Atlas Locomtive Trucks

[John]

I should know this ..

What is the proper way to install Atlas N Scale front and back trucks ..

1) Both trucks with gears on the same side
2) Front truck gears on engineer side, back truck on conductor side
3 Front truck gears on conductor side, back truck on engineer side
4) it doesnt matter

[GimpLizard]

Check out spookshow's site for photos. A priceless resource. Here's a couple of links:

http://spookshow.net/loco/atlasgp3035.html

http://spookshow.net/loco/sd35ln.html

If you page down you'll find pictures of the underside with trucks installed.

[Steveruger45]

usually the trucks have the gears on the left side with reference to the direction of the loco.   FWIW I have reversed this orientation during servicing to quiet the drive down (if it was noisy) and even swapped the trucks around, front to back and left to right. This was nearly always on 4 axle locos. Sometimes it works sometimes not or was not the issue for the noise.  Those that I did leave changed have worked and continue to work well. Some locos like some Kato ones have an indication on them for correct orientation, if that was the case I didn’t change that.

[peteski]

Unless the sideframes are asymmetrical (usually to clear the end steps), the truck will work equally well installed either way.

[southernman]

SD 24/26 trucks are not the same. There is a front and rear truck and they will not work if they are swapped. Speaking from experience. All of the other models that I have tried can be reversed.