Guide To Lionel Trains Couplers And Trucks - 1945-1990

Since 1945, Lionel Trains has used a variety of truck designs and styles for its O and O27 gauge trains. Understanding these designs and when they were manufactured can be a big help when considering what to purchase, when it was made, and how reliable it may be. Let’s look at freight car trucks and couplers.
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Toy Train Tips And Tricks is a channel devoted to the operation, repair, history, and collecting of classic 3-rail O and O27 gauge trains made by Lionel, Marx, K-Line, Menards, and other manufacturers.
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[@chrisstika8658]

I like the MPC era trucks. They’re easy to get the axles out to remove hairballs and to lubricate.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Hairballs????? Let me guess - cats. :-)

[@chrisstika8658]

@@ToyTrainTipsAndTricksI’m currently running my train seasonally in the floor and my wife and daughters have long hair so sometimes one hair will get picked up and wrap around the axle and the truck😄

[@huntercoleman460]

Great video Mike.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thanks!

[@MMID303]

I love your videos! I mostly run modern trains, but love seeing the older stuff. Also, your videos are very relaxing. Your voice is perfect for narration. You could be on radio. Sometimes I'll put your videos on auto play and fall asleep to them.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

The Soothing Sounds of Mike and his trains! :-)

[@MichaelMartinczak]

I did enjoy it thank you

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thanks for watching!

[@OgaugeTrainsplusslotCars]

Learnt alot

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thanks

[@paulbervid1610]

Historical and informative.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thanks!

[@richardsobieck9660]

You brushed on it, but in 1955 Lionel added the finger uncoupling tab to the metal trucks and coupler assemblies. This was a great improvement for manually uncoupling the cars and helps identify cars made during those years. Sadly this only lasted a few years until Lionel switched mostly to the all plastic trucks and these tabs disappeared, The tabs are now found on almost everyone's opreating couplers today.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thanks for the tip!

[@richardsobieck9660]

@@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks Happy to help, you usually don't miss much!

[@plunkervillerr1529]

Marx guy here, me no have a bad case of sagging knuckle couplings. I stand by the original 1930s Marx tabs. With a Lionel tender and cars, any of my eighteen Marx Locomotives can do the job.

[@SOU6900]

So your videos about Lionels numbering system for its cars and locomotives has stirred the brain box about how they decided what to call their different transformers.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Hmmm. I may have to look into that.

[@Engine1988]

@@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks About the only two things that I noticed that seem to make any level of sense happen to be that the "letter transformers" equipped with a whistle controller are known as "xW"s, with the "x" of course meaning any old letter. The other thing I noticed is that most of the fancier ones are lettered, the cheap ones are numbered.

[@bradhamrick1267]

Ho N O L Marx American Flyer

[@billintex001]

It's amazing how a large company can complicate what should be a rather simple idea: the compatibility of all their coupler trucks across the entire product line. And even though changes are made for economic reasons, you'd think they'd do their best to keep them as similar as possible. (I'm looking at you, Scout!)

[@jrlewis3198]

Thank you that answered alot of my questions on the different trucks. I have figured out that their are alot of different coupler lengths as far as car size as well. Freight and passenger that is. Thanks again.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Yes. Passenger car trucks have longer coupler shafts, among other differences.

[@ELWtrains]

Nice educational video lots of info thanks for sharing 👍

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thanks for visiting

[@ronalddevine9587]

And I thought A.C.Gilbert was the only one with discoloration on plastic parts. This was a very well thought out and presented video. Even at 76 years of age, I learned from this. Many thanks.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thanks for watching!

[@wayneantoniazzi2706]

Interesting Mike! I have to admit trucks are something I've paid little attention to as long as they held the car on the tracks and rolled reliably! This was a pretty good education AND I've always wondered how those coil couplers worked!
Thanks for posting!

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thanks for watching!