Re: Question

Hmmm.... that is a very interesting drawing of the rear frame extension on the K-37, which was the main difference between the K-36 and K-37's running gear. K-37's also employed at Cole style trailing truck, whereas the K-36's used a Hodges style truck. I had always been my theory that Baldwin had a patent on the Hodges truck, and would demand some sort of royalty for the D&RGW to copy it. The Cole style was was commonly used by ALCO (K-28's used them), and perhaps no royalty was involved. In retrospect, while the Hodges truck is more flexible, it has poor centering qualities which tend to make the K-36's "wag their tails" at speed. The Cole is more stable with a better sentering device that does a better job of "achoring" the back of the engine down, giving a better ride quality.

A very interesting deviation from the drawing is the rear frame is drawn as a cast "C" channel like that of a K-36 rear frame extension. When constructed, the D&RGW utilized a simple square cross-section that was a poor choice, Nearly every K-37 has had a broken frame over the trailing truck that has been either welded, or had reinforcement plates welded or riveted (or both) applied to the rear extension.

Although it took a major derailment to do this to 499's rear frame extension, this was the eventual fate of most of them. Note the old break (the dark portion) where the frame fractured.




Pic from the wreck of 499 at Coxo in the winter of 1954.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2020 01:19PM by Earl.