Greetings All,

I am looking for a source or copies of weld repair practices of the following sorts:

1) as modern as possible andrews type weld repair standards

2) current AAR freight truck

3) current AAR passenger truck, for along the lines of heritage fleet equipment

Assistance is greatly appreciated by myself as well as the party I am trying to assist. Either post replies here or via PM.

Cheers, Jason

There are no current AAR standards for welding passenger car truck frames/parts. The content of the steel in the casting i.e. a nickel casting will require using a 60 series rod. As for freight car side frames and bolsters, the welding is limited mostly to wear areas such as pedestal ceilings and thrust lugs. Bolsters can have gibs replaced and friction casting pockets can be welded up and ground down. Bolster bowl rings can also be replaced if necessary. Most of that information is contained in the AAR field manual although some of the information for side frame and bolster reconditioning is also contained in the MSRP (Manual of Standards and Recommended Practices) books.

A correction to what the "shopcat" had to say. Your Nickel Steel castings (example: GSC N30181, the "N" indicating that it is a Nickel casting) would use an 80 series rod, from memory an 8016 sounds right. Your other GSC designs for the most part were 60 series rods. And this is just the castings (bolster, tuck frame, spring plank) -- your swing hangers, hanger cross bars and equalizers are drop forged usually and have different welding criteria. For exact detail, Amtrak's SMPs are a good source, and I think these are available on the RPCA website

ETA

Jason,
Online at:
http://www.atdlines.com/pdf/nrpc/smp_48001.pdf

Mike Tillger