LGB trucks and coupling help

[LGB Guy]

Hello all, I was hoping you could help me with a problem I'm working on. I would like to build my own box car. Im doing this as a hobby and because what i want to make doesn't exist. I can do everything EXCEPT figure out how to put trucks and coupler on the bottom. Does anyone know which LGB product numbers would be easiest and simple to install at the bottom of a flat wooden bottom? Any advice I would gladly take as the LGB items I have include multiple parts and its just rather expensive and complicated to duplicate.

*I've attached a piece of wood as a visual reference. How would you add the 2 parts to the bottom that wouldn't look to bad?
Thank you

 

[LGB Guy]

Hello all, I was hoping you could help me with a problem I'm working on. I would like to build my own box car. Im doing this as a hobby and because what i want to make doesn't exist. I can do everything EXCEPT figure out how to put trucks and coupler on the bottom. Does anyone know which LGB product numbers would be easiest and simple to install at the bottom of a flat wooden bottom? Any advice I would gladly take as the LGB items I have include multiple parts and its just rather expensive and complicated to duplicate.

*I've attached a piece of wood as a visual reference. How would you add the 2 parts to the bottom that wouldn't look to bad?
Thank you

 

[Zerogee]

If you're using four-wheel bogies (trucks) then you don't have to worry about the coupler mounts, because the couplings are usually attached to the bogies (I wouldn't advise trying to do body-mounted couplers unless you're going to have VERY wide-radius curves on your layout).
Each bogie is usually attached to the car chassis by a single pivot point , with enough slack in the fixing that the bogie can move in all planes (not just swivel side to side) - a little bit of play is necessary to allow the car to negotiate less-than-perfect tracklaying, if it is too "stiffly" mounted then it will be forever derailing.

Jon.

 

[LGB Guy]

If you're using four-wheel bogies (trucks) then you don't have to worry about the coupler mounts, because the couplings are usually attached to the bogies (I wouldn't advise trying to do body-mounted couplers unless you're going to have VERY wide-radius curves on your layout).
Each bogie is usually attached to the car chassis by a single pivot point , with enough slack in the fixing that the bogie can move in all planes (not just swivel side to side) - a little bit of play is necessary to allow the car to negotiate less-than-perfect tracklaying, if it is too "stiffly" mounted then it will be forever derailing.

Jon.

Wow thank you. I know I'm asking a lot but do you happen to have a picture of your method? Google image of the bottom of the lgb car as example? Maybe even a product number so I can look up for reference on my own?

 

[Rhinochugger]

Try something like this - the brass member is held centrally in place by a couple of small pieces of timber. Unfortunately, I don't have a shot of it without the bogie in place

 

[LGB Guy]

Try something like this - the brass member is held centrally in place by a couple of small pieces of timber. Unfortunately, I don't have a shot of it without the bogie in place

View attachment 252266

Awesome! now again i'm kind of a newbie so please be patient. Where do i get the brass and what is it called/size, use, etc.. so that i can google it and buy what i need. THANKS A MILLION!

 

[Rhinochugger]

Awesome! now again i'm kind of a newbie so please be patient. Where do i get the brass and what is it called/size, use, etc.. so that i can google it and buy what i need. THANKS A MILLION!

Well, I'm a devout bodger

I'll dig the wagon out and see how things work - it was a 4w Aristocraft tanker that I converted to bogie stock.

 

[Rhinochugger]

As ever, all is not what it seems.

Here's a picture of the underside without the bogie in place, but the arrangement has already been through two modifications. Don't worry about the modifications - the wagon worked fine before I started fiddling - it still works fine, but I had to meddle.

The brass centre bar is really there to give a bit of strength bearing in mind that, as the couplers are mounted on the bogies (well, they were originally) the bogie pivot will be taking the weight of all the wagons behind.

The timber cross pieces originally fitted tight to the sides of the wagon (that was before I widened it to go with my wider 1:20.3 stock )

There's a plastic tube - stolen from somewhere, that goes through the timber, but is screwed (and probably glued) to the brass - the brass is approx 8mm x 3mm RHS but anything similar will work fine - don't go less than the 8mm width.

The bogie mounting screw goes into the plastic tube - self-tapping.

Probably the secret will be to mess about with the bogie mounting system before you finish the boxcar, then you'll know exactly how you're going to approach it, and won't mess up the hours of painstaking work that went into the superstructure. That bit's called planning, which I'm not too good with

I've obviously been fairly liberal with the use of one of my favourite glues - two part epoxy with something mixed in it to stiffen it up

As for bogies, LGB diamond bogies are slightly better than Bachmann, as they have more compensation in them, which means they are pretty forgiving on uneven track - something else that I am expert in

 

[ebay mike]

Here's a link to a scratchbuild I did for a wagon chassis. It might give you some ideas.

https://www.gscalecentral.net/threads/b-q-clearout-build-your-own-wagons.311777/

 

[LGB Guy]

As ever, all is not what it seems.

Here's a picture of the underside without the bogie in place, but the arrangement has already been through two modifications. Don't worry about the modifications - the wagon worked fine before I started fiddling - it still works fine, but I had to meddle.

The brass centre bar is really there to give a bit of strength bearing in mind that, as the couplers are mounted on the bogies (well, they were originally) the bogie pivot will be taking the weight of all the wagons behind.

The timber cross pieces originally fitted tight to the sides of the wagon (that was before I widened it to go with my wider 1:20.3 stock )

There's a plastic tube - stolen from somewhere, that goes through the timber, but is screwed (and probably glued) to the brass - the brass is approx 8mm x 3mm RHS but anything similar will work fine - don't go less than the 8mm width.

The bogie mounting screw goes into the plastic tube - self-tapping.

Probably the secret will be to mess about with the bogie mounting system before you finish the boxcar, then you'll know exactly how you're going to approach it, and won't mess up the hours of painstaking work that went into the superstructure. That bit's called planning, which I'm not too good with

I've obviously been fairly liberal with the use of one of my favourite glues - two part epoxy with something mixed in it to stiffen it up

As for bogies, LGB diamond bogies are slightly better than Bachmann, as they have more compensation in them, which means they are pretty forgiving on uneven track - something else that I am expert in

View attachment 252292

There is a place in heven for you after this post. Thanks so much for the help. I'm heading into the woodshop now to build the cars. I'll get the wheels solved in a few weeks when i find a favorite LGB Bogey set. Thank you!

 

[Rhinochugger]

There is a place in heven for you after this post. Thanks so much for the help. I'm heading into the woodshop now to build the cars. I'll get the wheels solved in a few weeks when i find a favorite LGB Bogey set. Thank you!

One of the good things about G Scale Central is that you'll usually get some help to any question - well, railway related question that is

 

[Zerogee]

One of the good things about G Scale Central is that you'll usually get some help to any question - well, railway related question that is

Oh, we can usually be relied on to offer answers to pretty much ANY question, railway-related or not - whether those answers are a) useful, b) reliable or c) legal, is a different matter entirely....

Jon.

 

[PhilP]