Re: Brakeshoes

Taylor; I'm going to have to get beter acquainted with the posters on this web. It
didn't occur to me that you were talking about
shoes for a locomotive. The IC cast their own locomotive brake shoes in their foundry at Paducah. I believe they had a strong back cast in them. I've seen piles of them delivered by the
Stores Dept.to the R'house.
It would be interesting to see if there is mention of when they began using steel tires on
locomotives. I've never heard heard anything on that.
As for the cast wheels on cars and tenders, I guess they were
pretty good for their day but they and the solid bearing journal were a pain to maintain. Especially since it was always the Car Dept's.
fault when one ran hot.What's that poem about "My Job"
I had only worked at the IC a few years when the
Super called me in and showed me a pile of Hot Box reports on his desk and asked me what could
be done. I told him that the immediate change would be to drop the rating on each journal size
back one notch. In other words, the 50T would become 40T, etc. and then start work on a suitable
roller bearing. His answer was that would never happen. He got to see only part of the changeover before he died but by the time I retired almost everything had either been changed or was "in the program".
Jim