Weekend Update 11/27/16

[nkalanaga]

Ryan:  Thank you!  I was sure they had been banned, but didn't know when. 

Trivia:  There was a railroad news item years ago from Nevada about the WP borrowing a shortline's wreck crane.  It seems that the crane still had archbar trucks, so wasn't acceptable for interchange.  That didn't bother the WP, they "leased" it for a nominal sum, and got around the ban.  But they refused to accept the friction bearings...  So, the shortline installed roller bearing adapters in the archbar trucks.  Probably the only such case, at least on a North American standard gauge railroad.

Does anyone remember the details?

[johnb]

Ryan:  Thank you!  I was sure they had been banned, but didn't know when. 

Trivia:  There was a railroad news item years ago from Nevada about the WP borrowing a shortline's wreck crane.  It seems that the crane still had archbar trucks, so wasn't acceptable for interchange.  That didn't bother the WP, they "leased" it for a nominal sum, and got around the ban.  But they refused to accept the friction bearings...  So, the shortline installed roller bearing adapters in the archbar trucks.  Probably the only such case, at least on a North American standard gauge railroad.

Does anyone remember the details?

not true. http://www.google.com/patents/US1546324

[Missaberoad]

Ryan:  Thank you!  I was sure they had been banned, but didn't know when. 

Trivia:  There was a railroad news item years ago from Nevada about the WP borrowing a shortline's wreck crane.  It seems that the crane still had archbar trucks, so wasn't acceptable for interchange.  That didn't bother the WP, they "leased" it for a nominal sum, and got around the ban.  But they refused to accept the friction bearings...  So, the shortline installed roller bearing adapters in the archbar trucks.  Probably the only such case, at least on a North American standard gauge railroad.

Does anyone remember the details?

Well shortline connecting with Western Pacific doesn't leave very many options. My gut tells me Nevada Northern and a little bit of research confirmed it...

In 1979/1980 WP's Elko wrecker was its-self wrecked cleaning up a derailment. WP Borrowed NN's Wrecking crane "A" and used it to clean up both wrecks.
Then the leased crane was used in Elko until a replacement could be acquired. (or I suspect the UP merger in 1982)

WP most definitely rebuilt the bearings on NN "A", I am not sure if this was a requirement for operation or something that they did later on during the time they had it leased (I suspect the latter)

Here's a June 1979 photo on the WP with what appears to be solid bearings (hard to tell due to shadows)

http://s172.photobucket.com/user/brmacsm/media/Web/NNAp.jpg.html

It still survives to this day, here it is more recently with its rebuilt roller bearings.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xv18IbQjs3k/maxresdefault.jpg

[Missaberoad]

not true. http://www.google.com/patents/US1546324

The existence of a patent doesn't necessarily mean it was actually ever done in reality.

I'm curious if anyone has any evidence of another North American standard gauge Archbar roller bearing conversion besides NN "A".
I've looked and haven't found anything that puts @nkalanaga 's statement into the "not true" category

Interested to be proven to the contrary tho... 

[johnb]

The existence of a patent doesn't necessarily mean it was actually ever done in reality.

I'm curious if anyone has any evidence of another North American standard gauge Archbar roller bearing conversion besides NN "A".
I've looked and haven't found anything that puts @nkalanaga 's statement into the "not true" category

Interested to be proven to the contrary tho... 

not archbar, but I  have seen roller bearing conversions

[Missaberoad]

not archbar, but I  have seen roller bearing conversions

Absolutely they were very common on Bettendorf, Barber and ASF style trucks and to a lesser extent on Andrews style trucks...
but with arch bar trucks banned from interchange in 1940 I imagine examples are few and far between...

http://s1224.photobucket.com/user/MarkFCJ/media/IMG_1767_zps85o7vwo1.jpg.html

[nkalanaga]

Ryan:  That was my thought as well.  A lot of things have been patented, but never built, some for lack of need, some because they simply wouldn't work.

And, thank you for finding the story.  WP went all the way, didn't they?  I thought they just put adapters in the existing journal boxes, like most roads did with cast frame trucks.  These look like full replacements, so maybe the 1925 patent, or a similar product, did see some use, and WP had a set sitting around.  Or else the WP shops custom made a set?