List of railroad truck parts

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A Bettendorf-style truck (bogie) with the names of its parts. The journal boxes are integral parts of the side frame. Most types of modern freight trucks originate in this design. Railroad truck, FM55-20.Fig8-8.png
A Bettendorf-style truck (bogie) with the names of its parts. The journal boxes are integral parts of the side frame. Most types of modern freight trucks originate in this design.

A bogie or railroad truck holds the wheel sets of a rail vehicle.

Contents

Axlebox

An axlebox, also known as a journal box in North America, is the mechanical subassembly on each end of the axles under a railway wagon, coach or locomotive; it contains bearings and thus transfers the wagon, coach or locomotive weight to the wheels and rails; the bearing design is typically oil-bathed plain bearings on older rolling stock, or roller bearings on newer rolling stock. [1]

Plain bearings are now illegal for interchange service in North America. [2] [3] [4] As early as 1908 axle boxes contained a set of long cylindrical rollers allowing the axle to rotate. [5] [6] It was also used on steam locomotives such as the Victorian Railways A2 class, the LMS Garratt, the LSWR 415 class, and the GCR Class 1. [5] [ dubious ]

Center pin

A large steel pin—or rod—which passes through the center plates on the body bolster and truck bolster. [7] The truck turns about the pin, and stress is taken by the center plates. [7]

Center plate

One of a pair of plates which fit one into the other and support the car body on the trucks allowing them to turn freely under the car. [7] The one on the truck may also be called center bowl. [8]

Truck side frame

The frame at either side of the truck. [3] [4]

Truck bolster

Each truck has a bolster—a transverse floating beam—between the side frames. [9] It is the central part of every truck on which the underframe of the railcar or railroad car is pivoted through the center pivot pin. [7] [9]

Side bearing

There is one side bearing located on each side of the centerplate on the truck bolster. In case of a shared bogie on an articulated car, there are two on each side.

Brake rigging

The brake rigging includes the brake lever, the brake hanger, the brake pin, the brake beam and the brake shoes.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bogie</span> Chassis for wheels and suspension under vehicles

A bogie is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transport. A bogie may remain normally attached or be quickly detachable. It may include a suspension component within it, or be solid and in turn be suspended ; it may be mounted on a swivel, as traditionally on a railway carriage or locomotive, additionally jointed and sprung, or held in place by other means.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whyte notation</span> Code for arrangement of locomotive wheels

The Whyte notation is a classification method for steam locomotives, and some internal combustion locomotives and electric locomotives, by wheel arrangement. It was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte, and came into use in the early twentieth century following a December 1900 editorial in American Engineer and Railroad Journal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2-8-8-4</span> Articulated locomotive wheel arrangement

A 2-8-8-4 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation, has two leading wheels, two sets of eight driving wheels, and a four-wheel trailing truck. The type was generally named the Yellowstone, a name given it by the first owner, the Northern Pacific Railway, whose lines ran near Yellowstone National Park. Seventy-two Yellowstone-type locomotives were built for four U.S. railroads.

Rail transport terms are a form of technical terminology applied to railways. Although many terms are uniform across different nations and companies, they are by no means universal, with differences often originating from parallel development of rail transport systems in different parts of the world, and in the national origins of the engineers and managers who built the inaugural rail infrastructure. An example is the term railroad, used in North America, and railway, generally used in English-speaking countries outside North America and by the International Union of Railways. In English-speaking countries outside the United Kingdom, a mixture of US and UK terms may exist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steam locomotive components</span> Glossary of the main components of a typical steam locomotive

Main components found on a typical steam locomotive include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derailment</span> Form of train incident

In rail transport, a derailment is a type of train wreck that occurs when a rail vehicle such as a train comes off its rails. Although many derailments are minor, all result in temporary disruption of the proper operation of the railway system and they are a potentially serious hazard.

The AAR wheel arrangement system is a method of classifying locomotive wheel arrangements that was developed by the Association of American Railroads. Essentially a simplification of the European UIC classification, it is widely used in North America to describe diesel and electric locomotives. It is not used for steam locomotives,, which use the Whyte notation instead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trailing wheel</span> Unpowered locomotive wheel located rear of the driving wheels

On a steam locomotive, a trailing wheel or trailing axle is generally an unpowered wheel or axle (wheelset) located behind the driving wheels. The axle of the trailing wheels is usually located in a trailing truck. On some large locomotives, a booster engine was mounted on the trailing truck to provide extra tractive effort when starting a heavy train and at low speeds on gradients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defect detector</span> Device used to detect defects on trains

A defect detector is a device used on railroads to detect axle and signal problems in passing trains. The detectors are normally integrated into the tracks and often include sensors to detect several different kinds of problems that could occur. Defect detectors were one of the inventions which enabled American railroads to eliminate the caboose at the rear of the train, as well as various station agents placed along active routes to detect unsafe conditions. The use of defect detectors has since spread overseas to other railroad systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hot box</span> Overheating of railway rolling stock

A hot box is the term used when an axle bearing overheats on a piece of railway rolling stock. The term is derived from the journal-bearing trucks used before the mid-20th century. The axle bearings were housed in a box that used oil-soaked rags or cotton to reduce the friction of the axle against the truck frame. When the oil leaked or dried out, the bearings overheated, often starting a fire that could destroy the entire railroad car if not detected early enough.

The Timken Roller Bearing Company was one of the first to introduce roller bearings for railroad cars. Railroad cars owned and operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway were some of the first to use roller bearings rather than "oil waste journal" boxes. Henry Timken, a German immigrant, invented an improved bearing and founded the company in 1899. It was later renamed The Timken Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Variable gauge</span>

A variable gauge system allows railway vehicles in a train to travel across a break of gauge between two railway networks with different track gauges. For through operation, a train must be equipped with special bogies holding variable gauge wheelsets which contain a variable gauge axle (VGA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacobs bogie</span>

Jacobs bogies are a type of rail vehicle bogie commonly found on articulated railcars and tramway vehicles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ER2 electric trainset</span> Electric multiple unit

ER2 electric trainset is a DC electric multiple unit which was in production by the Railroad Machinery Plants of Riga from June 1962 to mid-1984. It was essentially an improvement of the ER1 design, featuring footboards for low platforms, and aprons for high platforms, as well as improved electrical equipment and minor changes to the bodywork. Since the mid-1960s, the ER2 has been the most widely used type of suburban train in the Soviet Union and its successor states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wheelset (rail transport)</span> Pair of railroad wheels fixed onto an axle

wheelset is a pair of railroad vehicle wheels mounted rigidly on an axle allowing both wheels to rotate together. Wheelsets are often mounted in a bogie – a pivoted frame assembly holding at least two wheelsets – at each end of the vehicle. Most modern freight cars and passenger cars have bogies each with two wheelsets, but three wheelsets are used in bogies of freight cars that carry heavy loads, and three-wheelset bogies are under some passenger cars. Four-wheeled goods wagons that were once near-universal in Europe and Great Britain and their colonies have only two wheelsets; in recent decades such vehicles have become less common as trainloads have become heavier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bogie exchange</span> System for operating railway wagons on two or more gauges

Bogie exchange is a system for operating railway wagons on two or more gauges to overcome difference in the track gauge. To perform a bogie exchange, a car is converted from one gauge to another by removing the bogies or trucks, and installing a new bogie with differently spaced wheels. It is generally limited to wagons and carriages, though the bogies on diesel locomotives can be exchanged if enough time is available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 21 2-10-4</span> South African steam locomotive class

The South African Railways Class 21 2-10-4 of 1937 was a class of steam locomotives used in South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Train wheel</span> Wheel designed for railway tracks

A train wheel or rail wheel is a type of wheel specially designed for use on railway tracks. The wheel acts as a rolling component, typically press fitted onto an axle and mounted directly on a railway carriage or locomotive, or indirectly on a bogie, also called a truck. The powered wheels under the locomotive are called driving wheels. Wheels are initially cast or forged and then heat-treated to have a specific hardness. New wheels are machined using a lathe to a standardized shape, called a profile, before being installed onto an axle. All wheel profiles are regularly checked to ensure proper interaction between the wheel and the rail. Incorrectly profiled wheels and worn wheels can increase rolling resistance, reduce energy efficiency and may even cause a derailment. The International Union of Railways has defined a standard wheel diameter of 920 mm (36 in), although smaller sizes are used in some rapid transit railway systems and on ro-ro carriages.

An equalising beam, equalising lever or equalising bar links the suspension of two or more adjacent axles of a vehicle, especially a railway locomotive.

A cannon bearing or cannon box bearing is an arrangement of bearings on a shaft, usually an axle, where two bearings are mounted in an enclosed tube.

References

  1. "Railroad Dictionary: J". CSX.com. CSX Corporation. 2012. Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  2. Car and Locomotive Cyclopedia 1969
  3. 1 2 "AAR M-1003 Certified Truck Component Manufacturing". Columbus Castings. Columbus, Ohio. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  4. 1 2 "General Information" (PDF). Standard Car Truck Company. January 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  5. 1 2 "The Evolution of Railway Axlebox Technology". Evolution. SKF. 7 December 2010. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  6. "Glossary: A". Railway-Technical.com. Railway Technical Web Pages. 2014. Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Railroad Dictionary: C". CSX.com. CSX Corporation. 2012. Archived from the original on 1 April 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  8. "APTA PR-CS-RP-003-98 Recommended Practice for Developing a Clearance Diagram for Passenger Equipment" (PDF). APTA.com. American Public Transportation Association. 26 March 1998. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Railroad Dictionary: B". CSX.com. CSX Corporation. 2012. Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  10. CSX Dictionary J Archived 2014-07-29 at the Wayback Machine

Further reading