The first five shots are of the initial stage of roughing the OD of the truck gear shaft bearings, which are held in the locomotives cross box when in operation. The rough casting is clamped onto a turning fixture, that centers the reduced diameter portion, on the left end, which shall forever remain as-cast, due to the locating boss making the finishing of this area impractical. Note the sturdy clamping ring about the left end of the piece....much better than hose clamps! The hose clamps are only temporary....as soon as the machined groove reaches 5 3/16 diameter, a second clamping ring will be applied for the remainder of the machining process. The lathe is only doing about 50 RPM, as slow as it will go, so even if the clamps should break, the casting will not leave POCAHONTAS County. Also, Only light cuts were taken at this stage of machining because we realize that the setup is not terribly sturdy. The next group to rebuilt this loco ought to change the pattern to incorporate this groove in the casting. Other than the grooves, the finish diameter of this piece is to be 5.250 inches. How many pieces? Six complete bearings (twelve halves), plus one spare bearing (two halves), equals fourteen. At this point I will not attempt to go into why we are doing it differently than Climax Mfg.

More allowance than normal was allowed on our bearings because at the time the pattern was made, it was not known whether all/some/none of the holes in the cross boxes needed to be bored.

Photo by Gordon Barner