LL SW8 Upgrades?

[John Burkush]

Ed, they run great right of the box, The only modfications I have done were details (handrails, horns, numberboards)
were to match the prototype of the B&M 800 series.
I published an article in "Modelers Notes" of the B&M Bulliten recently on the modifications.

[3rdrail]

How are you gonna model that one Ed?  It's got three plain bearing axles and one roller bearing axle!! Only the PC could have done something like that.  :

What the heck are plain bearing trucks? Are they something new? I asked a couple of guys I know who worked for the PC back in the day along with a NS conductor friend and they never heard of plain bearing trucks...

They're what some folks incorrectly call "friction bearing" journals. The kind with a brass bearing and oily waste to lubricate things. if the waste caught between the axlke and the bearing you got a hotbox.  ;D

[Allentown Hump]

How are you gonna model that one Ed?  It's got three plain bearing axles and one roller bearing axle!! Only the PC could have done something like that.  :

What the heck are plain bearing trucks? Are they something new? I asked a couple of guys I know who worked for the PC back in the day along with a NS conductor friend and they never heard of plain bearing trucks...

They're what some folks incorrectly call "friction bearing" journals. The kind with a brass bearing and oily waste to lubricate things. if the waste caught between the axlke and the bearing you got a hotbox.  ;D

Ohhhhh. Sort of like the morons that call Triple Valves "AB Valves"?

[up1950s]

There is more than a cover missing on that truck Mike . A friction/plain bearing side frame has a cover and a welded/molded on wadding cup that the wadding would be placed in . That first bearing area must have been ground down flat and then rollered . First time I saw that . Some freight cars were rollered but retained the friction frames and covers . UP used to paint the covers yellow to alert employees that they needed no wadding . Maybe on that switcher side frame that is not possible for some reason . Sure would like to know for sure .

[RS-27]

Plain bearings:  cylindrical slabs of bronze that needed to be immersed/saturated in oil while they supported the journals of the steel axles.

Today everything uses roller bearings, in the prehistoric past , metal to metal sliding surfaces worked, as long as they were slippery when wet with oil.  Diesel switchers could get away with olde tech as they didn't go fast/far.

Friction bearings (another oxymoron) were lubed by cotton waste which was sloshed full of oil.  Almost what we use, except our bearings are bronze balls that have been sqeezed and heated into a porous chunk that oil can hide in until needed (for motors).

For axles, we use needle points in brass to collect lint and dog hairs..

Bob in IDaho

[Chris333]

I was just standing on a pile of those trucks 2 days ago, if I had known I would have snapped some pics.

[Robbman]

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[Sokramiketes]

There is more than a cover missing on that truck Mike . A friction/plain bearing side frame has a cover and a welded/molded on wadding cup that the wadding would be placed in . That first bearing area must have been ground down flat and then rollered . First time I saw that . Some freight cars were rollered but retained the friction frames and covers . UP used to paint the covers yellow to alert employees that they needed no wadding . Maybe on that switcher side frame that is not possible for some reason . Sure would like to know for sure .

That end of the sideframe was probably rebuilt due to a derailment or other calamity.  All I was saying is that roller bearings are probably hiding under the rest of the original friction bearing (Timken advertisments worked on me!) covers as well.  You can't tell just by looking.

[Robbman]

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[up1950s]

There's also another cover style used on AAR-Bs that were built with roller bearings.. but you can pop it off and it'll look similar to the above.

Well if thats the case , then Mike is correct . What does the cover snap/fasten too , I see no clip/flange/holes ? Does that removable cover , when in place , look like the other ones in the photo , or is it of some other design ?

[Robbman]

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[bsoplinger]

One upgrade you can do is to replace the plastic worm with the metal worm from a number of different Kato locos. I think a search over on the Atlas forum would get you an exact listing of which Kato model worms would work.

Also you can replace the over sized flanged wheels with the Atlas wheels for GPs (and other things) Atlas part number 480304.

I believe you could also get away with using Atlas brass worms but I don't know those part numbers unfortunately.

[NYC1956]

I used Kato 926530 brass worms in mine.

Actually any Kato worm will work - they are all the same - the only difference is what shaft/universal parts come with them. You have to press off the worm and reinstall it on the Life-Like motor shaft.
Makes a HUGE difference - my switchers run almost like Katos now ;D

Thanks for the tip on the Atlas wheels. I was going to go the NWSL route, but think I will try the Atlas wheel swap first.
--Mike

[Ed Kapuscinski]

With the wheels, can you just drop out the old wheel sets and drop in the new ones, with their existing gears? I'd love to avoid having to  deal with moving the gears around.