# trucks with thick axles



## carinofranco (Aug 1, 2012)

I have a flatcar with these extra thick axles. Does anyone know what car they belong to? Thanks


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

carinofranco said:


> I have a flatcar with these extra thick axles. Does anyone know what car they belong to? Thanks



Look at your picture there is a number stamped on the frame, under the truck.
I can't see the whole number, get it and Google that number you should come up with the car.

Post the number here, I will take a look.


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## carinofranco (Aug 1, 2012)

Yes, the number is PA 10423. I googled it and I could find some use of that part number on reefers (erference was made to a 633), but I could not find anything about thick axles. thanks


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

carinofranco said:


> Yes, the number is PA 10423. I googled it and I could find some use of that part number on reefers (erference was made to a 633), but I could not find anything about thick axles. thanks


I never had any Flyers, some one will come on from the Flyers group to let you know. 
Maybe they are like that because it was an operating car?

I guess you found this when you searched?
http://thegilbertgallery.org/Freight Gallery/reefers.html


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

I found a picture of one in a picture search, but when I went to the site I could not find it.

Maybe it is some kind of an insulator piece?

The Flyer guys should know.


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## Nuttin But Flyer (Dec 19, 2011)

In all the Flyer pieces I have ever owned or seen, I've never seen that before. It looks like a sleeve or spacer installed between the wheels, maybe an attempt to prevent them from sliding toward each other on the axle??

The wheels are normally sort of "friction" fit onto the axles -- the axles are knurled where the wheel's hub should be located, thus providing a usually tight fit. If someone continues to remove and install wheels without changing the parts, that "gripping action" will be lost. Perhaps this was the case here??

Do you have any other Flyer rolling stock with such axles??


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## carinofranco (Aug 1, 2012)

I just started working with Flyer this year and the first two things I find turn out to be unusual--a smoke chamber with two nozzles and trucks with fat axles. Go figure. This is the only frame I have that has this type of axle. The sleeves are fixed to the axle and do not contact the wheels at all, so they don't help keep the wheels on. The wheels are tightly fixed to the axle. It does not look like a home made add on, but I do not know what fuction they could serve other than add weight.


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## Nuttin But Flyer (Dec 19, 2011)

Don't let those two things get you down on Flyer, they are still great trains...despite the unsettling talk from the Lionel peanut gallery crowd.

Is it possible these are for a Flyer O-Scale car??

The only other source I can recommend, would be to send the same photo to Tom Barker who is a really knowledgeable Flyer enthusiast. If he doesn't know, nobody does. If you want his email address, just PM (private message) me and I'll send it to you.


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## carinofranco (Aug 1, 2012)

Thanks. I have Tom Barkers's email adderss. good idea. BTW, I am learning a great deal about Flyer trains after having come into a boatload of stuff from a widow-steamers, diesels, switches,, rolling stock, parts, etc. I have been repairing and restoring Lionel/MArx for about 15 years, and until last month, never touched a Flyer item. I am appreciating them a lot, but I still have a lot to learn. I especially like the Flyer smoke/Choo choo system. The smoke detector in my basement goes off when I test a flyer smoke unit! Thanks for your comments


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Nuttin But Flyer said:


> Don't let those two things get you down on Flyer, they are still great trains...despite the unsettling talk from the Lionel peanut gallery crowd.


Why did you have to add that statement?
I don't hear any Flyer bashing going on? 

Whatever they are I saw some in a parts picture search I did and I did see the part whatever it is.
But when I went to the site to check it out further it wasn't there.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Like I said, I think it is for insulation, I found this on e bay. 









Does yours have one plastic wheel or are they both metal?


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

What it was listed as,

American Flyer S gauge insulated wheel set.

WHEELS SET I BELIEVE FOR A DIESEL ENGINE, HAS ONE PLASTIC WHEEL, AND ONE METAL WHEEL, WITH A METAL CYLINDER OVER SHAFT IN BETWEEN.

Like I said, I don't have any Flyers but try to help when I can.

There was something about the smoke unit your asking about too, here on the site somewhere.
I can't find it.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Are.....they.....plastic.......wheels? :dunno:


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## carinofranco (Aug 1, 2012)

The sleeved axle thing is still puzzling. Both trucks have sleeves and all wheels are plastic. the frame is die cast, and neither truck is insulated from the chassis ( and hence not insulated from each other). I wonder if this was just some bizarre way to add weight, or to activate some mechanical accessory. I have seen some older 2 rail O gauge special track sections for windup locos with a trip lever between the rails that rang a bell when a suitably equipped car rolled over the trip. Did Gilbert have any simliar thing? Tom barker did not recognize it.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Who is Tom Barker?

The thing in front, is that an American Flyer hookup to attach to other cars? Or are pieces missing from it?
On that what is the pin type piece that is showing?

The tab on the truck (under the sleeve piece) is for a operating car right? It activates on the special third rail section that you use to make the car operate.....I think?
I wonder if someone was trying to do something and added them to the axles.

The one I found has a steel wheel on one side and a plastic on the other side.

Someone in the S crowd must have an operating car?


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## Nuttin But Flyer (Dec 19, 2011)

Tom Barker is a very knowledgeable American Flyer enthusiast who has written several editions of an American Flyer Repair Manual available through Amazon.com and many decent Hobby Stores.

The hookup you are referring to is the link coupler and attaches to the next car in the consist. Flyer had a couple of versions of couplers, the link was the first that was produced on their S-Scale items. The link fastens to the adjacent silver round pin on the mating car and vice-versa. They later moved to a knuckle coupler in the 50's.

I'm not sure which item you are referring to as a tab. By my inspection, this appears to be a typical link coupler truck -- nothing special about it except the sleeve on the axle.

The Flyer operating cars were produced in two versions that I have seen. One has the pickup within the center of the truck and uses a special rail section with internal rails as well as the normal running rails. The other has a metal tab that extends out the side of the truck to touch a clamp-on rail piece. Notice the photos I have included, compliments of Bob Graves' American Flyer Gallery...

Some of these operating cars do have a set of metal wheels grabbing power from a rail in order to complete the circuit. However, only on one side as the outside metal tab, makes the other connection. That is why its important to be sure you use the clamp-on rail pick-up on the correct side of the track.

My guess in the case of this flatcar, the truck pictured was an assembly someone had laying around and they simply used it. It does not appear there was any need for it to be insulated. It can be changed out with the correct one if so desired.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

If I can add my 2 cents, I don't know what the heck it is, or does.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

OK Thanks, Tom sounds like a good fellow to answer questions through e mails.

What I thought was a tab is now I see part of the coupler/truck assembly. So that coupler is complete, all there then? I thought it was missing pieces.
Are you sure this was a flatbed? What are the holes for in the corners?

carinofranco, is the other truck the same thing?
Could you post a few pictures of the whole thing?
Bottom and top?

I like American Flyers chugger sound thing, I wish Lionel had done something like that. 
You guys better watch out that I don't start buying Flyers, there will be less on the market for you. :thumbsup:


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## carinofranco (Aug 1, 2012)

the two trucks are identical and the rivets attaching them to the frame are factory installed. I think this may have been part of a mechanical wind up setup that activated some sort of mechanical accessory.


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## Nuttin But Flyer (Dec 19, 2011)

It's OK Ed, there's plenty of Flyers out there looking for good homes. I'm sure they would love to live with you.


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## Nuttin But Flyer (Dec 19, 2011)

Looking at that photo close, it appears to be the die-cast chassis for an older style passenger coach or possibly a cattle car. Those holes resemble the place where brass chassis pins are normally inserted through it into the plastic body shell above to hold it on the chassis. I believe there were four pins, one in each corner, on the cattle car and six pins, adding two mid-way, on the passenger coaches. Without the body, it would look much like a plain flatcar.


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