HO St. Louis No. 23 Electric Truck Set

This product contains six trucks, good for three cars.  A sprue clipper is recommended to safely remove the trucks from their protective sprue cage.

This product is available in two styles, regarding leaf spring height, further discussed below.

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K. Kadwell is pleased to announce our first-ever HO scale truck, and as you might expect, we settled on a doozy.  Here is our rendition of St. Louis Car Company's No. 23 truck-- no bloody A, B, C, or D.  Sometimes referred to as an "M.C.B. type" truck, this truck class was a staple of the wooden electric car era and was produced during the late 1900s and early 1910s.  They were a fixture of the Pacific Electric Railway's wooden car fleet, and could be found on that line's 400 series cars (of the pre-Blimp variety) and all three sub-classes of its 500 series.  A few freight cabooses even received the truck in the 1930s.

The StLCC No. 23 truck, combining archbar frame construction with double equalizers, a swing bolster, and outside brake rigging, had a look that was difficult to confuse with any other.  As with all of our products, no aspect of this unique truck design has been left uncovered.  Our model contains an exorbitant amount of prototypical brake detail which is quite visible behind the lacey open side frames, contributing to the truck's signature appearance.  Accurate bearing boxes, coil springs, and bolt detail decorate the outside.

FUNCTIONAL NOTES

A few concessions to model-world functionality were allowed, including a bulky, sturdy bolster section compatible with standard-sized bolster pins and screws (cars with atypically-wide bolster pins may require the truck bolster to be drilled out with a 5/32" drill-- but this is rare).  There is no electric motor or gearing detail.  This is a delicate truck, but as far as we can tell it holds up to reasonable handling and real-world model service.

This truck is designed to accept HO scale 28" diameter wheels, as offered by Intermountain (IMRC #40053), or 30" diameter wheels, as offered by NorthWest Short Line (NWSL #37216-4).  It will not accept higher-diameter wheels such as the standard 33" size used for freight cars.  Furthermore, semiscale treads (i.e. Code 88/0.088", not Code 110/0.110") are required.  These smaller wheels accurately reflect and accentuate the truck's origins in light rail service (the trucks were designed for 30" wheels in real life).  Wheels are not included.

The best way to insert wheelsets without damaging a truck's brake rigging is to flip the truck upside down, insert one end of a wheelset into its bearing, and gently push down on the other end of the wheelset.  It should snap right in.

The ride height of this truck is designed to match the NMRA standard for HO passenger cars.

MODELING TIPS?

For a great project using these trucks, be sure to check out Rey Castillo's article on Pacific Electric Railway caboose No. 1969 on his blog, Twice-Weekly Trolley History: Twice-Weekly Trolley History: Trolley Thursday 11/24/20 - Pacific Electric Caboose No. 1969 (trolleytuesdays.blogspot.com) .  (The article was written during the trucks' testing stages, but rest assured, our current prints have been updated to remove all bugs described therein!)  (Also, contrary to some captions in the article, our trucks, and the accurate trucks for PE cabooses, are indeed No. 23s, not No. 23Bs.)  Photos are also included in our images section above!

ABOUT LEAF SPRING HEIGHT VARIANTS

Prototype photos of StLCC No. 23 trucks indicate that the height of the center leaf springs could vary quite a bit in service.  We are unsure if this inconsistency is due to load weight, car lean, or general old age/wear-and-tear.

In any event, we have decided to offer the truck in two minor style variations: one with the leaf springs in their centered (normal) position (offered as style "d10"-- the default offering), and one with the leaf springs in a low position (offered as style "d00").  Let us know if you are interested in a third variant, representing the leaf springs in a high position, as seen in some real world photos.  The swing bolster mechanism of each truck variation is individually-modeled to reflect the portrayed ride position of the leaf spring-- however, the HO scale model ride height is not affected.