# American Flyer weighted trucks?



## longle (Mar 7, 2015)

I picked up three #640 hopper cars within the past few days and have come across something new to me, weighted trucks, and not just one design. Here are two 640 hopper cars with the two different styles. The hopper with the screwed on trucks is light grey with white lettering while the riveted one is medium grey with black lettering. Is this factory and if so I'm wondering what years and what type of cars? Just hoppers? None of my other hoppers or gondolas have them, only the 640s.










Larry


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

They were used on some hoppers and gondola's. They are relatively common. 
Tom


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

I have hoppers and gondolas with the weights.


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## longle (Mar 7, 2015)

OK, thanks for the info guys. I've been fooling with AFL since 1948 and never saw this before. I have several other gondolas and one hopper and none of them have the weights. Of course I never had a car where the trucks were held on by screws either. Live and learn.


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## Nuttin But Flyer (Dec 19, 2011)

I'm only guessing here, but they may have added those due to the extremely light weight of those cars -- think you might find some on the earlier gondolas too. In later years they added weights to the link coupler and eventually the knuckle trucks were heftier to add weight to the cars.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Another variation not yet mentioned is the 640 Wabash with Type 4 trucks. I have around 10 of these and almost all have the Type 4 (3 spring). They look great on the display but are not operable on 20" radius curves since the wheels rub on the underside of the hopper. 
The majority of my link collection of hoppers and gondolas are 1949 thru 1953, more than half have the weights. 
Tom


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