# Huh?? What are "truck styles"?



## Thlorian (Jan 10, 2017)

Newbie question please - what does the term "truck styles" and then in turn "steerable trucks" and "standard high-adhesion trucks" mean re loco's? Saw these terms re a vendor ad in Model Railroader mag....


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Different style trucks:

Over the years the railroad industry improved
the design of the trucks the cars ran on. Here
is an HO listing of a few to illustrate the meaning
of 'style' differences. There likely are many more,
but these are what was seen on most North American
railroads.

https://www.hobbylinc.com/ho-scale-model-train-trucks

There are also special designs used on passenger cars and
heavy duty equipment. Some had 6 wheel trucks.

Don't know about 'steerable' trucks. The rails 'steer' the
trucks, thus the loco or car.

Lionel had a feature called Magnetraction that was designed
thru magnetism to make the wheels adhere better to the steel model rails thus affording greater pulling power with less wheel
slippage.


Don


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## daschnoz (Dec 12, 2016)

Does something like this help?


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Daschnoz, that's a nice reference! Did you make it yourself?

Thlorian, daschnoz's reference is all you will ever need, unless you're deeply committed to hyper-realism.

If you really want all the ins and outs, there was a great article in Model Railroad Hobbyist a few years back: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/magazine/mrh-2013-05-may

Rereading your original post, though, you're asking about locomotive trucks, not freight or passenger car trucks. If you're reading an ad for a model locomotive, they're describing the equipment on the prototype loco that they are modeling -- again, there are some folks who want their models correct down to the last detail -- not actual features of the model locomotive. None of our scale trucks adhere any better than any others, nor do they actually steer other than with the rails (on the prototype, steerable trucks actually have a joint in the middle, allowing the wheels to corner with less friction, since the leadung and trailing wheels do not have to stay parallel to one another).

As i said in another post, ignore the ads. If you don't recognize what they're selling, it isn't important.


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## Thlorian (Jan 10, 2017)

daschnoz said:


> Does something like this help?


Yes, thank you


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## Thlorian (Jan 10, 2017)

CTValleyRR said:


> Daschnoz, that's a nice reference! Did you make it yourself?
> 
> Thlorian, daschnoz's reference is all you will ever need, unless you're deeply committed to hyper-realism.
> 
> ...


Perfectly said! I just did not know what the term "truck" meant in regards to locos. Now I am an expert thanks to the great replys with info above


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## daschnoz (Dec 12, 2016)

CTValleyRR said:


> Daschnoz, that's a nice reference! Did you make it yourself?
> 
> Thlorian, daschnoz's reference is all you will ever need, unless you're deeply committed to hyper-realism.
> 
> ...




No, it's not mine. I asked a similar question and was shown that vision by The Oracle of Google.
:laugh:


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Yes, Mr. Google is a handy fellow to know!


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