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and several truck manufacturers introduced trucks whose side
frames and bolsters were made of pressed steel parts riveted
together. Some of these were merely variations on the arch bar
design in which pressed steel replaced steel bars (4). Others
had one-piece pressed steel side frames with the journal boxes
sliding in vertical pedestal jaws and coil springs above the
boxes. The most widely used of these was the Fox truck, made
by the Pressed Steel Car Co. (5).
Trucks with one-piece pressed steel side frames eliminated
the bolts-and-nuts assembly of arch bar side frames but, after
some years in service, they began to develop other prob-
lems that proved to be inherent in the pedestal-jaw design.
Unless the wearing surfaces of the pedestal jaws and journal
boxes received regular lubrication, which seldom happened,
rapid wear resulted. The journal boxes could then become
5
5: A Fox truck made by the Pressed Steel Car Co.
Many Fox trucks had springs only above the journal
boxes, but this one also had leaf springs between the
bolster and side frames. The downfall of these trucks
was the tendency of the journal boxes to stick and jam
in the vertical pedestal jaws.
Freight Car Trucks - 4
misaligned and stick or jam in the pedestal jaws, thus seriously
affecting the truck's riding and tracking qualities. For this rea-
son, the popularity of pressed steel trucks was short-lived.
Cast steel trucks with separate journal boxes
As with pressed steel construction, complex steel castings
became more readily available and less costly in the closing
years of the 19th century, leading to the development of truck
designs employing cast steel side frames and bolsters. One of
these was the Verona truck, produced by the Standard Steel
Car Co. (6). Like the Fox truck, the Verona truck had vertical
pedestal jaws with the springs located above sliding journal
boxes, and thus it suffered from the same problems as the
Fox and other pressed steel trucks of similar design. Though
Verona trucks were used briefly and in limited quantities by
some northeastern railroads, they were not widely adopted.
Much more successful was the Andrews truck, which was
widely accepted and progressively improved. Andrews trucks
had separate journal boxes bolted into cast steel side frames
6
6. Similar in concept to the Fox pressed steel truck but
made of steel castings was the Verona truck made by
the Standard Steel Car Co. It suffered from the same
problems that afflicted pressed steel pedestal jaw trucks.
MRH-May 2013
