Has anyone ever utilized brake shoes from the Wheel Truing Brake Shoe Co.? I am curious what your results were. Any input is appreciated.

Dear Dave:Valley Railroad used Wheel Truing Brake Shoes on our 2-8-0 No. 97 on several occations. Our goal was to cut down high flanges and reduce the depth of "tread worn hollow" on the driving wheels. We were successful in keeping the locomotive in service and within "Federal" until we could afford to drop all the wheels and reprofile them. We didn't operate the locomotive under it's own power while truing, rather we pulled the locomotive with a diesel and applied the brakes and dragged it along. After each 1/4 mile we stopped and cleared the metal chips from the pockets in the shoes. After a while the grinding material in the shoe would get clogged, so we removed the shoes and cleaned them with a needle chipper or grinder. We also ground down high spots on the shoes so they would wear properly. It was time consuming, but it kept No. 97 operable. I would note that No. 97 has one "blind" set of drivers. WTBS made custom shoes for use to deal with these as well.Good luck!J.David

We use them quite a bit. Thier flange cutter that uses a carbide cutter works great. An hour or 2 brings flanges right back into shape. There shoes work great for all kind of small imperfections. We are not F.R.A. in the mill so our wheels get pretty bad. (overloaded cars with no brakes) and I've brought some horrible wheels in shape with them. We use them under power with the locomotive in remote so you can see what your doing.

I'm not sure of the brand, but we used to use both the abrasive shoes and the kind that cut flanges, with a carbide cutter insert. If I recall, abrasive shoes cannot be used in road service, but they do a good job at removing flat spots in yard service, where the brakes are applied frequently. Usually one day will clear up a bad wheel. The flange cutter kind I'm familiar with uses the special brake shoe, with a very hard steel cutter holder, the small carbide cutter and a wood block to keep things straight. These are easy to install on the older clasp-type brakes, but harder on newer units with only four shoes per truck.If the flange is hard, the first cutter usually breaks, but we found it worked best to just keep cutting with that until the hardened surface of the flange is broken through, even though it leaves a very rough surface. The second cutter applied will smooth it all out and work much better in the inner softer steel of the flange. Independent brake pressure of 10-20 pounds usually worked best, though we occasionally cut with as high as 40 pounds on the gauge, depending on the engine. For most diesels, it requires a hostler and two mechanics on the ground (one on either side) to cut the truck in after movement is started and watch the chips. The chips are hot - we once set a bridge on fire with them. Some come off like little needles, while others curl off beautifully in long strings. We once had a salesman come to demonstrate a similar device that was supposed to cut the whole tread and flange together, but the alcoholic hostler we had at the time could not get a light enough touch on the brake handle and ruined both his cutters post haste. The salesman did not come back.We also had one of those mini-wheel lathes that clamped onto the rail and used the traction motor to turn the wheel (jacked up just off the rail), powered by a DC welder. This worked pretty well with a bit of patience and practice, but in the end they decided it cheaper to just send the unit up to the wheel shop at Taschereau Yard, where they could do the whole engine in a day.

On Pere Marquette 1225 we dealt with high flanges and tread worn hollow in the manner described by J. David above, but we began by cutting the flanges with a tool in a special holder built by us to fit into the brake head. This was watched by a machinist as the engine was dragged by a tractor. If I recall correctly the job was finished with abrasive shoes custom made for the 1225's 70-inch drivers by the Wheel Truing Brake Shoe Company.