pilot truck discussion

There is now a discussion on Burnsland about the pilot truck, with rare pictures of the truck detached from the engine.

Some observations I took from the thread:

  • Disney used almost no bolted connections on the frame itself! Everything appears to be (heavily) welded. In one way it makes some sense given the scale of the truck, but I wonder how easy it is to perform maintenance. For example, if one of the braces crack?
  • The transverse bar has a different profile–more trapezoidal than rectangular. That’s easy to fix, but it also appears to be “doubled”–having an inside and outside pair.
  • I can finally see the center swing casting–but unfortunately the photos aren’t clear enough to show how it’s assembled. However, I think I have enough to make a good guess.
  • I will revise the equalizer bars to be thinner.
  • A good point was brought up that I give a bit of thought to previously. In actual pictures of the engine you will see the bottom of the leaf spring, and in the side profile of the truck I made, you do not. I believe this is attributed to the actual weight of the engine flattening the spring. The spring I model is a static solid body, so it cannot compress.

I’ve never drafted suspension system before and I’ll have to think about which state to show: compressed or uncompressed. The purpose of the drawing should govern first, but there’s a question of faithfulness representation of the engine “as seen” by the user.

Leave a Comment

Filed under CK Holliday build

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *