I'm interested in finding out how they convert C30-7 trucks to broad gauge in Brazil, I've looked at standard trucks and there is no way they can spread the wheels the 3"1/4 inches each side to do this.
Where there's a will (and the money) there's a way. If you're a locomotive builder looking at foreign orders, and you should, because the US rail system can only absorb so much, you've got to be a bit like "Burger King." You know, "special orders don't upset us"?
GT26C I'm interested in finding out how they convert C30-7 trucks to broad gauge in Brazil, I've looked at standard trucks and there is no way they can spread the wheels the 3"1/4 inches each side to do this.
You have asked the question before:
http://cs.trains.com/trc/f/1/t/219163.aspx
We have at least one, probably more Brazilian. Maybe one of them will see your question can give you a satisfactory answer.
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
Not Brazilian but the simple answer? New bolsters or whole new bogies.
ML
Longer, slightly larger bolsters, longer, slightly larger axles, ship the trucks separately and put the locomotive on freight trucks or a flat car for shipping, and so on. Much easier than making it narrow gage.
I work for a company that builds rail equipment. Our vendors ship us what ever guage trucks/ wheel profile we order. be it longer or shorter axles and wider or narower trucks. We use both locomotive trucks and rail car trucks. Other countries may have the same guage as us but have different wheel profiles also. So I'd assume for an existing loco they would just replace the trucks with wider or narrower trucks and maybe a couple smaller modifications if there was any interferences.
Gauge change (at least going to a wider gauge) with the original standard gauge trucks is usually accomplished by cutting the truck crossmembers, inserting steel pieces of the same cross-section and welding everything together. When ex-UP C36-7s were exported to Estona (which uses Soviet 5' gauge track), that is how the truck frames were widened. New wheel sets with the wheels pressed on for 5' gauge were married with the "old" GE 752AF traction motors.
If you're going standard down to a narrower gauge, narrow gauge traction motors have to be used to fit between the closer-together wheels. In Brazil, the ex-US/Canadian SD40-2s, C307-7s and U36Bs converted to meter gauge have been mounted on four newly-cast trucks, with each pair of trucks on a span bolster (as was used on the GE and Alco double-engine units for SP and UP in the 1960s).
ndbprrThe only US engines I know of that can handle different gauged were some built around 1950 for the government so they could be used in any occupied country. Saw one in a scrap yard in East Chicago years ago. I think they have all been scrapped.
Rainhilltrial Gauge change (at least going to a wider gauge) with the original standard gauge trucks is usually accomplished by cutting the truck crossmembers, inserting steel pieces of the same cross-section and welding everything together. When ex-UP C36-7s were exported to Estona (which uses Soviet 5' gauge track), that is how the truck frames were widened. New wheel sets with the wheels pressed on for 5' gauge were married with the "old" GE 752AF traction motors.
Makes total sense to me. Where they normalized in an oven after all that welding?
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
I would hope so!
There is an article on the web written by a Mr. Mandelli from Vale (in Portugese) with a lot of photos showing how SD40-2s are converted from 6-motor standard gauge to 8-motor meter gauge, including replacing the pair of EMD trucks with four 2-axle trucks and modifying the under frames. Although this is not the gauge widening, it is still an interesting piece on gauge change.
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