Probably covered many times before but what was the official date when solid-bearing trucked cars could no longer be interchanged between railroads? I'm looking at building a freight car (either a gon or a flat. haven't decided which yet) for handling wheels for my 70s era and am trying to decide if it has to have roller bearings or not. I seem to remember that a date was set and it kept getting pushed back. I just don't remember the final date.
As usual, any assistance that can be provided would be most welcomed.
According to RMC's 1979 "RAILDATES" page, effective January 1, 1972, all cars having journals 6 1/2x11inches or larger must have roller bearings.
In 1974, effective January 1, cars with gross rail load exceeding 55,000 pounds per axle must be equipped with roller bearings.
There are no other entries there on that subject, but I'd guess that someone more familiar with the regulations could further enlighten us.
Wayne
There are several dates from 1991 to 1995 when different types of cars with plain bearings or those converted to roller bearings in the old journal boxes were banned from interchange. They would still have been fairly common in the 1970s, and company service or MOW equipment with them remained even longer, even today a couple Class I's still have work equipment with plain bearings hanging around some yards.
They were phased out from new freight car construction a lot earlier, I think back in the 1960s.
My understanding is that the "ban" from interchange service actually means that the receiving railroad is not required to accept them, but it can if it wants to. And of course if the cars stay on home rails there is no issue.
I think the last big fleet of plain bearing freight cars in North America were DMIR's oldest ore jennies, some of which remained in service until after the CN takeover.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
FRRYkid:
The absolute drop dead date for any interchange of solid bearing trucks had to have come about in the 1980s. I have slides of dozens, if not hundreds of freight cars in SP freights with them. The thing that baffles me is, how many were on tank cars! Go ahead and build your car, during the 1970s, they far outnumbered roller bearings. Incidentally, the same goes for roofwalks.
See this thread.
friction bearings - Trains Magazine - Trains News Wire, Railroad News, Railroad Industry News, Web Cams, and Forms
Dan
FRRYKidI'm looking at building a freight car (either a gon or a flat. haven't decided which yet) for handling wheels for my 70s era and am trying to decide if it has to have roller bearings or not.
That sounds to me like a "company service" car - that is, not in interchange, and usually a wheel car was a downgraded older car anyway.
Dave Nelson
I know they were using plain bearing cars into 1980, the first derailment I went to was a burnt off journal of a 40 ft plain bearing boxcar loaded with corn for Mexico in Dec 1979.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
1991 all cars in hazardous materials service must be equipped with roller bearings and may not be equipped with plain bearings
1995 plain bearings were banned from interchange entirely.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
cv_acr 1991 all cars in hazardous materials service must be equipped with roller bearings and may not be equipped with plain bearings 1995 plain bearings were banned from interchange entirely.
I didn't realize it was that recent. But that does answer the question.