Amtrak Heavyweight Truck Specifications

Hello all,

I just have one quick question here today.

Does Amtrak still permit private cars on their trains with "bolt" pedestal trucks? I know today nearly all heavyweights rebuilt to Amtrak specs usually ride on 3-axle cast pedestal trucks. However, I was looking at a whole bunch of pictures of C&O business car "Chapel Hill" and noticed that car is riding around on "bolt" pedestal trucks in 2008!

Does anyone here know what the official Amtrak position is and why some cars still ride on their original trucks?

Thanks in advance!

Well, that's all for now folks.

See ya all later........

Amtrak allows heavyweight private cars with the older style of bolted pedestal trucks, but it restricts them to 90 MPH maximum speed, rather than the 110 MPH maximum speed authorized for private cars with pedestals cast integral with the truck frame.

CHAPEL HILL may be one of the last mainline private cars operating with bolted pedestal trucks.

In response to "Why do some cars still ride on their original trucks?", I say why not? The cost of retrucking a heavyweight car is substantial. CHAPEL HILL has traveled safely with her original bolted pedestal trucks for over 85 years. The net effect of the 90 MPH speed limit is to prohibit such cars from traveling between Boston, New York and Washington along the Northeast Corridor, but if you can live with that simple limitation, then it is no big deal.

There are several PV which operate on Amtrak on HW 6 wheel trucks. DOVER HARBOR is one of them.

Contact our fellow member Jack Deasy, owner of MOUNT VERNON, by our Private Message function. He can point you to various resources within the PV community.

I forget where, but if you google hard enough you can find pictures of M&E re-trucking their Ohio River heavyweight with new or rebuilt 6-wheel trucks. Just looking at the pictures makes it look expensive. I would assume it's a 5-digit cost just to remove the trucks, then somewhere in the 4-digits to transport them via flatbed to the machine shop. Figure fifty plus man hours to rebuild by skilled machinists, the transport cost home, then reassembly and it looks like a job that could cost big money.

With PV's the rule is " if you need to ask what it cost, you can't afford it"

Tadman wrote:I forget where, but if you google hard enough you can find pictures of M&E re-trucking their Ohio River heavyweight with new or rebuilt 6-wheel trucks.

I believe OHIO RIVER has the same six wheel trucks today as when M&E Railway bought the car from Bill Quattro and his business partners, a number of years ago. However, they are not the car's original trucks.

Virginia Rail Investment Corporation's KITCHI GAMMI CLUB, which is stored on M&E Railway, was re-trucked in 2007 with six wheel trucks from a 1949 Pullman Standard New Haven dining car.

http://www.dominionrailvoyages.com/jhd/DSC01261.JPG

http://www.dominionrailvoyages.com/jhd/DSC01262.JPG

Valerie Stillman Tidwell's CANON BALL, which was stored on the M&E Railway for a couple of years, was re-trucked in 2007 with six wheel trucks from a UP baggage car. This was done after an inspection revealed the car's current six wheel trucks were not rated (centerplate loading capacity) for the current weight of the carbody (although they had worked fine for the past quarter century of service), thus requiring the current trucks to be replaced with trucks designed with greater weight bearing capability. [A determination was made that the alternative of reducing the weight of the carbody by XXXXX pounds, lightening the load to within the current truck's load bearing rating, was not feasible.].

I stand corrected on the Ohio River matter, thank you.

Hello all,

Hello Mr. Deasy,

Just a quick question for Mr. Deasy

Am I understanding you correctly, Did the trucks under the Ms. Stillman's "Cannonball" actually fail, or were they just not "rated" correctly for the weight of the car?

The "Cannonball" was a heavily modified office car over the years. I assume that over time weight could have been added to the car. Indeed, generators, fuel tanks, extra water capacity, interior improvements, etc. could add numerous pounds to the overall weight of a car. It would explain the dilemma of which critical system do you try to remove. The easiest answer, of course, is simply to get new trucks for the car.

Something I can't understand is why the trucks under the "Kitchi Gammi Club" were changed out. The KGC's last set of trucks were identical to the ones found under the "Dover Harbor", "Federal" and other heavyweights in Amtrak service today. By comparision, "Cannonball's" trucks were not that much different from the cars mentioned above. The only thing the trucks on the "Cannonball" appeared to lack was the outside equalizer (or is it a hanger?) on the truck, which is mounted between the axels located opposite the truck mounted cylinders.

The "Dover Harbor's" trucks have been under the car for a while now, I haven't heard anything about that car's trucks needing an upgrade. Over the years, the "DH" has had weight added to it as well, yet it seems to not have the same problems as well.

Well, that's all for now folks!

See ya all later......

CANNON BALL's trucks never failed; they performed well for all of the years they were underneath the carbody. As I understand the situation, during an inspection (either an Amtrak PC-1 or PC-2A), the car was weighed. A determination was made that the weight of the carbody exceeded the rated capacity of the trucks. Although the existing trucks had supported the weight of the carbody and performed in a satisfactory manner for many years, another determination was made that the two options for continued Amtrak certification of the car were either:

(a) Reduce the weight of the carbody to equal or less than the rated capacity of the trucks, or

(b) Retruck the car with heavier duty trucks that are rated to carry the weight of the carbody.

The owner chose the second option.

If you want to know why KITCHI GAMMI CLUB was retrucked, I suggest you contact the car owners directly at [email protected]

Hello All,

Well I have a few more heavyweight truck questions, so I decided to revive this thread.

Can anyone tell me what the differences are between the types of trucks shown in the links provided below?

I guess what I'm trying to find out is, do these truck types have names or designations?

Are they manufactured by the same company, different companies, etc?

Any information anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated!


A heavyweight Cast pedestal truck (Roller Bearing, Timken Grease bearings):




Another type of Cast pedestal truck (Roller Bearing):




And a slightly different version of the truck above:




This is a heavyweight Bolt pedestal truck type (Roller bearing, grease):



Once again, any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Well that's all for now folks.

See ya all later......

You might want to consider joining AAPRCO, the American Association of Private Rail Car Owners. It costs $90 a year for non-car-owning members, which includes a subscription to Private Varnish magazine and access to the members-only part of their website. Said website contains an enormous amount of technical information on things such as truck types.

http://aaprco.com/public/join/membership_select.html