Lionel 14078 Die-Cast Metal Sprung Trucks, O Scale

great product

Like I told you guys before. I make my own version of the Northeast Trains track cleaning car. Same aluminum body, same basic idea, but completely different way of putting together. But, regardless, I need trucks to run it. Factory Direct, though high, isn't inflating the price to the "ridiculous level". I understand a container ship can get sideways in the Suez, kind of sounds like a Broadway play, but to shaft your customers because you only have 3 on the shelf, that's legal robbery. Factory D doesn't appear to have done that, so I buy from them. Trucks are trucks. Two sets of wheels on each frame, that roll. Beats dragging the car behind the loco like a farmers field drag. But, to add some warm fuzzy to this obvious rant. I just made one, FREE OF CHARGE, as a birthday gift, for a 100 year old WWII vet. I did it of my own choice, he has no idea he's getting it. He is a train buff, and I have no idea if he already has a cleaning car, but, he probably doesn't have one painted up like the Purple Heart, which he got for getting shot in Italy. Nearly got blown up in the hospital. But, he's my grandson's neighbor, I know him, he has been good to my grandson, and I wanted to thank him in a special way. He may never use it. But he has one.

I started building track cleaning cars for my layout as a way to keep busy this winter. That particular set of Lionel trucks are perfect for what I am doing. They mount using screws and are simple design. For awhile they were less expensive. You and one other hobby store had them for way less than $25. I mount them under the deck of the car, meaning that I drill out the threads in the hole, and using a threaded insert glued inside a 3/16 inch deep hole, I run the screw up through the bottom of the truck, rather than down through the top. The threaded insert becomes the threads needed for the screw to hold the truck in place. The screw is screwed into a hole that has a bottom, so at some point the tip hits bottom, and you get maybe a tick of turn more for tightness. In any case, when you turn the car over to set it on the track, the truck assemblies drop down about a sixteenth of an inch clear of the deck bottom, and spin freely. Without loosening the screws. I do this because I cover the top deck of the flatbed with basswood strips about an eighth inch wide and 1/32 thick. Closest I can come to a 2x6. If I mounted the trucks as everyone else does, down through the top of the deck, I'd have a screw head to deal with. I cover the entire deck so drilling a wider hole for the head to sink into, would be a bad idea as I would cover up the only method of removing the trucks if needed. It works just fine. Nothing appears to be compromised by my method of installation. I just can't use the screws that come with the trucks in the box, they are too short. I like the trucks because they are exactly what I need, easy to install and inexpensive. Well, they were. Covid must have hit Lionel hard.