Functioning Buckeye Trucks

[nkp174]

These trucks were part of a treasure trove my father picked up a year or so ago. He actually thought they full of junk only...but a term of purchase for an atlas he wanted. We were quite surprised to find a bunch of neat stuff in the box...and auctioned the "junk" to someone that was even happier than we were with the find.

These buckey trucks are sprung and they are hinged in the middle like real ones. I know that these are a major pain in real life...my father has dealt with them under the 765's tender and the Birmingham shops replaced the 611's buckeye trucks with commonwealth trucks.

They were under a Varney tender to an SP 4-8-2 that had been extremely well kitbashed from a Varney pacific.

 

[KCS]

Wow. I bet those run good. I bet every wheel will stay on the track no matter how uneven or bumpy. Everything is equilized.

 

[doctorwayne]

My 1953 Varney catalogue doesn't list a Buckeye truck, sprung or otherwise, although they did offer an unsprung 6 wheel Commonwealth tender truck. The Bowser Buckeye trucks also appear to be unsprung. For some reason, I keep thinking that I've seen trucks similar to yours, and they were made by Athearn. I dunno about that one. If you're curious, you could pm Ray Marinaccio, as he'd probably know the manufacturer.

Wayne

 

[ed acosta]

Sprung Buckeye Trucks

The sprung Buckeye trucks are Athearn trucks. Athearn sold them seperately in small white cardboard boxes about the same size as match boxes. As I recall the price was about $1.50 printed on the box. I purchased several pairs back in the early 1960s. I later used one pair on my Athearn crane, replacing the unsprung, but metal trucks that were used on their kits by late 1960s. I do caution you not to twist the trucks more than necessary to articulate them. The metal on one pair was much to brittle and I recently destroyed a pair by flexing it a little too much.

-Ed Acosta

 

[pjb]

Penn-Line buckeye trucks

Penn Line , which was later acquired by Bowser made an all
metal sprung Buckeye truck. They were part of the 'I-1' Hippo
kits I bought in 1957 for the massive "Coast to Coast" tender
that they were sold with. I am not sure if they were the
appropriate truck for these tenders or not. Regardless, they
were there , and are very nice units.
Good-Luck, PJB

 

[Chessie6459]

That is pretty neat.:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[doctorwayne]

Penn Line , which was later acquired by Bowser made an all
metal sprung Buckeye truck. They were part of the 'I-1' Hippo
kits I bought in 1957 for the massive "Coast to Coast" tender
that they were sold with. I am not sure if they were the
appropriate truck for these tenders or not. Regardless, they
were there , and are very nice units.
Good-Luck, PJB

Bowser now offers the coast-to-coast tender with the more correct 8-wheel Commonwealth-style trucks.

Wayne

 

[nkp174]

Thank you for the info. I thought I'd share since I'd never seen something quite like those before. I wish there were more products like those available.