Amidst lots of postings about locomotive frames and such, I thought these might be of interest. they came from an advertisement from Commonwealth, depicting a single unit casting capability. The example is easily recognized, but I thought the details and preservation of the images might be of interest.

The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway had frames for the J3 4-8-4 Dixie class locomotives cast as a single unit.

Are there any companies left in the world that can still make castings of the size that Commonwealth was, or has that capability been lost?

Possibly in Europe. Perhaps China?

Advancements in welding technology negated the need for such large castings, or so I've read.

GSC was very proud of their products, however.

Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis 0-8-0 number 318, a 1926 product of the TRRA's own shops in Brooklyn, IL, was the first locomotive with the integral cast frame/cylinder design. GSC was very proud of the product and worked with the TRRA to ensure the locomotive's preservation. She's only one of 1.5 TRRA steam locomotives around (the other is just the frame and running gear of a Young Valve Gear-equipped 0-6-0.

The 318 sits under cover at MOT, and was the recipient of a very nice cosmetic restoration a number of years ago. It's an interesting locomotive, with such "modern" features as the aforementioned cast frame and an all-welded tender. It also has some very non-modern features on it, such as hydrostatic lubricators and a wooden cab.

A quick Google search turned up several American companies doing large steel castings. Here is just one.

http://www.columbuscastings.com/industrial.html

Note that they advertise the capability of pouring single mould steel castings of up to 150,000 pounds. 75 tons big enough for you?

He's looking for European or Asian. I would be happy to broker those from any of these partners:

美国钢铁祖格岛 (Chinese)
Северсталь Северная Америка (Russian)
Lukensスチールコーツビル (Japanese)
Columbus Відлиття (Ukranian)

Edit: Unfortunately, checking with my suppliers, none are able to put "Made in China" on it due to local regulations. They've agreed to put "Fabriqué aux États-Unis" which is Spanish for "Made for an American customer".

Good to know, I was just wondering if the knowledge and facilities for such jobs had been lost due to other advances and developments of newer manufacturing processes.

She's only one of 1.5 TRRA steam locomotives around (the other is just the frame and running gear of a Young Valve Gear-equipped 0-6-0.

Never knew of that 0-6-0. Where is it located?

What I wonder about cast bed frames is did they really carve and glue up a huge wooden pattern for these frames? I don't know how else you'd make a steel casting like that, but holy crap, that would have been a monster piece of wood. Fabricating the pattern would have been a monumental undertaking, especially considering that cast bed frames were often produced in very small batches for a run of just a few locomotives.

I'd love to see a photo of one of the patterns, if such a thing exists.

Hugh, I had the exact same thought! The next thought was, "What a shame it's not preserved, well oiled, in some industrial museum". I think some mighty serious cores went into it as well.

U.P. used tenders of this type for FEF's, Challengers, and Big Boys. I wonder if a separate pattern was made each time, or if the same pattern could be milked over twenty years?

Well, think of the core boxes that were also required to make up the sand mold.

BILL -

I believe it is also at MOT.

Les

Are there any pattern makers out there who can help us with this? These huge castings were very complex and for those of us who don't know anything about it there is some magic there!

We know there was no magic, but how was it done?!!??

Much of the mold was probably built up out of cores. I can see a basic shape of frame that would be made with a wood pattern, with the pedestals and ends made up out of cores.