One big issue for the OO operator is finding good trucks. The best new trucks I have seen recently are these.

They are by North Yard, a Sn3 manufacturer in New Zealand. I purchased this pair from someone getting out of OO a few years back that went to some trouble to have them made. They are lost wax brass with turned journal bearings and needle point axles. The wheelbase is just a hair under 5’ 6” feet in OO (4’ 7 1/2” in S scale) which is perfect for OO.

I did find a 2006 version of the catalog online as a PDF; the contact information there is accurate. The trucks I have are a version of the 3181 Sn3 arch bar truck. These can still be purchased as of this writing with wheelsets gauged for American OO, which is great news. And these trucks are great! It is really interesting how by a quirk of scales and gauges these side frames scale out well for standard gauge in OO. They are not cheap, however; in US dollars they cost over $21 a pair! I will save this pair for a special car. Arch bar trucks were banned from interchange service in 1940, so I will likely use it on either an older time car or a car that is not interchanged (a work car perhaps).

The 2006 North Yard catalog also shows a truck design that is similar to a Bettendorf truck; this seems to have been replaced in the current catalog however by a truck of a different design but the same catalog number. Of their other trucks one of the passenger trucks may also be usable in American OO.

In terms of my own operations I need more freight trucks that would fit into a 40’s-50’s era layout that look better than S-C trucks. My current thinking is to look into Sn3 trucks of domestic manufacture; in particular I am very interested to see a couple of the different 4’ 8” wheelbase trucks that are on the market, especially Andrews trucks, as they would be perfect for several cars on the roster (the type was still in interchange service on some older cars before 1957) and the wheelbase is right on the money for OO. I have some on order now; I will report on them more in a future post.