Photo: Shop Work july 8 2004 on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad Chama NM

[Carl]

[BillH]

what a beutiful sight. You know though, if those wheels ever came off the lathe while spinning, I wouldnt want to be standing there.
Speaking of accidents, a local frieght train derailed here 2 days ago, I drove over to the scene and took pics, some of the cars ended up over a bridge and into the river. Wheel sets all over the place. Today they were torch cutting 2 of the boxcars that are left for scrap. Will post pics when I get home and pictures scanned. You know, the ONE TIME I didnt bring my digital camera!..

[Dave Opincarne]

Bet ya don't know what they're doing and why.

Ok, some will so stay quiet and let the others have fun trying to figure it out.

Dave

[Samuel]

perfecting a severe slouch, to much overhang?

[Excitable Boy]

I'd guess trueing the wheels and perhaps removing a flat spot from hard braking?

I'll qualify this by saying I know mostly nothing about trains.

John

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Pursue Excellence and the rest will follow.

[John Stevenson]

Looks like a metal spraying plant to me.

[Allan Waterfall]

He's making a new set of weights for his fitness class.

Allan

[JCHannum]

That is a hydraulic tracer, so probably profiling or reprofiling the wheel.

[Dave Opincarne]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by JCHannum:
That is a hydraulic tracer, so probably profiling or reprofiling the wheel.</font>

You're getting warm

Dave

[uncrichie]

I agree with Allan. If he makes one more he'll have one for each hand. Uncrichie...

[BillH]

I don't know what a burnisher looks like, but are they burnishing the journals on the axle?

[Dave Opincarne]

I don't think so. I belive JCHannum has it right, but I was hopping someone might know the why. I find this interesting because in my job as a pattern maker I actualy have to deal with this and add features to the crossing patterns to compensate. But I've never seen a picture of it before.

What's being done is the removal of what's called the "false flange". As the wheel wears it takes on the shape of the rail head. This produces a second or false flange on the outside of the wheel. IIRC up to 1/4 or 3/8 is allowable before they must be removed, which is what I belive is beeing done here. On the frog patterns I have to relive the area on the tread surface so the wheel does not ride up on the false flange of the wheel. An interesting side note: some frogs are designed so as the wheel travels through the flangway it rides up onto the wheel flange. That means the entire weight of the train is resting on the narow wheel flange rather than the wheel.

Dave