Building A Steam Locomotive

I would guess they do it to harden the metal???

Pretty cool video Bobby!

I used to work in a machine shop (draftsman) prior to working in electronics for Uncle Sam.  It was amazing to see them build what we drew.  We had 5-6 people drawing parts and a "checker' who made sure the mating parts fit before we sent the drawings down to the shop for fabrication.

Building a huge engine like this must have been a back-breaking job.  just think, no computer, no CAD program, just a slide rule and a lot of engineering know-how.  Manually shaping a piece of hot metal into a siderod, what craftsmanship!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed that!  Imagine making the tools that made the loco.

I liked the fact that everyone in the film was working.  No one guy working while 5 others stood around!   It is amazing what we used to build without computers.  Think how many drawings were made for that one engine! 

Not quite Bob. The cast steel wheel centers are slow-coold in the foundry deep pits, so that the cooling takes place VERY slowly (over weeks), preventing quick shrinkage and subsequent cracking. The slow-cooled castings can then be more precision machined to accept the hardened steel tires (which are shrunk onto the wheel centers).

Fascinating--it puts into pictures the words of Superpower, The Making of a Steam Locomotive by David Weitzman.  Thanks for sharing.  Jim

Answer to the Quiz:

Metallurgy was fascinating to me in college, and I had a professor who was one of the top metallurgists for Hyatt Roller bearing. The professor told me about an experience where Hyatt made the largest bearing in their history at the time. When the bearing race came out of heat treatment, it was put into a lab to cool over a weekend.

Folks arrived on Monday morning to find the lab destroyed because differential stresses in the bearing race caused it to shatter explosively. So this is one of the key reasons that large castings go into a pit - SAFETY.

Other reasons are the pit has a uniform temperature environment, the hot wheels are inaccessible - SAFETY again, and the pit is inexpensive.

The core essence of mechanical engineering is in a steam locomotive.

I wonder how long it would take to make one today ?

With the current budget cuts there will from now on only be 3 guys standing around watching.

Jerry

I'm a stationary engineer by trade for the past 41 years, so the things I noticed were the lack of protective clothing, hard hats, safety goggles, welding goggles (by some), machine guards, etc.

I can't help but wonder how many injuries occured each year? And no cracks from the unexperienced about Lawyers, or how much more careful the workers were "back then" - safety innovations and regulations went into effect AFTER the accidents killed or maimed someone.

These guys had B**LS.

Good observations Art, I did an apprenticeship in industrial electrics/electronics in an iron foundry back in the '60's. Things weren't a lot different even then. The advances in safety have really been in the past 40 odd years. I can recall a number of men killed at work, and nearly all the men who had worked there for decades had lung diseases. I dread to think how many since have died from asbestos related diseases as well.