I need to find a parts source for a scratchbuilding steam locomotive project. I’m using a Proto Heavy 2-10-2 with aftermarket greenway boxpok drivers. Alls I really want is roller bearing side rods. If there is nothing out there any ideas would be nice. Thanks.
Unfortunately, you’re going to have to scratchbuild your own roller bearing rods. To the best of my knowledge, there were never any 10 coupled engines built or rebuilt with roller bearing rods like those that could be found on 4-8-4’s like N&W J’s and Santa Fe 2900’s and 3776 classes. Even if you could find such parts, there’s no guarantee the wheel spacing (which determines the crankpin spacing) would be the same as on the Proto 2-10-2.
Here’s a pic of ATSF 2928, which gives a good example of what roller bearing rods looked like: http://abpr.railfan.net/may99/05-04-99/atxsf2928steam.jpg
Roller bearing rods weren’t at all common. N&W A’s had them, the above mentioned 4-8-4’s had them. Some of NYC 4-6-4’s had them. UP 4-6-2 #2906 and 4-8-2 #7002 were rebuilt with them for for 49er service. IIRC, D&H Pacifics 650-653 had them.
Andre
I would like to back up Andre in that some freight engines had roller bearings in one way or another, but very few…VERY few, and none on the rods. I also am not aware that any one rail corporation made an economic case for re-rodding any of their aging 2-10-2 Santa Fe types, most of which were well into their cups by the time Timken began to woo the railroads.
In the 40’s, only two passenger Northern type 4-8-4’s had bearings on the rods and on the drivers…the N&W’s J and the NYC’s S1b Niagara. Virtually all other passenger Northerns and fast freight locomotives (2-8-4, 4-8-2, and 2-10-4 [ATSF]) had some roller bearings, or none, and none had such bearings on their side rods or main rods.
As roller bearings made an economic case, some roads began to retrofit them to super-power freight steamers in the late 40’s. As Andre states, some locomotives were designed from the get-go to use roller bearings. The N&W A Class 2-6-6-4 and the Pennsy Duplex series are examples, but they aren’t 4-8-4’s.