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end truck assemblies - PRR [Pennsylvanian Railroad], Penn Central [PC] and Conrail. [NS155] |
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PRR FW1 Heavy Duty Car Truck assembly kit including decals. . |
$26.99 . |
For the trucks [not included] we recommend
3D printed trucks available from Shapeways
at additional cost] see below
In April 1951, the Pennsylvania Railroad's built the FD2 flatcar as the largest freight car in the world, and although it never bore the name officially, it was known universally as the 'Queen Mary'.
The FD2, 'Queen Mary' is available as a kit here.
However, it soon became clear that there was a market for a center wellcar using the same trucks.
PRR constructed the center section of the FW1 PRR 470248, designed to replace the depressed center section of the Queen Mary car, when required. Both the FD2 and FW1 cars, therefore, could never run together! The use of such a giant freightcar was to haul heavy power generating equipment, specifically fully assembled turbo-generators from the General Electric/Westinghouse plants to power plants across the US and into Canada too. Most of the manufacturers of such heavy equipment in the United States at that time resided in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, on PRR tracks, and the railroad intended to capture such lucrative traffic.
The FW1 was repainted in green and renumbered to 468162 after the creation of the Penn Central, and then transferred to Conrail, where it was active for some years. The center well car section was taken out of service in 1996 and scrapped whilst the depressed well center with the trucks was presented to the Railroad City Museum, Altoona, where it is still extant.
The trucks for this car [four in total] were taken from the PRR T1 loco tenders and are an important feature of this car. We strongly suggest using the Shapeways 3D printed trucks to run this car. However, we can supply other versions of these trucks in the car kit, either cast sides of the trucks with an etched steel attachments, or etched stainless steel trucks.
In a replication of the FW1 and FD2 cars, N Scale Kits have worked with Keystone Details to produce the center well FW1 car body that fits onto the truck assemblies.
The N Scale Kits FW1 truck assembly parts have a cast lead-free pewter chassis and brake details
with etched walkways .
To complete the FW1 center well you will need to purchase the center well section, specially designed to fit the truck assembly kit, from Keystone Details, from here.
The recommended trucks from Shapeways are available here.
Photograph of the FW1 from the Craig T Bosswell collection
Recommended wheels are Microtrains to fit into the trucks detailed above.
Body mount couplers should be used.
Decals for the FW1 are included with the kit, with details in the Instruction Sheet.
The trucks for the FW1, on the Queen Mary FD2, are still extant. They are located, in a preserved state and put back into PRR paint scheme at the Railroad Museum at Altoona - you can see details here |
