the Weaver molds.  If buying Lionel, wait for their yearly parts sale. I need to look into Atlas, thanks for the tip.

The following paragraph is sure to get some people mad.

In my opinion, another option is to search on eBay, or when train shows open again, for the cheapest Weaver cars you can find while staying under $25. Take the trucks, and throw the rest away. You might have to throw some of your stash away as well; it might just not be worth it to sink any more money into a car you might not be able to sell for $25-30 in the future. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, "I'll never want to sell this piece of rolling stock." You will.

I can't hardly give away the Lionel Standard 'O' cars from the 1980s, 1990s, so if one breaks, I take the 'least loved one' and cannibalize it for the others. Few people want them, because they are larger than post war, but smaller than 1/48 scale.

You're right Michael, I can't believe the advice(?!?) in that paragraph.  Take the trucks off and throw the Weaver body away??  Oh I know, America's such a big country it's more sensible to throw stuff away, even good models 'cos the would-be O-scalers, maybe coming up from HO, are too far away or not reading the right forum, or ....

I'll stop now.  3-rail can be such a different hobby.

Jason

I think your buddy can get there if he takes a bit of time.  2 rail guys like me often started out with 3 rail stuff and have jettisoned the old trucks and couplers as we moved into proto 48 or fine scale 2 rail. I wish you would have mentioned this last year, I gave away over 30 sets of Weaver 3 rail trucks and couplers when I put brass trucks or better scale trucks on my cars.  You can always find stuff on Ebay but at $20-30 for new replacement trucks, your friend will have to mortgage his house to finish off all the cars he bought.  It is hard to believe that 20 bucks would get you brand new in the box Weaver car just 25 years ago. Good luck and happy hunting!

The issue with going to a train show is I get the "You spent all day at the show while I watched the kids". Now with the kids in college, etc, its now "You spent all day at the train show and left me alone." Even a trip to the IRM elicits a similar response. There is marriage currency involved with a show that the garbage can does not require.  That said, I will be selling some day at the DuPage show, price things to move, sell what people want to buy and keep running the rest. The shipping prices on large boxes is outrageous, and when in person the buyer can inspect.

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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