The Next Great Step in Railroading

Russia may have made the seemingly impossible task of cracking America’s atom bomb secret look easy. But one thing still has her stumped — our railroads. The advantage they give us over Russia is one American “secret” she can’t steal overnight, desperately though she’d like to.

Russia’s railroad system is reported to be no farther along today than ours was 75 years ago. Pravda admits this has thrown a monkey wrench into the Soviet’s industrial build-up — especially since nearly 90% of its freight traffic has to go by rail. And more important, experts say that lack of a modern rail system like ours has kept the Communists from overrunning Western Europe.

Despite its tremendous area, Russia has only 78,000 miles of railway line compared with our 223,500 miles. Only a fraction of her country can be reached by rail. And not all of the track behind the Iron Curtain is the same gauge. Goods have to be unloaded and reloaded wherever the gauge changes. As a result, Russia’s war plants have to be where the coal and steel are. In an emergency, she faces the problem of how to get the products of those plants to where they’re needed in time.

By contrast, America’s railroads enable us to unite the thousands of plants scattered throughout the continent into a single defense production effort, and at the same time keep 150.000,000 Americans supplied with what it takes to enjoy the world’s highest living standard.

Because our railroads crisscross America and the cars of one railroad are interchangeable with another’s, we can apply mass production methods on a nationwide scale. Sub-contractors in Birmingham, Seattle, or Boston can furnish parts to a tank plant in Cleveland. Supplies and finished products can be rushed wherever they’re needed. Factories can be built wherever labor is available.

If the “secret’s’‘ so obvious, why can’t Russia swipe it? To do so, she would have to duplicate overnight all the progressive steps in railroad progress that have put us 75 years ahead. And as if that weren’t problem enough for Russia, our railroads can now put America yet another giant stride ahead with the next great step in railroading, “Roller Freight.”

Two Big Steps to “One Big Railroad”

Back in 1871 there was more than one track gauge in use in America — 23, in fact. Standardizing on a single gauge meant ripping all that track up, after managing to get agreement in the first place on which gauge should be standard. But America’s railroads accomplished it. That in turn cleared the track for another big step, the “interchange system” under which America’s railroads agree to haul each other’s cars.

As a result, freight today rolls freely anywhere in the United States, Canada, or Mexico without changing cars and with no delay where one road’s track ends and another’s begins. For shippers, America’s 683 different rail systems have been developed into one swift, interchangeable unit.

Automatic signal systems, standardized air brakes and couplings, centralized traffic control, and diesel locomotives are typical of the inventive power which has improved both freight and passenger service. One of the newest of these is the streamlined passenger “name trains,” pulled by powerful diesels at high speeds and in luxurious comfort. These streamliners, over 175 of which are now in service, were made practical by antifriction roller bearings that eliminate all speed restrictions due to bearings and reduce jolts and jars in starting and stopping.

The Next Great Step Is “Roller Freight”

Now the “name trains” are showing the way to the next great step in railroading — “Roller Freight.” From experience with roller bearings in passenger service, the railroads are now discovering that roller bearings are the answer to their No. 1 freight problem — the hot box.

Already four railroads have gone “Roller Freight.” Union Pacific has cut running time in half between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles with 800 livestock cars on Timken roller bearings.

Atlantic Coast Line put 946 pulpwood and covered hopper cars on Timken bearings, recently ordered 2000 more. When these go into service, 10% of all its freights will be “Roller Freight.” Reports C. McD. Davis, President of ACL, “Coast Line is convinced of the efficiency and economy of roller bearings for freight cars.”

The new 357-mile railroad being built to tap Labrador’s fabulous iron ore strike will have all 2000 of its ore cars on Timken tapered roller bearings. And the Chesapeake & Ohio’s experience with 1000 coal hoppers which were put on Timken bearings several years ago is dramatic proof that roller bearings can end the hot box problem.

To date, these “Roller Freight” cars have rolled up 60,000,000 car-miles without a single hot box. By contrast, the nation’s average for friction freight is only 212,000 car-miles between set-outs for hot boxes.

What Causes a Hot Box?

Every railroad man is alerted to watch for the tell-tale wisp of smoke that signals an overheated axle. When that happens, the train has to be stopped while the bearing is repaired or the crippled car is cut from the train. Schedules are interrupted, valuable cargo left behind.

In friction type bearings, or “brasses” as they’re called, commonly used on freight cars today, oil from a wad of oil-soaked waste is relied on to provide lubricant between the journal and “brass.” But sometimes the waste is dislodged and gets stuck between the journal and the “brass.” Or it doesn’t have enough oil. Or water or dirt gels in. And lubrication fails. When that happens, metal-to-metal sliding friction results. The journal becomes overheated and a hot box results.

Railroad record books show that the hot box has been getting hotter in recent years. One recent check revealed that over 90% of the mechanical failures occurring on 90,000 freight cars were friction bearing failures.

A top officer of one road named hot boxes under freight cars the greatest single mechanical problem in recent years. Another has said, “It is a plain fact that railroads are losing business, and experiencing costly derailments, as long as freight car journal boxes continue to become defective in such large numbers.” Still another has said that wasteful troubles with journal bearings are “one of the great and traditional curses of the industry.”

There’s a big dollars-and-cents reason for the growing concern about the hot box problem. Estimates based on available railroad statistics show that the railroads are now paying for hot boxes at the rate of over $55 million a year!

Why the Risk Is Increasing

Why is the hot box problem growing? Several explanations arc offered. Cutting the railroad work week from six days to five cut inspection man-hours too, and friction bearings require frequent inspection. It’s not unusual for 75% of the friction bearings on a freight train to need oil at each inspection point. A single slip-up can mean a hot box another 50 miles down the track.

Use of diesels has upped freight train speeds, and as speed increases, so does the danger of a friction bearing hot box.

Because automatic signal systems, diesels and other improvements have reduced delays in train movements and stop-overs at division points, there is less time left to inspect the bearings.

Longer freight trains make it tougher for the look-out in the caboose to spot tell-tale hot box smoke ahead.

A petit larceny version of “The Great Train Robbery” may also be a factor; some railroads actually report that waste packing is being stolen from their freight car journal boxes.

With the problem growing, the railroads have redoubled their efforts to lick it.

Since most hot boxes occur on heavily-loaded cars, one railroad even went so far as to reduce car capacity from 50 tons to 25. Although its hot box record showed marked improvement, the railroad had to sacrifice up to 50% of its revenue capacity to turn the tide.

How Roller Bearings End the Hot Box Problem

The search for a more practical answer has finally led to “Roller Freight”—freight cars on Timken tapered roller bearings.

How do Timken roller bearings do away with hot boxes? First, because they roll the load, there’s no chance for metal-to-mctal sliding friction.

No oil-soaked packing is used. The lubricant is grease, just as in your automobile wheels. It gives bearings better protection when the car’s not rolling. And it’s sealed in the journal box — won’t leak out. Moisture and dirt can’t get in. As a result, the causes of friction bearing hot boxes are completely eliminated.

By licking the hot box problem, “Roller Freight” opens up new opportunities for railroads, shippers, and public alike. It can be the railroads’ big new drawing card in going after tomorrow’s freight business.

By ending hot box delays, it helps insure “ontime” deliveries. By eliminating all speed restrictions due to bearings, it opens the way to speedier schedules. Western livestock shippers already have seen what can happen to a stock train’s schedule when its cars arc switched to Timken roller bearings.

“Beefsteak Pullman” Cuts Running Time in Half

Six years ago it took two and a half days for Union Pacific’s fastest livestock train to make the 784-mile desert and mountain trip between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.

U.P.’s multiple-unit diesels had the speed and power to cut this running time in half. But the railroad had to hold its diesels in check. Sustained high speeds were apt to overheat the stock car’s friction bearings and cause train-stopping hot boxes. Broiling desert heat added to the problem.

Making the going even slower was a Federal humane law which says that animals can’t be kept aboard a train more than 36 hours at a time without being unloaded for feed and water. Unable to shade the 36-hour limit, the friction bearing trains had to make a stopover at Las Vegas, Nevada. That was the picture six years ago.

Today, over 8000 head of cattle, hogs, and sheep leave Union Pacific’s Salt Lake City yards daily and pull into Los Angeles only 27 hours later — less than half the time it used to take! They ride the Daylight Livestock Special, crack U.P. livestock train and the fastest stock train in America.

What’s made the difference? For the most part it’s the Timken tapered roller bearings on the cars’ axles. By mounting 800 livestock cars on Timken bearings, Union Pacific has eliminated ail speed restrictions due to bearings. The U. P. can give its diesels their head. Hot box delays are a thing of the past.

With Timken bearings, livestock gets to market in less than half the time. Shippers avoid the costly weight losses cattle suffer from many hours in the desert sun. Animals get a smooth ride, fewer bruises, because Timken bearings cut starting resistance 88%, reducing jars and jolts.

The Las Vegas stopover has been eliminated. And men to tend the cattle no longer have to tag along with the train in a “drovers car.” Cattle arrive in fresher condition. Mr. Don Kenney, director of the Salt Lake Union Stockyards, reports that his cattle “stroll down the gangway looking as rested as Pullman passengers.”

“Roller Freight” Appeals to Shippers

The faster “Roller Freight” schedule was a hit from the start with livestock shippers. In two years’ time, Union Pacific’s livestock business increased 30%.

Faster, surer freight service is of prime importance to shippers of perishables, too — and to the consumers who buy them. Women shoppers pay more attention to the condition of perishables than they do to price, according to a recent survey. Faster freight also appeals to businessmen who want to keep warehouse costs down. And to those who want to maintain minimum inventories because of price and style changes.

But “Roller Freight’s” advantages to railroads, shippers, and consumers don’t begin and end with speed.

Railroads Shell Out for Eggs

Claims for damaged freight give railroad men a hundred-million-dollar headache every year. For fragile items such as eggs, melons, drain tile, etc., damage claims eat away from one tenth to one half of every revenue dollar the railroads get.

Part of this costly damage is probably caused by jerky starts. Even the most skilled locomotive engineer can’t start a long string of freight cars smoothly as a unit when the cars are mounted on friction bearings. There’s too much metal-tometal sliding friction between “brasses” and axles for the locomotive to overcome. So railroads have to allow enough slack in the couplings to permit the locomotive to jerk the train into motion a car at a time.

By switching to “Roller Freight,” railroads will be able to cut damage to lading. Timken tapered roller bearings roll the load, reducing starting resistance 88% Slack needed to start friction bearing cars can be eliminated. Long freights will be able to start up smoothly as a unit.

On top of savings in damage claims, railroads look forward to other big cuts in operating costs with “Roller Freight”—cuts in terminal inspection man-hours and lubricant costs.

90% Fewer Man-hours for Inspection

A waste-packed friction bearing journal box has its lid lifted at every terminal for inspection. About three out of four usually need oil. America’s railroads have about 16,000,000 journals to tend to (2,000,000 freight cars, eight journals to a car). It’s a staggering inspection job.

Checks of actual inspections of both “Roller Freight” and friction freight trains show that Timken roller bearings reduce man-hours needed for terminal inspection of bearings by 90%.

With Timken roller bearings, there are no lids to lift. No waste to inspect. No oil to add.

Inspectors quickly walk the length of the train making the safety inspection by merely feeling each journal box as they pass. Some yards have inspected a 90-car “Roller Freight” train with four men in less than 15 minutes. That’s less than one man-hour. By contrast, it takes eight men an hour and 15 minutes to give a 90-car friction bearing train a Class A inspection. Ten times as many man-hours as for the “Roller Freight” train.

Actually, most train schedules don’t allow this much time for inspection. Railroads want to get their expensive diesels out on the road earning their keep. So maintenance crews often complain they don’t have enough time to inspect all the friction bearing journals.

Performance records of “Roller Freight” in actual service make the railroads hopeful of even bigger inspection savings to come. It looks as though Timken tapered roller bearings can safely be counted on to go three years without attention. The railroads will be able to forget bearing inspections until a freight car is called into the shops for other inspections.

The amount of lubricant required will be cut correspondingly. Estimates show that greaselubricated Timken bearings will save the railroads up to 89% in lubricant costs. For Northern railroads, Timken bearings will produce an extra saving in winter.

Zero Weather No Hazard to Roller Bearings

In extremely cold weather it has been common practice for railroads to cut the number of cars on a freight train. Some railroads reduce the load 10% when the mercury hits 15 degrees. At zero and below the cut may be as high as 30%.

Why?

Among other reasons, because low temperatures stiffen the oil in a friction bearing journal box and prevent proper lubrication. Starting resistance is increased so much that a locomotive no longer can get a full string of cars underway. As a result, tonnage has to be reduced, cars left behind.

Because Timken tapered roller bearings roll the load, “Roller Freight” starts up just as easily on New Year’s Day as it does on the 4th of July. Railroads can be free from costly cold weather delays due to bearings. After extensive tests, one leading railroad reported officially that “no matter how low the temperature, the resistance of the Timken roller bearing cars will be no higher in winter than in summer.”

Add it all up and you can see why the switch to roller bearings for freight cars is being called the next great step in railroading.

Chesapeake & Ohio, Union Pacific and Atlantic Coast Line all have gone “Roller Freight” in a big way. Other railroads have equipped smaller numbers of freight cars with Timken tapered roller bearings, including Great Northern with over 170. And orders have been placed by Union Pacific for 200 more and by Western Pacific for 100. But the latest and biggest bit of “Roller Freight" news comes from the wilds of Labrador.

First All “Roller Freight" Railroad

One of industry’s biggest, boldest undertakings is now under way in the wilderness of Northeastern Canada.

Sparked by the M. A. Hanna Company, a group of leading steel, coal and mining companies banded together to tap the fabulously rich iron ore deposits on the Quebec-Labrador border. And to get the ore — at a rate of 10,000.000 tons a year — out of this inaccessible region to shipping points on the St. Lawrence River 357 miles away, they’re building a brand new railroad, the Quebec, North Shore and Labrador.

It’s the world’s newest railroad and it’s really new. Not only will the Q.N.S. & L. have diesel locomotives, modern traffic control, and mechanized handling; but to top all that, all of its 2000 ore cars will be “Roller Freight" — on Timken roller bearings. It is believed to be the first railroad in the world to go “Roller Freight” 100%.

Every step of this bold mining venture is marked by vision, audacity and pioneer spirit. But every step was also carefully planned. The decision to go “Roller Freight" all the way was reached only after a detailed study which compared the initial cost, operating cost, and maintenance cost of cars on Timken tapered roller bearings with those on plain bearings.

The study showed that Timken bearings could reduce running time two hours by eliminating extra stops for inspection enroute.

With Timken bearings, bearing inspection on the Labrador road will require less than onetwentieth the man-hours needed for friction bearings.

Timken bearings will not be affected when the cars are tipped over for dumping.

Maintenance savings with Timken bearings w ill amount to thousands of dollars every year.

The Quebec, North Shore and Labrador is the fourth railroad to go “Roller Freight” on a large scale. The next great step in railroading is getting under way despite the one stumbling block that still remains.

Interchange System Poses a Problem

A railroad’s locomotives and passenger cars generally stay on its own lines. Put them on roller bearings and the savings in time and money all go into the till of the owning railroad.

But a railroad’s freight cars travel the length and breadth of the land, spend as much as threefourths of their time on other lines. So the railroads have hesitated to spend 10 to 15 per cent more per freight car for roller bearings when other roads stand to cash in on part of the savings. Mr. C. McD. Davis, President of Atlantic Coast Line, put it this way in an address before the New York Society of Security Analysts: “. . . until the use of roller bearings becomes widespread, Coast Line has confined the application of roller bearings to special service types of freight cars that remain on Coast Line rails most of the time, and are not intermingled indiscriminately with the national car pool. (Pardon this apparent selfishness, it is really self-preservation.)”

The interchange problem would disappear if the railroads would jointly agree to equip all new cars with roller bearings and to set up a program for converting all existing freight cars to roller bearings. But the job is a big one and can’t be done overnight. So the interchange problem still stands in the way — although history’s lesson is that the railroads will find a solution, and railroad men fully predict that the solution is not far off.

Railroads Always Find a Way

Since their earliest days, America’s railroads have teamed together to accomplish one great step in railroading after another — standard track gauge, interchange of freight cars, improved brakes, steel cars, passenger streamliners, automatic signal systems, improved motive power — the list is endless.

Now they’re working together to bring about another great step in railroading that will benefit shippers, consumers, and railroads alike. And when America’s railroads team together to do a job, the job gets done. The railroads always find a way.

And because they always find a way, we can count on our railroads to maintain the transportation advantage America now enjoys — an advantage that gives us the most envied standard of living in the world and a potent answer to the military challenge of Russia or any other aggressive nation.