I have been trying to find this answer in my academic sources, without luck.

How much time does it take to switch out a wheelset on a locomotive? How much time to switch all wheelsets?

I define wheelset as two wheels and an axle.

Is common to do this task alone, or as part of a larger collection of tasks?

Is it common to exchange bogies on a locomotive?

In locomotives with axle hung motors you change a combo, which is motor plus wheels and axle. It takes a couple hours.

PC

Not to be a Weisenheimer, but how long these type jobs take depends on whether or not you have a drop table....

Good point, Sammy.

And on most railroads they keep TM combos built up, ready to install.

PC

It's very similar to asking how long it takes to do a major job--say, an engine swap or a transmission change--on an automobile.

Got a garage with a lift and ALL the necessary parts, tools and reference material and Technical Service Bulletins on hand laid out on a bench? X amount of time.

Jacking up a car on jackstands, tools all over the place, have to stop and buy that thin-profile socket wrench and thin-wall socket you didn't know you'd need, flipping through the manual and watching six online videos to tell you what to do? 10X to 20X.

Suddenly find the one part you need is "unobtanium" and you have to go somewhere to pull one off of a scrapline loco somewhere? Get a calendar book.

You did not give us much of an idea about the loco you are working. On electric locomotives, 65 tons or less, I would take the truck out from under the loco, remove the motor from the axle and set it aside, lift one end of the truck and roll the wheel set out. Then reverse the process. Whole project would take 2 or 3 people less than two days IF you did not find any other surprises. You would need appropriate shop, jacks, and tools.

My environment is commercial railway, modern Siemens electric locomotive, but I did not expect this forum to answer that. On this forum the best equivalent would be Norfolk Southern or Union Pacific, modern diesel, or Amtrak electric.

In any case, I can not find any published references for any of these. I also could not find a YouTube video showing the process.

We typically take about 2-3 hours to change a 'Combo', which is a wheelset and traction motor combination (disappointingly it has nothing to do with cheesy stuffed pretzels!). For this time frame, the Combo is already assembled, tested, and ready to go. We use a drop pit for this process, and have a pretty well established procedure that works well for us. We probably change about 4 per year.

Changing out the wheelset in the Combo takes longer. If all the parts are on hand and there are no surprises, I'd say the better part of a day, which includes testing the unit by running it while sitting on the shop floor, and adding the grease to the gear box.

Without a drop table, this process would take longer, as the unit would have to be jacked up to remove the trucks (or bogies as you might call them), then lift the truck frame to remove the combo. Although in the field, I think emergency crews will change combos with the trucks still attached to the loco and jacking it all up together.

Eric Hadder
Grand Canyon Railway

There are a few videos of RJ Corman changing out wheelsets in the wild using sidebooms to lift the loco. They were swapping the motors out with dummy wheelsets I assume to tow the loco back to the shop to do a full change-out. They don't go into detail but it gives you a general idea of what goes on.

This one shows the most: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt9g-lbBw-c

Alco MI-1010 provides a full written procedure for changing a combo using a drop table.

PC

Taken on March 15, 2024 at Thomaston Shop; GP9 686 with both trucks out, getting a D77 combo changed on #2 axle in front truck, and brake rigging replacement on rear truck. Both trucks had brake rigging work done. Four 35-ton Whiting electric jacks are used for this work. There's a rented 15-ton forklift outside moving the heavy pieces around, and a 45-ton Grove hydraulic crane for additional heavy lifting.

The traction motors in the foreground are GE 752 motors, to be used in Alco RS-3 NH 529. With the forklift rented for a week, a lot of motor and combo work was done in that period.

Howard P.