Model Railroading > Just realized how little I know--i.e. what trucks to use!

I have aquired several current HO boxcar bodies, without trucks, made by Atlas. They are all 50 footers and 60 footers. Some are of vintage prototype with roof walks and others are more modern prototypes without roof walks as you are likly to see in service today. I do not know what their stock numbers are. My question is what trucks might they take--50 ton friction bering, 70 to roller bering or 100 ton roller bering? I am not into exactitude, so a general guide would be helpful. Thanks in advance!   



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/19 12:44 by RRBaron.

100 ton roller bearing trucks should work on those. Walthers Proto makes an excellent aftermarket set for adding the trucks. It's about 9 or 10 dollars and includes 2 sets of trucks (minus the screws) for doing one car. I replaced the awful snap together trucks that came with some old Intermountian grain hopper kits with the Walthers ones and they work great. Might take some adjusting with the screw size to find ones that work with Atlas since some Atlas stuff has pin mounted trucks. 

Get out your magnifier and look for the Load Limit number (LD LMT) stenciled on the side. Your choices are generally 50-ton, 70-ton, and 100-ton trucks. Most manufacturers are good about including that information and there are a lot of  trucks are available.
The other route is to look at pictures of similar cars and try to match the appearance of the trucks on them.

As they say, a picture is worth a 1000 words. Atlas cars tend to only work well with Atlas trucks, so you may be stuck in your choices. I would love to replace the fake looking Atlas roller bearing trucks with Accurail trucks, but there are issues with coupler height and bolster attachment.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR