Some years ago a sizable group of cars and engines that had been on the layout of David Sacks were donated to the OO Inventory. They are almost all gone now to members of the OO SIG, these two being among the last.

The equipment that was donated had been stored in an outbuilding in California and was not in great shape. David Sacks is a topic I mention in my book, but for another view of his layouts over time, check this article.

Before they went out I wanted to at least fix the trucks (all the bolsters were bad) and it gives a chance to look at the cars a bit more. The boxcar has Scale-Rail sides on a Picard body. Note the “bolsters” are just nuts from larger screws. The reefer is also a Picard body, but with champion sides that were mostly painted over and then lettered with decals. I suspect the color matched closer when they were fresh. Oh, and they are both plenty heavy, with I would guess big steel weights inside the body.

And then we get to the trucks. Why paint them a boring black when you can do other colors?

This close up shows the bolsters, the truck on the left is actually my replacement, one that had been modified with a large screw hole, selected so that it would accommodate his large screws. The one of the right is his. Sacks apparently had run out of the SC bolster clips and he glued down scraps of brass with some cement. I pried them off and cleaned out the glue, and supplied proper bolster clips.

Oh and then we have the wheelsets. Green is a good color for the Green Brook!

Sacks in real life was a machinist, and on a number of trucks he turned down the axles to a shorter, more pointed profile. I think he did this to try to get things to fit with the shrunken bolsters, and also so that he could run lots of trains. Another thing you will notice after I point it out is the middle wheelsets have a bigger axle. They are actually Nason wheelsets, he had mixed Nason and SC wheelsets together on the car.

I wish I could say the cars operated well after my quick rebuild, as seen below, but they were pretty iffy on the layout. A bit more tuneup will be needed in their new home, but they are complete and have decent bolsters. The details mentioned, they are pretty common on Sacks built cars. He was very prolific and certainly he enjoyed his model railroading. May we all enjoy our OO trains as much.