Where Can We Find HO Truck Pins For No-Brand Rail Cars And NAme Brand Rail Cars?

[Steve55]

  Hi,

  I bought a bunch of used HO scale railroad cars from gondola's to box cars, and some of them are Bachman, some have no name whatsoever and look brand new ( C and O Chesapeke and Ohio).  Some are missing trucks, and I see that although we can buy trucks, there are no pins with which to mount the trucks onto the cars.  I even went to a "Hobby Town" model train dealer in my area, and he couldn't tell me where to find the pins. 

  I just wondered, since some of the cars are made by different companies, and since trucks being sold do not include pins with them what can I do to replace?

  Thanks so much

[Terry Toenges]

Have you thought of using screws?

[Steve55]

Hi Terry,
 
      Thanks for your response.

  Actually, some of the cars I just bought off ebay have screws holding the trucks on, but I thought that maybe this is how they're making them nowadays instead of using the plastic pins, so I'm not sure if screws will work these cars since some of them are older.

[Len]

You can fill the holes for the pins with 4 minute epoxy. After it sets up, sand/file even with the top of the bolster, then drill the center with a #50 bit and tap for a 2-56 screw. That will let you use just about any of the replacement trucks available now.

Len

[jward]

The use of plastic kingpins was common on the older, cheaply made cars. the better made ones have always used screws. Those pins, as you have discovered, had a habit of working loose and getting lost. I usually replaced them with screws as part of the upgrade I performed on such cars to bring them up to decent standards.

I would take the cars to a hobby shop and look for the Plastruct display rack. There should be plastic tubing there. Find the size that fits the bolster hole on your cars. Glue a short piece of that tubing in the hole, then drill and tap the hole like Terry suggested. By using the tubing rather than filling the bolster hole with epoxy, you can be sure your screws will be perfectly centered. A truck mounted off center will cause operating problems with that car.

[Len]

I find locating the center of the bolster hole using 6" steel rule, purchased at the local hardware store, a lot cheaper than buying a lifetime supply of plastic tubing if you only have a few cars to do. It's actually not that hard to find center just by eyeballing it.

Len

[Terry Toenges]

Here, some folks just replace the pins with 6/32" machine screws as I read it.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/250610.aspx

[jward]

That's a pretty good thread. Alot of good info there.

[Steve55]

 
Awesome!

   You guys all are a mine filled with information, and I can't thank you enough for all the help within your responses.
Looks like I'm going to be shopping around for the proper screws as well as glue because I have so many different brands of freight cars. 

  Thanks to eveveryone of you! 

   Kind regards,

    Steve