when New the Blunt trucks were good for 60 MPH,same as the Type A Truck.
seems that the Blunt could follow bad track much better than the Type A,
but since they were OOP when the B Flexi came out they were never compared.
but the B Flexi was meant to be the "Best" switcher truck, just like the
Baldwin "Batz" truck.
as they aged doubt that many Blunts ran over 30 MPH.
Susie Q used their MU S-2s as Road power until they got the replacement
RS-1s.but don't know if it was a Speed issue,or ride issue that put them
back into Yard Service ?
Paul,
the Blunt could be blocked to be stiff as the Type A,NH would have done this
to reduce Maintance costs.
the AAR thought that the Blunt was to costly and Pressured Alco to switch to
the Type A,this was done during mid 1950.
since many Blunts lasted into the 80s one wonders just where this pressure to
change was comeing from ? maybe EMD and Baldwin ?
the Blunt was a Pure Alco design, and Patented by Alco.
the B Flexi was a joint EMD LFM/Rockwell design, but was Exclusive to EMD, only EMDs
used the truck under New locos.
cant recall any complaints from users that the Flexi was too Expensive to maintain.
there are still a few Relco Alco HHs riding on their Original Blunt Trucks.
EMD did give up on the Type A truck when the MP15 was put into Production, but the Type
A was still the Standard SW1001 Truck.
many of the SW1001s were very low speed Industrial In Plant units.
only a few regular RRs ordered SW1001s.
Spikre