Bowser 70T solid-bearing trucks (and truck frames)

[nickelplate759]

While looking at the Bowser parts pages, I found that they sell 70T solid bearing trucks, and the even sell the truck frames without wheels!  So I ordered some (without wheels - I use ESMC wheels in them).
Here's Bowser's catalog photo of the truck with their metal wheels:
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They can be ordered here: https://bowserorders.com/product-category/n-bowser-parts-all/
$8.00 for truck with wheels, $2.50 for just the truck frame.


Some observations:

• They're set up for "normal" ride height, so they won't lower cars like the BLMA/Atlas trucks will.
• They're designed for the Bowser truck pins, which are narrower than what Atlas or MicroTrains use - the bolster hole is about 0.10" vs about 0.11" on Atlas trucks.  The Bowser pins won't fit an Atlas or MicroTrains car, so to use these trucks you have to drill out the bolster hole in the truck.
• They look pretty good, but different (different prototype?) than the BLMA/Atlas truck.
• They appear to be made in the USA (have "Bowser USA" in raised letters on them).
• With ESMC .553" wheelsets they roll quite nicely

They're not mentioned in Spookshow's truck encyclopedia, by the way.

I tried to photograph them, but my phone struggles with macro photograpy.

Truck with ESMC wheels:


Atlas/BLMA on left, Bowser (with ESMC wheels) on right.  Clearly different prototypes.


Atlas PS2 with Atlas/BLMA on left, Bowser on right:

[thomasjmdavis]

I think the Bowser are an AAR design used on 70T cars in the late 30s through WWII, thus pre-dating, by a few years, the ASF A-3 (the BLMA/Atlas truck, which was originally equipped with solid bearings, and in later years also with roller bearings.

I have a few pair of Bowser trucks that I am planning to use on (ironically) my MTL 65' gons.  The ATSF Ga-47 and Ga-48 (the latter being the prototype for the MTL gon) were built in 1940 and utilized an AAR 70t truck designated as DTSP, which I think means 'double truss, spring plank'.  My opinion is that the Bowser truck is closer than the MTL truck supplied with the cars, which I think is just a an MTL 50 ton 'Bettendorf' truck (but... my eyesight isn't what it used to be).

[daniel_leavitt2000]

The truck encyclopedia became too unmanageable about ten years ago. I started the truck listing as a side project, and Mark (Spookshow) kindly took the reins when I couldn't keep track anymore.

Tracking truck lineage became a headache after Sanda-Kan suddenly closed in 2008 and manufacturers started scrambling to other OEMs. Truck designs were copied, cloned and modified. At one point I found the same 70t RB truck tooling with three different axle lengths and 4 different injection ports. Manufacturers wouldn't (or couldn't) help establish what trucks came from whom. Athearn specifically like to introduce newly tooled trucks for no apparent reason. Then you had the oddball one off trucks (the Atlas GA RBL comes to mind) that were not readily available and I had no prototype information for.

Bowser had side frames available in bulk for some time. I used a lot of their 100T RB trucks when the BLMA wells ran dry. For a long time, they were only about $1 each, so you could equip a car with quality trucks and FVM wheels for under $8. This was helpful when I needed to update dozens of 100T covered hoppers.

[spookshow]

I've pretty much given up too. It's gotten to the point where just about every new freight car from the likes of Rapido Trains, BLI or Scaletrains has some sort of new truck design.

-Mark

[garethashenden]

If @Dave V is still looking for N5C cabeese, it looks like all the parts are available from Bowser. A DIY kit of sorts.

[peteski]

I've pretty much given up too. It's gotten to the point where just about every new freight car from the likes of Rapido Trains, BLI or Scaletrains has some sort of new truck design.

-Mark

I never though we would be complaining about too many variants in N scale. But of course it makes difficult to track and document all of them.  I wonder of this large variety is due to American companies using multiple contractors or the model designers spend time designing new trucks from scratch, even when existing design and tooling are available?  Maybe they are not aware that there are already trucks available. We will likely never know.

Seems similar to the Chinese model designers reinventing some mechanical features when very reliable proven designs already exist to be easily copied.

[Dave V]

If @Dave V is still looking for N5C cabeese, it looks like all the parts are available from Bowser. A DIY kit of sorts.

Thanks for the heads' up! Just got an N5, but yeah, and N5C is still on my list.

[spookshow]

I never though we would be complaining about too many variants in N scale. But of course it makes difficult to track and document all of them.

For me, it got to be a pain having to buy a lot of expensive freight cars I don't need just to get close-up photos of the trucks. Back in the days when companies sold their trucks in bulk it made sense to have a centralized reference documenting them all. But nowadays it just seems kind of pointless. Companies like Scaletrains (et al) probably don't even sell their trucks ala carte.

-Mark

[nickelplate759]

For me, it got to be a pain having to buy a lot of expensive freight cars I don't need just to get close-up photos of the trucks. Back in the days when companies sold their trucks in bulk it made sense to have a centralized reference documenting them all. But nowadays it just seems kind of pointless. Companies like Scaletrains (et al) probably don't even sell their trucks ala carte.

-Mark

this is a frustration for me as well - even Atlas only sells some of their trucks a la carte - many of them (esp. in the Master Line) are unobtanium unless you want to scrap a car.

Bowser currently sells four trucks: 
PRR Caboose truck
PRR, Crown Trucks
70 Ton "Bettendorf"
100 Ton roller bearing.

Atlas sells:
50T solid bearing
70T roller bearing
Caboose roller bearing
Caboose solid bearing
100T roller bearing
40T solid bearing

if you look at the parts for specific Master-line rolling stocks you can find Andrews trucks as well.

Atlas/BLMA sells:
70T solid bearing
70T roller bearing
100T roller bearing

MicroTrains sold a large variety of trucks (but no 70T solid bearing) - hopefully Atlas/MicroTrains will bring them ALL back, but I'm not  holding my breath.

[GaryHinshaw]

I've pretty much given up too. It's gotten to the point where just about every new freight car from the likes of Rapido Trains, BLI or Scaletrains has some sort of new truck design.

-Mark

I have an OCD rant about this.
[rant]It's great that we have so many enterprising manufacturers in the rolling stock market, but the roll-your-own approach to wheels, trucks, and couplers* is indeed getting out of hand.  Even Atlas has gotten into this game now too.  Case in point are the 3230 PD hoppers: they come with newly-tooled trucks that are prototypically correct, but of very marginal quality.  The tooling is pretty soft, the wheels have a really crude profile, and the cars tend to wobble.  Ok, I replace wheels all the time, but these wheels have a .574" axle length...  The FVM .563" wheels kind of work, but they're a little loose and they're also hard to find.  In searching for an alternative, I found that FVM made .576" axles so I got a 100 pack from ShopFVM.  Ok, these are a bit tight, so the cars won't roll without reaming the trucks.  Ok, I ream the trucks so they will (kind of) roll, but it turns out that ~half of the wheels in the 100 pack are pretty serious wobblers.  Ok, it turns out that MTL 100T trucks will work with these cars, but they're not quite prototypical, and the only bolster pin that works requires that I ream the bolster hole a bit... And they're out of stock everywhere. [/rant]

*As I've noted plenty of times elsewhere, the coupler situation is what ultimately (and happily) drove me to N-Possibles.

[Mark5]

I have an OCD rant about this.

Yeah, how about they just standardize the axle length?

[thomasjmdavis]

In addition to a common axle length, it would be helpful if manufacturers dropped the universal descriptor "Bettendorf".  This is used to refer to, essentially, any ARA or AAR compliant freight truck made after Andrews, by several manufacturers, each with their own signature details, spring packs, spring plank or no. The various models are sold as though they were interchangeable- as if the trucks of a 1925 ARA boxcar and a late model PS-1 had identical trucks.  It would be helpful to know whether a given truck is an ARA of 1925 or an AAR of 1950, and which company actually manufactured it.  At least, it would save my 72 year old eyes from having to stare through magnifiers trying to discern whether this, that, or another truck is the best candidate for a model of a given freight car.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I never though we would be complaining about too many variants in N scale. But of course it makes difficult to track and document all of them.  I wonder of this large variety is due to American companies using multiple contractors or the model designers spend time designing new trucks from scratch, even when existing design and tooling are available?  Maybe they are not aware that there are already trucks available. We will likely never know.

Seems similar to the Chinese model designers reinventing some mechanical features when very reliable proven designs already exist to be easily copied.

My personal feeling is this could be caused by offshoring CAD work. If manufacturers provide prototype info and request a project, of course OEM's would supply their own truck designs as they did not have the back catalog of projects to pull 3d models from. Another issue might be moving to new software, where it would be easier to design a truck you know will work, rather than trying to import one that may take extra work to validate. Does Atlas or Rapido make all the design work in house? I doubt it. A great example is how some Atlas and FVM 50' boxcars share the same underframe. Clearly this was a standard part designed at the Chinese OEM and supplied to both companies. I'm sure the American companies validate and QC the renderings, but some of it must be done in the country of manufacture.

[OldEastRR]

Nothing today can recreate American (and German) quality of design, material and workmanship of the last century to most of the general goods now made. Stuff from the '60s and '70s lasted for decades. Stuff today doesn't come close. The corporate mania for cheapest design and cheapest quality sold for the highest price rules the world economy.

[nickelplate759]

I was comparing some of the various trucks I have lying around.  Much to my surprise, the old Intermountain "50T Bettendorf" - that they used when they first started selling boxcar kits - have the slightly longer wheelbase typical of 70T trucks.