Working rail roads and their tracks.

oldtimer 66 · Feb 23, 2023

I can't remember the details exactly but we built some new locomotives back maybe in the late eighties and or early nineties. They were for Mongolia??. If I can find the details I will add to the reply. The truck design was wide gauge with both wide and standard gauge brake rigging/ mounting. The brake rigging would be removed and reinstalled and adjusted for the proper rail gauge along with changing out the combo's/ wide gauge and standard gauge combo's. This is something I thought would be interesting.

oldtimer 66 · Feb 23, 2023

Again if my memory is correct the Russian track gauge is 66". India also has this wide gauge in some areas. We built in the early eighties maybe 10, 144 ton switchers for India. They were dual 600 HP Cummings engines I think. Other locomotives gauges were meter gauge. We had several Indonesia orders that had 2 gauges, 42.5" and a 46" gauge. Again this is from memory. A Colombia build I think was also a narrow gauge. To look at the locomotive frontal cross section you would thing the locomotive would easily tip over. Center lines were critical along with weight distribution. I maybe able to confirm and edit these details later.

ArlyA · Feb 23, 2023

Seems I read somewhere that the gauges in main or central Europe are mostly standardized but as you head east, they are not.

bcp · Feb 23, 2023

There are more gauges than you may think.

Dominant gauges:

Track gauge - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Full list:

List of track gauges - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Bruce

kenmbz · Feb 23, 2023

Then you have gauge and type, like adhesion, funicular, rack-and-pinion(cog) etc.
Switzerland itself is a hodge podge of types and gauges.
Some compatible with other countries, some only local.
Many based on a small area, like the cog rails.

Rail transport in Switzerland - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

oldtimer 66 · Feb 24, 2023

Here is another interesting fact about rail gauge. The railroads do rail spreading in the curves. That is to accommodate the tapered wheel design as the flange of the wheel contacts the outboard rail of the curve due to the tapered wheel design. This allows for differential movement of the solid axle design. If I remember correctly it is like 3MM per degree of curve. Another thing this helps with is on a 3 axle design truck, and or C type truck. The end axles, 1 and 3, on a C truck lets say have .75" lateral clearance. The middle axle, 2, on this same C truck will have like 1.5". This is necessary for curving so that truck axles do not run out of lateral clearance in a curve and try to derail the truck/ locomotive due to no lateral clearance. There are B B - B B design locomotives , B trucks are 2 axle design, that incorporate span bolsters on each end. This allows an 8 axle locomotive to curve without derailing. One locomotive builder had a 4 axle design rigid truck/ 8 axle locomotive that spent more time on the ground that on the rail. I think these locomotives were used in Brazil.

buckeyefarmer · Feb 24, 2023

Interesting video. I remember when this happened.

buckeyefarmer · Feb 24, 2023

ArlyA said:
Seems I read somewhere that the gauges in main or central Europe are mostly standardized but as you head east, they are not.

As you head east, there’s never been any reason.

Edit- it’s a joke.

BravoXray · Feb 24, 2023

oldtimer 66 said:
Here is another interesting fact about rail gauge. The railroads do rail spreading in the curves. That is to accommodate the tapered wheel design as the flange of the wheel contacts the outboard rail of the curve due to the tapered wheel design. This allows for differential movement of the solid axle design. If I remember correctly it is like 3MM per degree of curve. Another thing this helps with is on a 3 axle design truck, and or C type truck. The end axles, 1 and 3, on a C truck lets say have .75" lateral clearance. The middle axle, 2, on this same C truck will have like 1.5". This is necessary for curving so that truck axles do not run out of lateral clearance in a curve and try to derail the truck/ locomotive due to no lateral clearance. There are B B - B B design locomotives , B trucks are 2 axle design, that incorporate span bolsters on each end. This allows an 8 axle locomotive to curve without derailing. One locomotive builder had a 4 axle design rigid truck/ 8 axle locomotive that spent more time on the ground that on the rail. I think these locomotives were used in Brazil.

Union Pacific's GE U50 locomotive had a B-B B-B truck arrangement.