I’m a student at Georgia Tech and am doing a project on rubber on transportation. I was wondering if anybody knew if trains contained any rubber in their construction? Sort of like tires on cars.
Thanks.
The air hoses between cars are mostly rubber.
Locomotives and, to some extent, freight and passenger cars, are full of rubber parts. Mostly gaskets, seals and couplings. NS’s Mechanical Department is in Atlanta at 185 Spring St (across from Garnett MARTA sta.) You might try writing to them there for a more comprehensive list.
-Don
Yes, the new GE’s are coming out with Goodyear 31x10.50x15 Wrangler radials. They are quieter than steel and don’t need sanding for traction. HeHeHe. I used to work in a car shop. Some of the draftgear used in coal cars (can’t speak on other types of cars) were made with rubber vulcanized to steel plates as opposed to a cast casing with heavy springs inside. Most of these rubber units were swapped out for Miner (spring) units.
i hear its the firestones they needed somewhere to use all them tires that was junk ford and firestone made a deal with csx til they derailed to many trains couse of this. now the n.s. and the u.p. are going to try it.
Some types of constant contact side bearings are elastomeric material.
I’ve heard through the grapevine, that the newer EMD’s are coming equipped with an auxillary wound-up rubber band drive system to help these units limp along into the nearest shop, when they fail on the road. ha, ha. Don’t forget the rubbers that some crews carry in their wallets, for that layover at the “away” terminal. Safety first, you know…
well i personally never had to limp in with a emd, but i know it happens, at least they are doing something to help. on the other hand we usually haft to get the dispatcher to send us a EMD from another train to get us in with our G.E.s but what we need is rubber knuckles for those conductors who dont know the differance between 10 cars and 1 foot.
yeah, I forgot to mention the elastomer constant contact bearings in my post. I think that they are made by “stucky’” or maybe “stucci,” if memory serves me correctly. But I may be wrong (highschool/budweiser was hard on me)