Metal for Wear Shoes

[nkprr175]

In a previous thread about tenders I'm building my trailing truck and someone pointed out where to get metal from.

I called Admiral metals to obtain a 20 Gage brass sheet but since I'm new to the metal numbers game they were asking what mix I needed so I did not place the order as I did not know what to tell them.

What I'm trying to accomplish is make wear shoes so my trailing truck box will rub again brass shoes instead of the aluminum casting. I'm going to use a metal break to make the shoes and then fit them to the trailing truck.

What alloy mix of brass should I be using? I see so many numbers such as 260, 300, 180. Its all Greek to me.

Thanks!!

Steven Harvey

[Fender]

Not clear to me what this will be used for. Are you trying to put a lining on an aluminum brake shoe to stop the locomotive, or are you putting a sleeve bearing inside of an aluminum bearing box for the axle to turn against? In either case, brass is not a good choice. For the former use I would suggest a composition brake lining material that is epoxied onto the casting. For the latter, you'll want to use a bronze bearing such as SAE-660, aka alloy C93200 which is 83/7/7/3 copper/lead/tin/zinc.

[nkprr175]

As you can see on the delta training truck where the axle boxes would ride. I'm looking to make shoes so the axle boxes would not rub on the casting but on the shoes attached to the casting. Thus the wear surface would be on the shoes and the axle boxes and not eating way at the casting.

So I'm looking for the recommendations on what metal to use to make the shoes to out of to use on the casting. I was told but another builder he used 20 gauge brass sheet metal to bend shoes in a metal break to fit on the casting then drilled and tapped screws to hold the shoe in place. The builder was given metal from someone else so he did not know the mix of the brass sheet metal to help me order my own. Hope it makes it more clear now.

Steven Harvey

[cbrew]

if i am following you correctly, what you are talking about is the "consumable" wear plate between the journal and the pedestals. correct?

if so, IMHO it would not be required. with a little oil and the little weight that would be involved. I just do not see this wearing much.

but just about anything would work fine.

I did not notice what the journals are cast from. are they alum also?

[nkprr175]

Profile of the trailing truck.

1. Its made out of 100% aluminum as shown in the picture.
2. The journal boxes are made from 100% aluminum too as the previous owner did that.

Issue
Journal boxes are rubbing against the pedestal which both parts are made of aluminum and even with oil do not move a free as I would like.

Solution I'm looking for.
1. Recommendation on what metal I need to purchase such as brass or bronze to make pedestal shoes to attach to the pedestal.

Even though it might not wear a lot brass or bronze against aluminum as I have found out when I replaced the axle box bearings from steel axle on aluminum to bronze bearings solved my dragging issue.


Hope this helps as I'm running of explanations to give. =)

Steven H.

[cbrew]

Profile of the trailing truck.

1. Its made out of 100% aluminum as shown in the picture.
2. The journal boxes are made from 100% aluminum too as the previous owner did that.

Issue
Journal boxes are rubbing against the pedestal which both parts are made of aluminum and even with oil do not move a free as I would like.

Solution I'm looking for.
1. Recommendation on what metal I need to purchase such as brass or bronze to make pedestal shoes to attach to the pedestal.

Even though it might not wear a lot brass or bronze against aluminum as I have found out when I replaced the axle box bearings from steel axle on aluminum to bronze bearings solved my dragging issue.


Hope this helps as I'm running of explanations to give. =)

Steven H.

Well, i can see a few options to explore.
I have used mating surfaces of cast alum and steel which seems to work well so

depending on the finished dims, you could look at small steel c channel as a starting point and mill to spec.
common sizes i have used are
1 X .5
1.5 X .5 <-- i see this being the most realistic choice
2 X .5

but i see a problem, the alum will always be the consumable.

I know the diesel guys have been using alum on alum with the diesel trucks and they do not have any issues.
remember must of the forces will be applied vertically against the suspension (Eq bars etc.) rigging and very little will be applied to the mating surfaces of the journal and the pedestals.

just my 2 cents (.5 after tax)

(just some food for thought.)

Happy building

[nkprr175]

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I'll look in the shop as I might have some C Channel that size I can try out.

You are correct the aluminum journal boxes will be the item that will take the wear over time. In the future I'm looking to change them out to steel or a bronze material but for now I wanted to make the improvement to protect the petals from being ate away as this something I can not reproduce without purchase of a new trailing truck casting. For now I'll run with the aluminum journal boxes till they need to be replace.

Steven H.

[Fender]

For this application I would consider using some type of plastic sheet such as acetal (delrin) or ptfe (teflon).

[nkprr175]

I'm going to assume you get a sheet of it at a certain thinness and then mill it down to the size you need?

Steven H.

[jtdute]

Steve,

When I did the Pacific a few years ago I put wear shoes in the Alluminum Trailing Truck Frame and the journals are Bronze. I used Steel for this. Attached is picture of shoes installed.

[jtdute]

Picture this time.

[nkprr175]

JTDute,

Bingo, that is exactly what I'm looking for. Was it a 1018 mild steel machined out and what was the size of the stock you used to start out with before machining it?

Thanks!!

Steven Harvey