a few pics

Frankencar on level straight track:

On a curve (with no graph paper):

A look at the third truck without skirting:

 The weights help keep the third truck down on the track. Even so it is quite finicky and helps detect flaws that can cause problems later on. Maybe one day I'll spiff it up so it's not quite as ugly, but then again it is a working car!

Test Car

Now that's "spiffy" ( ). A "how to" would be very interesting.

You could send this out with the rest of the work train to check your tracks every once in a while.

Bernd

When I read the title I was

When I read the title I was thinking you meant something like these...

Very clever

That's very clever Rico!  Neat idea.

Your BN power in the background caught my eye.  Any chance we can see more of your layout?

Outstanding

Very nice.

I have found very useful the test car from Micro-Mark, clear plastic floor so wheel action can be observed thru rail joints and turnouts. Maybe a hybrid of your idea and theirs would be good: Clear plastic floor for a long car with three trucks. Room enough for the dial and level plus weights, with room to look down on the trucks as they move. Barebones of this doesn't look like a normal car, but a removable bunk car body would solve that.

[standard poster's cop-out: I won't but] somebody should do a how-to article.

[standard poster's cop-out] Somebody else should do a how-to art

What the hey?

B

I have a long beam load that

I have a long beam load that drops into a mill gondola that can serve much the same purpose. It's amazing how... bad... what we think of as "good" trackwork can be!

Thanx

Thanx Guys, I might make a new and improved version so would be taking pics as I go.

Joe, no layout really just the beginning of the lower staging but I will get a pic. BN fan are we?

Love that beam load! I have one sitting on two cars with a compound sliding bunk, that might be worthy of its own thread. Hmmmm...

BN

If it ran in the late 1970s in the Midwest, I'm likely a fan.   I cut my railfanning teeth on the BN, taking a daily break from my newspaper route in the 1975-76 timeframe to watch their SW1000s switch the local yard.

I'm looking forward to seeing your layout as it develops.