Hello Everyone,

I'm in the process of quoting potential suppliers for NYC 80LB Dudley 3/4" diameter square neck track bolts and some 7/8" diameter diamond neck track bolts that should also work well with the Dudley hardware (Track Bolt Drawings On Google Drive).

I have some quotes coming in and I want to place an order before April, if possible.

I am writing to gauge any potential interest from other organizations in pooling our orders together to get a cost break based on the total quantity.

I will post potential prices and further information as I move through this process.


Please feel free to reply or pm me with any questions or to express interest.

If anyone has a current source for either of these 2 bolts, please let me know so I can quote with them as well.

We don't have any Dudley rail sections, so have no need to piggyback on your order.

However, what we do have is quite a bit of 85 PRR rail plus a lot of 85 ASCE rail that came from a PRR-affiliated line (the MGA). The oval holes in the joint bars for both demand a 13/16 inch diameter button head oval neck (BHON) track bolt - something which may have been unique to the "Standard Railroad of the World". Such bolts are now unobtainium, or at least from any supplier we have contacted. Thirteen-sixteenth isn't even a standard machine bolt size anymore.

Having exhausted our supply of 13/16th track bolts, we've resorted to milling out the oval holes in the joint bars so 7/8 inch BHON bolts will fit. I'd be interested in the contact information for the potential supplier of your Dudley bolts and inquiring on what terms they might be persuaded to provide 13/16 BHON track bolts.

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.
Pennsylvania Trolley Museum

Hey Larry,

The supplier we ended up going with was Lewis Bolt out of La Junta, CO.

We placed the order a few weeks ago and I hope to have the bolts in hand sometime in early June.

They were great to work with regarding quoting and getting the prints adjusted regarding dimensioning & tolerancing.

I don't have the product in hand yet, so I can't testify to the final result.

But, they made it very clear that they only want to ship a product that is correct to the print and that they will replace any non-complying hardware at their cost.