Trainworx Truck Parts

[cfritschle]

I thought it would be fun to share a photo of the dark blue Peterbilt 379 with a modified Micro-Trains trailer. 



The reefer unit is from BLMA, and the reefer fuel tank is a shortened tank (to approximate a 50 gallon fuel tank) from a Con-Cor trailer.

Carter

[peteski]

Nice job Carter!  I hope that all Trainworx wheels will eventually be restocked.  They sold out rather quickly.

[jagged ben]

Nice job Carter!  I hope that all Trainworx wheels will eventually be restocked.  They sold out rather quickly.

Quite possibly people are replacing stock wheels on other brands of trailers with the better looking Trainworx wheels.  So that would cause the wheels to sell out faster that the corresponding truck parts.

[peteski]

Quite possibly people are replacing stock wheels on other brands of trailers with the better looking Trainworx wheels.  So that would cause the wheels to sell out faster that the corresponding truck parts.

No doubt!  That is the reason I want bunch more myself - I have several Kato Volvo tractors that still need some "real" wheels.

[cfritschle]

Thanks Peter!

The Trainworx wheels "fit" the Micro-Trains Fruehauf trailers and the Atlas Pines trailers without any modifications!  I am in the process of updating all of my Micro-Trains trailers with Trainworx wheels.  (Intermodal trailers with spoke wheels are getting rather scarce these days.)  The Baby Ruth trailer received the Trainworx 5-hole Budd wheels, but some of my MT trailers will get the 10-hole aluminum wheels.  The restock of truck parts should occur around late April or early May, and I really hope there will be enough to go around this time.   

I have only converted two of my Kato Volvos so far, so I have a bunch of them left to convert.  I have found the Kato wheels can be used to upgrade medium duty trucks, like this GMC Bachmann wrecker converted to a grain truck.  Sort of a trickle down upgrade.   


The Bachmann truck is still a "background" model, but my original "upgrade" of the truck used Boyd wheels from the early 1970s.  The Kato wheels are definitely an improvement over the Boyd wheels.   

Carter

[peteski]

That is an excellent tip Carter!  Those Kato Volvo wheels are well-detailed and are perfect for a smaller truck - even the aggressive tread pattern fits the truck perfectly!

[nkalanaga]

Carter:  I turned a Bachmann wrecker into a grain truck many years ago.  Except for the colors, it looked much like yours, right down to the 4-panel grain box!  Mine still has the Bachmann wheels, so yours looks better.

As you said, definitely a background model, but it fills an empty space behind my feed mill.  It can't really be seen, but there's obviously a vehicle there.

[cfritschle]

Getting back to the Baby Ruth trailer, I was not too sure if it was prototypical.  However, in this Google Street View of the Nestle plant in Franklin Park, Illinois, the Baby Ruth trailers appear to be plentiful.   

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9369319,-87.9202307,3a,37.5y,112.6h,89.34t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1smFd9Rgpaz-muaOEB3KlAGA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

And, to keep this on topic, here is the Kato Volvo VN 780 that donated its wheels to the Bachmann GMC.


One thing I had to do was to lengthen the Kato chassis by 0.06 0.04 inches between the rear axles.  Without the extra length, the rear tires on the first axle were almost touching the rear tires on the second axle.

Carter

Edit:  I should not have relied on memory when I posted this.  A more thorough examination reveals this chassis was only lengthened by 0.04 inches.  As described below, lengthening the Kato chassis by 0.06 inches matches the axle spacing of the Trainworx tandem suspensions.

[Catt]

Those Trainworx wheels and tires sure make a difference on the KATO Volvo.I'm gonna need sets for four tractors. 

[peteski]

Getting back to the Baby Ruth trailer, I was not too sure if it was prototypical.  However, in this Google Street View of the Nestle plant in Franklin Park, Illinois, the Baby Ruth trailers appear to be plentiful.   

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9369319,-87.9202307,3a,37.5y,112.6h,89.34t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1smFd9Rgpaz-muaOEB3KlAGA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

And, to keep this on topic, here is the Kato Volvo VN 780 that donated its wheels to the Bachmann GMC.


One thing I had to do was to lengthen the Kato chassis by 0.06 inches between the rear axles.  Without the extra length, the rear tires on the first axle were almost touching the rear tires on the second axle.

Carter

That looks good Carter, but I would also file the bottom third of the front wheel-well opening a bit to widen it a bit.

[cfritschle]

That looks good Carter, but I would also file the bottom third of the front wheel-well opening a bit to widen it a bit.

Thanks Peter, but I think a better solution might be to shorten the front axle a bit.  The photos I have of the prototype when viewed from the side seem to match the model when it is viewed from the side.

I will "play" with the axle length before enlarging the wheel well.  Also, Pat calls the tire a 10:00 X 20, which is most likely a higher profile (larger diameter) tire than on the prototype.

And while not visible in this photo, the fuel tanks on the model need to be cut off and relocated.  They are right under the sleeper some distance ahead of the rear axles.  They also appear to be impossible to fill from either side of the tractor.   

Carter

[cfritschle]

I managed to shorten the front axle on the Kato Volvo VN 780 from the earlier post, and now it shows that there is clearance between the tire and wheel well.


I also started working on converting another Volvo chassis to accept the Trainworx axles and wheels.  I found if I extended the chassis between the rear axles by 0.08 0.06 inches instead of 0.06 0.04 inches, the distance between axles now matches the spacing of the Trainworx tandem rear suspensions.


I also found that all Trainworx front axles are not the same length.  The "stock" axle was too short to adapt to the wide Kato chassis, so I made a slightly longer front axle from 0.039 music wire.  These conversions require a lot of trail and error filing and fitting.   

This chassis also has the fuel tanks relocated to a more realistic location.  However, from most viewing angles you will never see them once the cab is placed on the chassis.

Carter

Edit:  This chassis was lengthened by 0.06 inches, not 0.08 inches.  The chassis for the first two Kato Volvos I modified were lengthened several years ago to accommodate the wheels from the Atlas LNT-9000.  A closer inspection of the styrene strips revealed they were 0.04 inches square.  I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

[peteski]

Thanks for the info Carter. But your corrections confused me. If the strip you used for extending the truck are 0.040" then how did you manage extending it by 0.060"?  Single layer of the strip would have extend it by 0.040" and double layer by 0.080".  Where did 0.060" come from?

[cfritschle]

Thanks for the info Carter. But your corrections confused me. If the strip you used for extending the truck are 0.040" then how did you manage extending it by 0.060"?  Single layer of the strip would have extend it by 0.040" and double layer by 0.080".  Where did 0.060" come from?

Hi Peter,

I knew it would have been better to wait until today to offer an explanation of my mistake, and I should not have attempted to explain it after it got to be so late last night.     

For the first two Kato Volvos in which I extended the chassis, which was probably back in late 2009 or early 2010, I inserted a strip of square styrene right behind the fifth wheel plate to add some space between the tandem rear wheels.  I did that to accommodate the Atlas Ford LNT-9000 wheels that I had used to replace the stock Kato wheels.  When I was able to purchase the Trainworx aluminum wheels last summer, I simply replaced the Atlas wheels with the Trainworx wheels on the two Kato Volvos that I had modified years ago.  Unfortunately, I did not look all that closely at the size of the styrene strips that I had used on those models, and I thought it was 0.06 inch square styrene strip.

Yesterday, I decided to try a little larger piece of styrene strip that was loose in a box of various sizes of styrene strips.  Since the piece I choose was a little larger than the strip I had used for the prior chassis extensions, I assumed it must be 0.08 inches square.  However, after I had posted the photos last night, I realized something did not look quite right.  I went back downstairs and compared the styrene strip I had used with some styrene strips still in their original packages.  Much to my surprise, I discovered the strip I used for yesterday's chassis extension matched the 0.06 inch square strips.  I then took a closer look at the original two Volvos, and realized those chassis had been extended with 0.04 inch square styrene strips.

Had I taken the time to measure the strip with a digital micrometer, all of this confusion could have been avoided.  But, what I can conclude is the a extension of the Kato Volvo chassis by 0.04 inches works, but if you extend the chassis by 0.06 inches, it looks even better.

Sorry for the confusion.   

Carter

 

[peteski]

Thanks Carter - it all makes sense now!