What is a “truck”?
When I make mention to a truck or trucks on this site, it should be obvious that I’m not talking about an automobile. A truck is a set of wheels on a train car. Most cars have 2 axles per truck (resulting in 4 wheels) and 2 trucks per car. Some larger train cars may have 6 wheels per truck or even 8. The truck contains the wheels and the coupler that connects one car to another, and may also contain devices used to harness the track’s electricity for use on the car (lights, motors etc.) These devices are usually in the form of a shoe or a roller. A car’s trucks easily encounter the most wear and tear of any part of the car. The wheels are constantly rolling around the track, the couplers are opening and closing, trucks from other cars are slamming into a car’s couplers all the time and when a train accident happens the trucks usually take most of the blow. For this reason, a truck that is made from die-cast metal is the most durable kind. Plastic trucks and couplers are far more vulner
