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Alco RS-1 bearings

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  • Member since
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Posted by gmpullman on Sunday, December 30, 2018 11:30 PM

Overmod
Be advised the 'rolling triangle' bearings are grease-lubricated.

I had pointed that out but must have neen "lost in translation"

gmpullman
Indeed they were delivered with oil-bath Timken bearings on a 6½ x 12 inch journal.

Grease packed, sealed bearings will have "NFL" stenciled somewhere on the car.

Not Field Lubricated.

Some of the private (passenger) car owners have faced great expense to rebuild their trucks with new bearing packages. In some cases over $1500 per bearing for reconditioned roller bearings (x12 if you have three-axle trucks!).

Cheers, Ed

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, December 30, 2018 10:56 PM

Be advised the 'rolling triangle' bearings are grease-lubricated.  The version Ed's reference called out was oil-lubricated, which required a fixed side cover.

Comparatively very recently, CSX stopped allowing Hyatt bearings in interchange.  This came as something of a puzzler until it was recognized that these bearings require a fixed cover to run.

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Posted by emdmike on Sunday, December 30, 2018 2:35 PM

Also, many early roller bearing diesel and passenger cars had covers over that rotating axle end cap. Today those covers are banned by most railroads. The rotating end must be visible unless there is a speed recorder drive on it such as on a diesel

Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome

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Posted by dehusman on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 7:50 PM

ATSFGuy
By 1963, virtually all cars and diesels were equipped with them.

In 1972 all cars with 6.5x11 bearings had to have roller bearings.

In 1991 plain bearing cars were banned in interchange.

In 1994 trucks with roller bearing axles that had been converted from plain bearing trucks were banned in interchange. 

There were still a fair number of plain bearing cars out there into the 1980's, especially older 40 foot boxcars and older 40-50-70 ton cars.

Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com

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Posted by gmpullman on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 6:20 PM

SeeYou190
"Friction Bearing" has always seemed like an oxymoron to me.

You're almost exactly right, Kevin Whistling

Have Fun, Ed

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 5:18 PM

Thank you for the help with that one.

.

"Friction Bearing" has always seemed like an oxymoron to me.

.

-Kevin

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Posted by rrinker on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 2:30 PM

 Seems this term is pretty much railroad-only. Be interesting if it was marketing by Timken. I mean, "friction bearing" would be a brake, not a bearing. "Solid bearing" is the more proper mechanical term for the old journals, adn they did have friction reducing material lining them and then lubricated with oil - the waste packing was used to keep oil IN the journal and not just flow out through the mostly non-existent oil seals and onto the ground. Run out of oil and then you have metal on metal getting hot  - hot enough to deform the bearing surface and cause an axle to fall out with catastrophic results, or hopefully produce enough smoke from smolding oily waste that someone in the crew or trackside would spot it and stop the train before anything worse happened. 

                                    --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

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Posted by gmpullman on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 12:38 PM

SeeYou190
Why do locomotive applications call these "Friction Bearings"?

I seem to recall reading somewhere that it was the Timken sales people that liked to use the term "friction" to describe those old-fashioned, plain, solid bearings.

In reality, reducing that friction, especially when the train was standing with no oil film between the babbitt and the journal, and even worse in cold weather, was a big advantage to the railroads. Longer trains with less TE and fuel.

"Taking Slack" was sometimes the only way to get a stubborn train moving and that would sometimes lead to busted knuckles and pulled drawbars.

Then there was the reduced risk of hot-boxes, the greatly reduced labor for checking and filling journal boxes and the labor for changing out the brass and the economic advantages of "Roller Freight" became obvious.

Good Luck, Ed

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 9:54 AM

NVSRR
This had caps to either make it friction or roller bearing.

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Why do locomotive applications call these "Friction Bearings"?

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All equipment I deal with calls them "Plain", "Solid", or "Smooth Reamed" bearings.

.

Is this an older term, a railroad term, or are they something different?

.

-Kevin

.

Living the dream.

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Posted by gmpullman on Tuesday, December 25, 2018 10:23 PM

ATSFGuy
Roller Bearings or as I call them "spinning triangles" started appearing on locomotives and rolling stock in the later half of the 1950's.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timken_1111

 

Cheers, Ed

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Posted by ATSFGuy on Tuesday, December 25, 2018 10:15 PM

Roller Bearings or as I call them "spinning triangles" started appearing on locomotives and rolling stock in the later half of the 1950's.  By 1963, virtually all cars and diesels were equipped with them.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

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Posted by tstage on Tuesday, December 25, 2018 8:37 AM

Wolfie,

Yes, the newest release comes with both sets of trucks.  Maybe the eBay seller (who had two) decided to outfit each with specific trucks to make them more "sellable"?

Tom

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Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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Posted by NVSRR on Tuesday, December 25, 2018 8:21 AM

The undec Atlas RS1.S. I got had a packet in it. This had caps to either make it friction or roller bearing.  These are the just released version. Not sure if they do that for older releases

 

Wolfie

A pessimist sees a dark tunnel

An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel

A realist sees a frieght train

An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space

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Posted by tstage on Tuesday, December 25, 2018 6:48 AM

Thanks, Ed!  Merry Christmas!

Tom

https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling

Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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Posted by gmpullman on Tuesday, December 25, 2018 2:54 AM

Hi, Tom

This should help: (far right column)

 NYC_DRS1 by Edmund, on Flickr

Indeed they were delivered with oil-bath Timken bearings on a 6½ x 12 inch journal.

 NYC_DRS1_D by Edmund, on Flickr

Let me know if you would need any further information if I can find it.

Happy Holidays, Ed

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Alco RS-1 bearings
Posted by tstage on Monday, December 24, 2018 11:41 PM

Greetings,

I'm looking at picking up an undecorated Atlas RS-1.  From the few photos that I can find of NYC RS-1s, they appear to have roller bearing trucks.  Can someone confirm that for me?  Atlas offers undecorated RS-1s with either friction bearing or rolling bearing trucks.

Thanks,

Tom

https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling

Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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