Leadville Designs C&S 5'-6" Passenger Trucks

[Keith Hayes]

Hey Everyone!

For those of you who visited the layout during the recent Narrow Gauge Convention,  thank you. It was terrific to see everyone qmand put faces with names. Sorry I couldn't talk with you longer. And for those of you who posted or shared photos of the layout,  thank you. It is really neat to see the layout through others eyes. In one case there was a photo I didn't recognize and I thought,  "gees, that is an awesome layout !" and I realized it was mine.

Anyway,  Bill Meredith visited Denver and brought a bunch of kits with him. I brought home my Baggage Car 1/2 and several sets of the 5'-6" trucks. Though I promised Rich Gibson I would work on the track so we can improve operations,  the trucks have been calling me!

First off these are based on a Master Car Builder design that was published and widely used in many late 19th century passenger cars and even caboosees--I am looking at the CB&Q crowd here. The design is a bunch of wood parts with some key metal castings. RPOs and head end cars evolved the design using all cast steel parts. Early cars had outside-hung brakes: the brakes are outboard of the truck ends. These trucks have the brakes inboard next to the bolster.

The truck kits feature 4 wheel sets, 4 tiny screws and 2 brass trees with the 6 truck parts. These include the top and bottom bolster; the two side frames and the two brake beams.

The bolster parts are nicely attached to the sprue and are easy to cut off and clean up. The other 4 parts are attached for easy casting but require careful despruing and a lot of filing to clean up. I enjoy watching Quinn on Blondy Hacks, and these trucks really make me want to get a mill to clean up rhe faces and make sure everything is parallel and square.

Here are the truck parts cleaned up. The side frames have a button that nests into the two bolster halves allowing the side frames to equalize. There are also two studs in each brake beam that fit into holes on the long side if the bolsters.

I got the parts desprued and cleaned up. The side frames are detailed nicely and should look really good when painted. The button studs are Fiddly and 3 of the 4 were not straight,  so would not fit in the bolster. A gentle tap seems to have fixed that. I worry that they are more fragile than they appear.

The screws are intended to screw the bolster halves together,  allowing the truck to be disassembled. I am wondering how to assemble it without another set of hands, and I am seriously thinking of soldering the brake beams to one of the bolster parts. The studs on the brake beams require some careful filing to fit in the corresponding holes in the bolsters. I wonder if holes and some wire would not have been a better strategy?

Test fits indicate that one pair of side frames has a deeper axle hole than the others. This means that the face of the wheel is perilously close to the inside face of the side frame. As my trucks will need to act as pick up for my Soundcar, I will need to pay attention to avoid any shorting. I can tell that filing the parts square and to the proper length is going to be key to smooth operation.

More to come....

[Keith Hayes]

Okay...so I pressed on and got out my 00-90 tap and went to work on the bolster. A little oil and some careful twisting and voila! A truck.

It was fiddly getting the wheels and side frames still so I could tighten the screws. Fortunately,  the screws are long enough you can start them to secure the bolster halves and still slide the side frames into the bolster.

Then I thought,  heck! Can I fit the breaker beams in. Sure enough.

So one truck is assembled. The screws are slot type: I wish they were Phillips. I did assemble the bolster and trued up the faces. My skepticism entirely unwarranted and Bill's status as Master Engineer stands.

Now one more to go and thinking about power and paint.

[Keith Hayes]

And a pair of trucks are assembled in about 4 hours.

I do need to figure out how to add some wipers and I ended up breaking off one screw head. But these are fast and easy to assemble and probably can be assembled after painting without soldering or maybe glue.

[Jim Courtney]

Thanks for the review, Keith!

An email exchange with Bill this last week says Bill will be mailing all the preorders (both the C&S baggage 1/2 kits and the 5'-6" trucks) this coming Tuesday . . .

[Charles McMillan]

My set in HOn3 is in the mail . Looking forward to having them and getting on with building my combination car.
Charles M

[Keith Hayes]

If you know me, you know I am lazy. I wanted to prime the wheelsets, but didn't want to bother getting out my Banta wheel masks. So I thought of this:

Grab a business card, cut some slots for the axles and viola, something you can hang onto while you paint the wheels!

[Jim Courtney]

Test fits indicate that one pair of side frames has a deeper axle hole than the others. This means that the face of the wheel is perilously close to the inside face of the side frame. As my trucks will need to act as pick up for my Soundcar, I will need to pay attention to avoid any shorting.

Keith, best check the wheelsets before painting! Some of Bill's 26" wheelsets with pointed axle ends, supplied with the Leadville Shops brass trucks, had both wheels insulated from the axles, to avoid shorting should the wheel face brush the side frame. If so, adding pickups for electrical conduction from axles might be problematic.

The recent Pullman 6'-0" trucks that Bill offered had NWSL blunt axles with one wheel obviously insulated. Haven't looked at these yet, as mine are still in the mail from Canada.

[Keith Hayes]

Jim, thanks for the tip. I di check the wheels multiple times and determined both tires are indeed insulated from the axles.

In fact, this keeps tripping ne up. I filed the brake beams a bit so I could solder a wire to one side frame as a wheel wipe. Then I primed the parts, including masking the bearings on the side frames with latex. Except I also painted the axle ends. But I realized that I am not dependent upon the axle to conduct electricity, only the wipers. I will polish the axle end just the same for freer rolling.

I also plan to place some Kapton tape on the inside faces of the side frames so as to prevent unwanted shorts.

[Jim Courtney]

You might consider substituting PBL's 26" wheel sets, as they have conventional insulation on one side only. The axles are a bit shorter though, 0.88" as compared to the Leadville Shops axles which are about 0.092". If the PBL wheelsets are used, wipers to the axles could be used.

https://www.p-b-l.com/Rolling-Stock/WebTrucks/wheelsets.html

Jim

[Mike Trent]

I received my three sets of On3 trucks today and they look beautiful. Can't wait to get to work on them, so my Baggage & Mail #13 can finally be finished!

Thanks, Bill, Jim and Keith!

Mike

[Jim Courtney]

Thanks also to Mike McKenzie, who co-sponsored the C&S baggage car project with me!

Funny, when Bill was first discussing the project with Mike and me, he noted that he would also have to produce correct 5'-6" wheelbase trucks for the kits. He referred to the trucks as a "loss-leader". It would be interesting to know how many pair of trucks have been sold to date, perhaps 2-3 pair for every baggage car kit??

[Keith Hayes]

I ordered 3 pairs! Plus the baggage!

[Keith Hayes]

One truck is assembled. This took some serious deep breathing. I thought I did a good job cleaning and painting the brass but....

[Mike Trent]

Today, I completed and installed a pair of these trucks for my Baggage & Mail #13. I am very pleased with them. These are the third set of trucks I have used with #13 and are finally ones that are correct.

It took some doing to work out the attachment to the body bolsters because of the difference of screws and the design of the new truck bolsters. I used the same Kodama wheelsets that i have used in all of the trucks this car has had. Everything worked out OK.

Thanks, Bill, for all the work to produce them.