Has anyone bought any reconditioned 36” wheel sets lately? I’m working a a “back of the envelope” estimate on putting our diner back in service. The kitchen end has temporary wheel sets with smaller bearings. We will need to change these out to the proper 6x11s. I don’t have any current suppliers in my contact list let alone know how much these might cost nowadays. I’m asking for contacts or rough costs.

Thanks

Call Ohio Valley Railcar at 724-347-2227. They are in Wheatland, PA not too far from me and should be able to supply wheelsets. There is also ORX in Tipton, PA just north of Altoona nd they certainly can too. http://www.orxrail.com/index.html

An FYI: Ohio Valley Railcar seems to either be out of business or changed their contact info. The phone number is no longer in service and I can’t track down any other contact info.

Are they tread brakes or disk brakes? Disk brakes are probably going to be more expensive.

Do you have wheelsets already that can be refurbished? We send ours to Texas Tank Car in Houston. Finding places in the industry that can simply turn old wheelsets is getting difficult. Most of them just want to replace wheel blanks. Texas can press them on and off, but we need to purchase the blanks elsewhere.

If you need new wheels, ORX can definitely help you out. We have used UTC in Morton, PA as well.

Eric

These are tread brakes. I’m doing an email conversation with ORX as most employees are off this week. We don’t have any sets with 6x11 bearings, hence the complete changeout. Learning as I go….

I went over to Wheatland and Ohio Valley Railcar is not longer in business. Place is deserted and a different company's name on the door. I wonder what happened to them.

Plain bearings or roller bearings?

Kelly - These would be rollers. We’re likely looking at exposed end cap with adaptors for the replacements.

In that case, I would think that Rocky Pacifico at ORX would the first one to ask.

Kelly - Already done. Rocky’s on vacay right now. ORX is only running a skeleton crew over the holidays so I expect to hear something back in January. I hope I don’t faint….

ORX, Penn Machine, or Greenbriar.

You might consider Lyons Industries, Ebensburg, PA

http://www.lyonsind.com/rail_trucks/index.html

They've done several complete trolley truck rebuilds for us. On the last project, Lyons did some pretty amazing work, especially considering the miserable shape of the old trucks we sent them. We did need to do a fair amount of "dealer prep" on the brake rigging before the trucks were ready to go back under the car, but the wheel & axle work (new axles, re-profiled wheels) was top notch.

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.

I’ll wholeheartedly endorse Larry’s opinions on Lyons Industries.

I’ve managed six projects of varying complexity for three different organizations where Lyons was a contractor since 2005. In each case, workmanship was high quality, all matters were handled with professionalism, billing and terms were clear, and if warranty work was required, it was handled timely and completely.

Most recently, Lyons completed new gears and plain bearings for a set of 1910 vintage trucks and is completing the overhaul of a set of B2 PCC trucks, including overhaul of traction motors and Westinghouse shaft brake actuators, for a different customer.

Best wishes,
Matt Nawn

Thanks for all the suggestions. I’ll continue to chase this down as everyone returns to work after the holidays.

Ditto what Matt & Larry said: Lyons. You'll be pleasantly surprised by the price and the workmanship is first rate.