We had some friction bearing trucks on some SW-8 switchers that were surplus and had the same restrictions. When we told a potential buyer about not being able to interchange them on a class one for shipment because of those friction bearings, the buyer said no problem. and a few days later came back with a pair of roller bearing trucks and a crane. Did the swap out in a day. Asked him what he was gonna do with the old ones, he said take them back to the diesel repair facility he bought them from and have them modified as spares. Always a solution, eh?

* Bearings * Bearing Boxes * Air Brake work (pull valves and send to PATCO /Wabtec) * Stop blocks or self centering coupler draft gear * Blue Card (92 Day insp., 1Year insp., AND 2 Year insp.) * Fix anything found in the inspections Big bucks. I will also comment that Larry's Truck and Electric (LTEX) is scrapping a bunch of stuff right now, you might be able to pick up a set of roller bearing trucks and get them fixed up cheaper. This would still involve a day of crane rental.

If you want to make 1 million dollars in railroading, start with 2 million dollars. There isn't anything that's inexpensive in that business.

I like the look for the roller bearing in a plain bearing box. It gives it an interesting look.

We moved C & O 2-8-4 # 2716 from the KY railway Museum to it's new home at KY Steam. We had to change out the trucks on the tender.

Great discussion. It explains why I see so many abandoned train vehicles.

Another big issue is timing. Usually, they want the engine gone by yesterday so you don't have time to arrange a way to save it without spending BIG bucks. BTW, an nod to the locomotives in the vid, nothing sounds as great as an ALCO loaded up. Great videos, got my up vote.

As a modeller of the US railroads but living in the UK, this was a great instructive video. Loved the talk on the tank car. Keep them coming.

When I was a kid the railroad station in town still had an agent on duty 24hrs. Used to let a couple of us kids set inside with him. Hot box detector reader was there, like a electrocardiograph machine with two needles marking the graph paper, one for each side of the train... the hotter the journal the farther the needle moved.. Engines were roller bearing but most all the cars weren't. He pointed out the roller bearings ran warmer than the old style.. you could tell a roller bearing car from the rest because of this.. when they did have a hot box he stopped the train at the station, they counted the marks on the graph (the axles) to find out where in the train the hot box was. He said when roller bearings first appeared some guys mistook the readings as a hot box even though all 8 journals of that car had the same reading just hotter than the rest. after each train passed, he rolled up the graph, wrote the engine number, direction of travel and track number on it, put a rubber band around it and threw it in a box.

just found your channel and how you bought some old rail track and are restoring it, very cool! the progress already is awesome :) can't wait to see what it looks like as time passes

In 1995 I watched the D&H 5017 RS 36 Alco being moved to the Delaware and Ulster RR based in Arkville, NY I have some great photos I took of the move. It was transported on a multi-wheel trailer. Up 30+ miles on State Route 28. Telephone and electric companies headed up the caravan, lifting wires along the way. Years later the Catskill Mountain RR had a Alco S1 moved in the same way, up State Route 28, by trailer and semi tractor. Glad to have seen these incredible feats !!

Very informative. I learned so much with your videos!

Thanks for these two videos! I can think of nowhere else I would have learned this stuff! Again, thank you.

I remember hundreds, if not thousands, of freight cars in the late 70'/early 80's that had this modification done to their trucks. Thanks for the memories!

Great video and information. Looking forward to more and news on your RR’s progress.

Well ILL say, that was VERY INTERESTING, piece of history on the mechanics of the early rolling stock, great job, more please. 👌👍

Those old oil bearings bring back great memories. Watching the trains go by and the smoke from the oil,

Thanks for the lesson on bearings! I've always wondered!

When I see older equipment I like to look for something that most folks dont know about. Anyone who worked the railroads would be familiar with it. Do a video on "polling sockets" and the use of them. Really enjoying the videos.

Good information, thanks for posting. Eagerly awaiting for the tie replacement video.

I'll echo what you said: "what a blast" of a video! Keep up the good work...

Thank you for the info on how bearings changed over the years

All your videos are great. You make a great Teacher. Learning lots about railroading. Thank You.

Thanks for this video! Concise, well-presented and great information! I really enjoyed this one!

That shop you talked to in Pennsylvania gave you good fair prices on the conversion work. My family has been doing this exact work since 1968. I have been doing it since the middle 70's. The journal conversions and the box conversions can actually be the cheapest part of the job. To get away from hot bearing detector issues we have been cutting off the faces of friction boxes on locomotives in addition to removing the lids.

I just learned a hole lot info I had no clue that changed in RRing.

I live in Florida.. Pretty hot down here too. Really enjoyed these videos on the bearings. All is interesting. Thank You

Thank you very much , that's a of wonderful information I gathered here. As child growing up , my father would let me have as large of a model railroading lay out that I wanted. When I was small, I always thought it would be great to have a real train running around a large farm that I have bought. Much rather have that than one of those super yachts, to this day. Never considered the cost of having the train cars and engine moved to the location.

A lot of good information. I’m a huge rail fan and as such have built a ride on 7.5 railroad around my home. I had a chance years ago to purchase a standard gauge F3A, the price to purchase was reasonable and the prime mover was refurbished about 6 years prior. However, the distance and logistics to move the thing to where I would be working on it and further operate it was astronomical. Sadly, I learned not long after I showed interest it was scrapped. Very sad day

I do not know much of anything about railroading or railroad history. I know that when I see a steam engine like the Flying Scotsman or Big Boy it gives me a special feeling. Your passion for trains really comes through the video and makes me want to know more.

In the UK from the beginning of the 90's railway equipment was routinely moved around by road as moving it by rail was to expensive. The companies were so busy that you had to book them well in advance, plus you had to wait for them to tie up an arrival and departure at the same yard, as most don't do empty moves. Today a lot of stuff still moves by road, but thankfully as we now have privately owned diesel locomotives a lot more stuff has gone back to moving over the class 1 rails. During the peak of scrapping and replacement it was not unusual to see 120 ton plus locomotives going up and down our motorways (freeways) on the back of lorries.We do of course have the advantage of having a smaller loading gauge. The last time I saw a quote for moving a loco was back in the mid-90's, and for moving it around 150 miles it was £1500.

Thank you for explaining how the change could be made, good job .

That old UTLX car,at the end,was awesome to see!

Nice video, finally you can see the history of the axle camps with you in america. Greetings from Berlin/ Germany. Sven

Great information in a knowledgable presentation ... keep them info filled and short like this for a more regular turnout to keep interest high.

Very nice video. Thanks for posting and have a nice day too.

Loads of great information……thanks for sharing 👍

Well thank you for that blessing on your ammo boxes and stuff like that you did a fine job speaking of work

Great video. Thanks for the lesson. I will accompany you and son on this journey. I’m curious if you purchased CP 6568.

Great educational content. This IS good stuff!

Thank you for the history lesson I am an old guy that has been a railfan since the 1930''s. Most of it in NE OH.(20th Century Limited) style when gates were manually lowered.---- I have subscribed Tom

Pretty interesting stuff. Nice history lesson about bearings.

Well done explanation! I will start converting my old fleet today.

I like roller bearing trucks.I also like the friction bearing trucks too.I'm an HO model railroader and all the HO cars I have that have roller bearings have rotating roller bearings like the reail rail cars.I have a few engine I modified with working roller bearins.Keep the videos coming.I like all your videos.Thankyou.

In the uk, the end cover of a roller bearing is painted in yellow, to make it easy to see what bearing the vehicle has from a distance.

Several years ago, the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation wanted to move C&O K-4 #2716 loco & tender from The Kentucky Railway Museum to KSHCo’s facility at Ravenna, KY. CSX would do the move for them, but while the engine itself had roller bearings, the tender had friction bearings. This meant they had to convert the tender to roller bearings, put it on a flat car or have it transported by truck. They lucked out and found an abandoned heavy flat car with roller bearings three axle trucks. The trucks fit on the tender and it the engine and tender were moved over CSX track.

Super interesting the way you laid it po out. Cool video. Thanks!

I learn some new ever time I watch your video thank you keep up the great video. 👏👏👏👍👍👍

Be Prepared - Ask RR about planned Move - Purchase Permits - Have Safety Plan -- and a Box Car full $$ CASH 💰 !! Plenty of : Friends , Waffle House/Taco Bell / etc., Time, Inspiration & Perspiration!! Plan your Work & Work Your Plan !! Thanks crew from ETRR !!

That DT&I Caboose #118 my Farther has pictures of Him riding inside when at work for the DT&I. My Farther hired in on the DT&I Railroad in Flat Rock Michigan in 1963 and retired in 1998 then it was the CN in 1984 the GT bought the Railroad due to Conrail being split up from the government not long after the CN took over the GT Railroad. Awesome video

Great video bro. Safe travels

Thanks for all the info it was very interesting.

Thanks for the lesson. For me at least, it was much appreciated. Now, what are going to do? Are you going to buy that engine and do the conversion? If so, please document and post a video, as this is very interesting stuff in terms of resurrecting an old switcher, and making it more reliable, AND useable. Cool stuff...

Great video very informative.

Excellent railroad! I have seen all these types of bearings!

The silly thing about the class one reluctance to moving plain bearings is that many of their own units still have friction TM support bearings.

Excellent review !!!!!! Thanks

4:13 i live next to this base for many years, while they were ripping out the old switch yard that was part of the General Motors plant there.

Much obliged for a very educational video.

Very informative !! Thanx so much !

Thank you for the information today

Curmudgeon knows his stuff... appreciate it......the old man's down the road..

Very interesting topic, thank you!!

Very cool video. Thanks.

Nice video. Thanks for sweating it out to explain the details. 😃👍

I think they should add a exception to the regs for friction bearings, allowing them to be moved on a class A for special moves, for a limited distance as long as they can pass an inspection, are well lubricated and checked every 400 or 500 miles (no more than 1,000 total miles) and moved at no more than 55MPH. You wouldn't be able to go cross country but it would save a lot of $$ and time for short or regional moves.

Great you were able to show the difference. They destroyed to many good units and just for profit. Great video. 😎👍👌

Very informative vid, thanks.

Thanks for the great video

Born I. 1946 here. I remember seeing smoking hot boxes on cars rolling into Brooklyn Yard in Portland, OR. As a boy, I thought it was mysterious and cool. Back in the days of putting pennies on the rails to flatten them out. I lived right next to the tracks.

Extremely interesting. Thanks!

Maybe a side business for your storage business. Make up a set of trucks you can lease to somebody for their move, then return the trucks after they reach destination? Don't know if there's be enough customers, but by offering a low cost alternative would encourage some business? Maybe even move a couple pieces for yourself first.

Very interesting! Thanks!

The tulsa Sapulpa union rail road in Sapulpa Oklahoma restores these locomotives. Should check them out its a small line but moves alot of freight and sand to the glass plant in Sapulpa.

nice video. I wish all the success. Also, I maintain that local technical school would be interested in what you are doing, or industrial arts at local high school. No video game teaches you these things. Cheers

very nice instructional video !

The Waterloo Central Railway in Ontario had sister engine 6593 brought in on a heavy duty 4 truck flat car back in 2012. There are videos of the move on KZfaq. Where Is the pictured locomotive located?

Very informative!

Thanks. You covered that very well. So how is your railroad coming?👍👍👍❤️

Cool video very informative

I remember summer nights as kid at my aunt's house watching the cars go by. The car with the hot box would get the steel wheels cherry red hot in rolling in the night. Sounds like roller bearings was clearly the right decision with respect to safety.

Not too savvy on the history of UTLX, but my old man worked for ACF (American Car & Foundry/ACFX/SHPX) in the 90's so I'm reasonably knowledgeable about that them.

Very enjoyable video Brian. I assume you are working towards a loco BUT it has journals?

Nice axle classroom Thank you What is happening with your motive power choice??

Holy cow that’s like a million bucks in lumber holding up that red train on that trailer in your first example.

You actually forgot a 5th option...use temporary "shop" trucks in place of the friction bearing trucks...it's been done. Also, it's friction bearing, not plain bearing.

So on converted trucks, why are the lids removed? Would they hinder the roller? Or is it required to easily see that it's a roller? Just curious.

Looking at the caboose truck it's almost identical to those under the S160 tenders we have at Churnet Valley railway in the UK. Incidentally we had a triple headed S160 in Feb 2020 you tube has some videos.

I knew of a very expensive locomotive move on the road, the lowboy detached in a curve on the interstate and demolished the support for the overpass for the other interstate, 10 mile detour for the interstate that went over.

It is a shame that we at CN scrapped a lot of nice switchers. They used to go to London Ontario but in later years some were going to Selkirk Manitoba and parted out. Maybe you could buy used wheel sets from a place like that with or without traction motors and save some money and time. Or whole trucks. I changed a lot of them out in my time bit never did a conversion.

Can you still obtain new brass on friction bearing locomotives? Or are they impossible to get?

MTM has a passenger car in Wisconsin that have the friction bearing still in use the line is run by the CNRR

roller bearings can get hotboxed also, I have seen it many times at KCS

nice video

Back a year or two ago they gave C&O's #2716's tender "new" roller bearing trucks and sent her up a few class 1's to her new home in Ravenna, KY. So I'm wondering, couldn't they have just put roller bearing trucks under that Rock Island diesel to move it or would that have been even more expensive than shipping it by truck? Ten when it got there they could set it back on the original trucks.

Good afternoon from SE Louisiana 1 Aug 21.

I don’t understand why people think that just because a piece of equipment has plain bearings they can’t move it on any Class 1 territory. Especially since if it would be a one-time move and restrictions are put in place.

I recently learned that before those boxes with oil, they had to stop the train every so often on the track and have someone oil all the bearings.

Are all the bearings Timken for the conversions? I noticed the 'caps' have Timken on them, all of them did?

Hello. Thanks for the insights. Couldn't notice that the majority of trucks were the Bettendorf while there was one at 5:57 of the video that was an archbar. Were the archbar trucks simply more rare? Can you comment on the differences with respect to the history? Thanks.