Model Railroading > HO Andrews trucks and wheel sets

I am building a Tichy Train Group 40' single sheath boxcars for the Portland RPM meet in February. The MILW had 4000 of them so I ought to get a few into the roster. This is a pretty nice model though there are few locating points for the under frame details but there is a nice assembly photo of the bottom to work from. I am converting the model from K brakes to the newerAB brake system.

One issue which popped up was the plastic wheels on the Andrews trucks. I tried some Intermountain wheel sets but the thin axles just float around in the sideframes and the sideframes and bolsters didn't seem to stay together very well. I bought a pair of KD andrews trucks and a package of 12 Walthers Proto #2301 wheelsets. These are 33" metal wheels with plastic axles with a plan to replace the sintered wheels in the KD trucks with the Proto machined wheels.

First I placed some Proto wheelsets in the Tichy truck sets. The thicker plastic axle ends stabilized the kit trucks. After the trucks were assembled and left alone for a couple of days the pins on the ends of the bolsters which compress during assembly expand outward to tighted the assembly. I think I will use the Tichy trucks for the final assembly to see how rugged they are in use. I will travel with the KD Andrews trucks with Proto plastic axle wheel sets which are smooth runners in case the Tichy trucks aren't as rugged as they seem.

Now I know the nickel wheelsets are a good replacement for KD wheelsets I need to decide if if I want to start replacing the wheels on all those finely detailed KD freight cars I own. That will cost some money.6

I had a similar problem with KD caboose trucks and Intermountain 33" semi scale wheels. As you know, the Intermountains float around in the KD trucks. I impoted some brass TT scale brass bushings to place inside the trucks after I bore them out. I found an old thread, since been deleted, of a guy who did this for his 53' well car. 

Take a look at Tahoe Model Works TMW212 which is a 50 Ton Andrews Truck.

The Accurail Andrews trucks look pretty decent, although they're not sprung or equalized. The Kadee Andrews is too early for use under USRA cars, also has a T section while the USRA cars have a U section I think. Kadee says their truck is an 1891 design.