[GeoStL] Re: Why Caches Shouldn't be on RR Bridges.

- I wonder how long ago that happened?

Somewhere around 30 years ago, the government mandated that all 100 ton friction bearing rail cars had to be changed over to roller bearings. Friction bearings consist of a half-moon piece of brass that sits on top of the axle. All of this is enclosed in a box. The bottom of the box was filled with rags on which oil is poured. The axle sat on top of the rags and picked up oil which lubricated the junction with the brass at the top of the axle. The railroad had an "oiler" who went from box to box and checked the oil level in the box to be sure they were full. The problem comes when the oil runs out and the friction from the brass and metal caused a lot of heat eventually catching the rags and left over oil on fire. The guy at the back of the train (the conductor) that sat in the house car (caboose) was on the lookout for such a "hot box". Since the roller bearings essentially took away the need for the conductor, that is why you don't see the house car at the end of trains any longer.

So an event like this could have easily happened back when they had friction bearings rather than roller bearings, so that is why I am wondering how long ago this actually happened.

Tim & Pam Ueltzen wrote:

I was wondering what happened to the cache I placed under that bridge.

Tim

 

From: geocaching-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:geocaching-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike Griffin
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 9:28 AM
To: geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [GeoStL] Why Caches Shouldn't be on RR Bridges.

 

 

 

 

Mike

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