Source for Atlas/BLMA 70 ton roller bearing trucks?

[Ted Thorson]

Does anyone know of a supplier that has the Atlas/BLMA 70 ton roller bearing trucks in stock?

[Ike the BN Freak]

Aren't the ESMC ACF Ride Control trucks the same prototype? And I believe Bryan made them with the lowered bolster.

[Ted Thorson]

If that is true, that would be great- I'm looking for the lowered bolster feature.

[bbussey]

Same prototype as the BLMA truck, with the same bolster height.  Available in three colors currently.
https://www.esmc.com/9200/Item9210.html

Available direct or through your favorite hobby pusher.  Both MBK and NSS carry them as a stock item.

[GM50 4164]

Same prototype as the BLMA truck, with the same bolster height.  Available in three colors currently.
https://www.esmc.com/9200/Item9210.html

Available direct or through your favorite hobby pusher.  Both MBK and NSS carry them as a stock item.

Bryan, are there any plans to offer other styles and tonnage trucks in the future?

[Ted Thorson]

The ESMC trucks look great, just ordered 6 pairs.  Thanks guys!

[bbussey]

Bryan, are there any plans to offer other styles and tonnage trucks in the future?

Styles, definitely. A new style never tooled in N is coming early next year that will have strong appeal for transition era modelers, and two more will be coming after that. Tonnage, not in the immediate plans but anything is possible.

Basically we tool truck frames as we need them for our models, as it eliminates the bottleneck of having to wait for other manufacturers’ truck frames to arrive for a production. We started with one of the X58 runs and tool a new truck (or mold in new colors) as necessary, and then add them to the product line as individual items.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Styles, definitely. A new style never tooled in N is coming early next year that will have strong appeal for transition era modelers, and two more will be coming after that. Tonnage, not in the immediate plans but anything is possible.

Basically we tool truck frames as we need them for our models, as it eliminates the bottleneck of having to wait for other manufacturers’ truck frames to arrive for a production. We started with one of the X58 runs and tool a new truck (or mold in new colors) as necessary, and then add them to the product line as individual items.

We finally getting roller-bearing Bettendorf conversions? My hotboxes aren't going to blind themselves!

[bbussey]

We finally getting roller-bearing Bettendorf conversions? My hotboxes aren't going to blind themselves!

Yes. ASF A-3 refitted truck frames.  Tooled to use on the next GSC well car run. They look good too. 😎

[nickelplate759]

I'd really like to see a common-style solid-bearing 50 ton truck with lowered bolster, similar to the 70 ton style that BLMA/Atlas offers. The only one I know of is the one Atlas uses on their PS-1, and that's not available separately.

[bbussey]

That’s the Barber S-2A 50-ton truck. Sadly they are not available separately as of yet, but the bright side is that most PS-1 boxcars were delivered with ASF A-3 trucks. So if you have any Atlas PS-1 boxcars, you can swap in BLMA trucks and pull the Barber trucks for other projects.

[thomasjmdavis]

That’s the Barber S-2A 50-ton truck. Sadly they are not available separately as of yet, but the bright side is that most PS-1 boxcars were delivered with ASF A-3 trucks. So if you have any Atlas PS-1 boxcars, you can swap in BLMA trucks and pull the Barber trucks for other projects.

Bryan,
You no doubt have done more research on this than I have, given your company making the similar, later model ASF ride control truck, so hoping you will know...
How much physical difference is there between the ASF A-3 70 ton truck (the one modeled by BLMA/Atlas) and the ASF A-3 50 ton truck (the common truck for boxcars and other 40-50 ton freight cars after WWII)? Is it just the journals being a bit larger (near impossible to see in N scale) or were there other dimensional differences?

Thanks!