Radial steering trucks

[ndbprr]

Any word on how these are holding up in service? Are the railroads likely to continue development in this area or go back to the tried and true flexacoil?

[CSXrules4eva]

So far the radial trucks are holding up fairly well in most railroad applications. If u noticed EMD altered their HTCR II truck. From the HTCR II they developed a truck equiped w/ bolsters the HTSC truck for the new SD70M-2 and the SD70ACe. They preforem farily well over the trucks that have , pedistols, pedistol liners, and boslers. On the old non- radial trucks such as the HTC truck, they created a high angle of attack of the wheels on the rail. This increased wheel flange, and rail wear. On the Radial trucks it's equiped w/ traction rods and steering beams, and center pivot pins, ect. . .. .This eliminates the pedistols, pedistol liners, and boslers. So this was the radial truck steers in the direction of the rail. It also equiped w/ a flange lub system. All of these innovations save the railraod tons of money on track maintence, and truck service. All in all if pays for the railroad to pay an extra 20,000 or so for a new locomotive w/ radial trucks; than to pay for a "cheap" loco w/ non-radial trucks. Because a little 20,000 is nothing compared to over 500,000 in track and loco maintainence.

[JayPotter]

I'm only familiar with CSXT's experience, which has been generally favorable. Steerable/radial trucks can increase adhesion by as much as approximately 1.5% when the locomotive is being operated through a curve; and there have been some instances in which AC4400CWs that had originally been configured with rigid trucks were subsequenty configured with steerable trucks. Although the units in CSXT's next locomotive order will probably not have steerable/radial trucks, this is not because there have been problems with those trucks.

As a point of clarification, the HTSC truck is a rigid, not a radial, truck.

[Anonymous]

Ok, Somebody needs to explain to me how these steerable trucks work. I've read some explanations in TRAINS and maybe it's just me but they are just not clear enough for me to follow completely. Is it something on the truck itself that helps guide it through the curve when it senses a curve? I don't think the engineer would have control over the function or does he/she? Anybody know the answer in kindergarten language?

[CSXrules4eva]

When a radial truck goes through a turn or a sharp curve, it aligns itself with the direction of the curve. This design makes the rid smoother, and puts very little attack on the wheel flanges and rail. The radial truck is able to do this because it is equiped w/ traction rods, steering linkages, and steering beams; something in which the non- radial truck doesn't have. The engineer dosen't have control over this function of the radial truck.

[Anonymous]

To CSXrules4eva; Thanks for the explanation. It helps some. I just can't figure how a piece of metal 'knows' when to guide the truck into the curve. I'm probably making this harder than it needs to be. It makes sense though, I'm wondering why it took so long to develop something like this? Cruise control was tried on cars back in the fifties and then made a comeback 20 -30 yrs. later. The understanding and technology to do self steering trucks should have been around a lot longer than it has, don't you think?