Hudson/Mohawk Chapter

Meeting

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Foster-Miller Inc.

431 New Karner Road, Albany, NY  12205

518/456-9919

Presentation: Assessing Bearings for the Rail Road Industry

By Richard Smith

The wheel bearings in modern rail cars have transitioned from fluid film to rolling element.  This change has required development of new methods to determine bearing wear-out. Rich has been a key developer of methods that assess bearing condition in passing trains using stationery track side equipment.  He provided us with an overview of the underlying techniques, sample data, and a summary of implementations in the US and abroad.  PLUS some really cool train photos!