OGR Webmaster posted:Kelly Anderson posted:...I was told by CSX that the bearings may catch on fire on their portion of the trip (1,500 feet)!! Really??Utter nonsense, spoken by someone who has absolutely no clue about the history of their own industry.
Every railroad in the world ran plain bearing locos and freight cars for over 150 years, at speeds over 100 mph in some places.
I think I would be safe in saying that a friction bearing running at 10 mph (or less) has never caught fire in 1,500 feet of movement. It is ridiculous.
Rich is absolutely right! Whenever this subject comes up, I'm always prompted to inquire, "How many of their diesels have plain/friction bearings in the running gear?". Invariably the RR person answers, "None!", at which point I inform them that every single EMD and GE locomotive equipped with DC traction motors in their entire fleet, has TWO "plain/friction" oil lubricated bearings, which support the traction motor on every driven axle! I then inquire, "How often do THOSE support bearings fail & burn up?".
In my opinion, it would just be better if the management folks (Mechanical Dept. or otherwise) on today's railroads would just say "No", without an intelligence insulting explanation behind their arbitrary reasoning.
