We have a Bessemer & Lake Erie steel cupola caboose at our museum (#1989; ex-EJ&E #510) which has a slight list to one side. We had thought that this might be because the batteries that were once on one side of the caboose are missing. But now one of our members tells me that one of our leaf springs is broken. My questions are:

1. Are leaf springs available and from who?

2. Can broken springs be welded?

We usually use B&LE #1989 on our caboose passenger train and would like to get her repaired this fall after our passenger season is over. Any help that anyone can furnish would be appreciated. Thanks!

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

midlandblb@cs.com

Les,

You should have standard Barber swing motion caboose trucks on that thing. There should be trucks around that you could scavenge springs from if you know of any museum or tourist RR that has extra trucks.

Or perhaps find a cab with the same trucks on static dsisplay and arrange to swap your broken spring for a good set.

Springs are high alloy steel and cannot be welded.

In your general area of the world you should be able to find a company that makes leaf springs. We have a firm in Youngstown that specializes in leaf springs and they could most likely find a suitable replacement. There should be an equivalent firm in your area.

> We have a Bessemer & Lake Erie steel
> cupola caboose at our museum (#1989;
> ex-EJ&E #510) which has a slight list to
> one side. We had thought that this might be
> because the batteries that were once on one
> side of the caboose are missing. But now one
> of our members tells me that one of our leaf
> springs is broken. My questions are:

> 1. Are leaf springs available and from who?

> 2. Can broken springs be welded?

> We usually use B&LE #1989 on our caboose
> passenger train and would like to get her
> repaired this fall after our passenger
> season is over. Any help that anyone can
> furnish would be appreciated. Thanks!

> Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad
> Museum/North Judson, Indiana)


Tod Engine Foundation
rick@todengine.org

> In your general area of the world you should
> be able to find a company that makes leaf
> springs. We have a firm in Youngstown that
> specializes in leaf springs and they could
> most likely find a suitable replacement.
> There should be an equivalent firm in your
> area.

Leaf springs are used in highway truck suspensions. You should be able to find a firm in your area that does the work. Orange Empire has had passenger car leaf springs rebuilt by a local firm that does truck springs.

Brian Norden

bnorden49@earthlink.net

> We have a Bessemer & Lake Erie steel
> cupola caboose at our museum (#1989;
> ex-EJ&E #510) which has a slight list to
> one side. We had thought that this might be
> because the batteries that were once on one
> side of the caboose are missing. But now one
> of our members tells me that one of our leaf
> springs is broken. My questions are:

> 1. Are leaf springs available and from who?

> 2. Can broken springs be welded?

> We usually use B&LE #1989 on our caboose
> passenger train and would like to get her
> repaired this fall after our passenger
> season is over. Any help that anyone can
> furnish would be appreciated. Thanks!

> Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad
> Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

Railroad leaf spring can be ordered from Edgewater steel (formally Alco spring) and don't cost that much for what they are. They used to be in Latrobe Penn. and have been bought and sold a number of times, You should order enough to do both sides of the truck and save the old one for a spare. If I recall, I ordered a main spring for the D&R 9 locomotive back in 1974 or so and paid 250$ and we have ordered new driver springs for the 1385 back in the 80's. There is a significant quantity discount. If you have trouble finding them try contacting Strasburg.

fwantz@pressenter.com

Two possibilities are the Standard Steel Spring company in PA, and the Original Standard Steel Spring Co in the Twin Cities. We just got a made to order leaf spring for an IC caboose for about $600. The truck and highway trailer guys could not do it since to duplicate the load and configuration, required special spring steel heavier (wider and thicker) than they normally used. They could not order a small enough quantity to make only one set. It will take a while and the more info you can furnish the better, such as the broken spring, and the load to be supported and the deflection under load (spring constant).

And it is kind of exciting to remove the old one and install the new one. It will need to be compressed to get it out of the spring pocket. Many railroads had jigs in the truck shop to do this more safely. We designed a bunch of lugs, bolts and bars to hold the new one after 'pre-loading' it in a hydraulic press. Remember there is a LOT of energy stored in a spring under compression; treat it with respect.

Bob Kutella


68trolley@comcast.net

We recently ordered all new leaf springs for Pere Marquette 1225 from Edgewater Steel. These are no longer so cheap as they were in the 1970's, but are still affordable and probably preferable to trying to have a single spring repaired locally. If one leaf on the equipment is broken, probably many more are ready to go.

Railroad springs were standardized, and we were able to order new 2-8-4 springs by telephoning in the part numbers, just like at the auto parts store. On your caboose spring clamps you may find a number preceded by E (for elliptical; "S" means semi-elliptic, "C" means helical or coil). Edgewater may be able to produce springs from this number. This assumes the caboose has the right springs and trucks under it.

Aarne Frobom
The Steam Railroading Institute
P. O. Box 665
Owosso, MI 48867

There is a company in Harrisburg, PA, Stanley Springs, that makes up leaf springs. They made up some springs for our tender trucks for engine 91. Their number is 717-257-5050. If you want, you can drop me an e-mail and I'll hook you up with our steam CMO, and he can give you more specific information and relate to you our experiences with Stanley and the tender truck rebuild in general.

smzarick@hotmail.com

> There is a company in Harrisburg, PA,
> Stanley Springs, that makes up leaf springs.
> They made up some springs for our tender
> trucks for engine 91. Their number is
> 717-257-5050. If you want, you can drop me
> an e-mail and I'll hook you up with our
> steam CMO, and he can give you more specific
> information and relate to you our
> experiences with Stanley and the tender
> truck rebuild in general.

I want to thank all those who have replied to my request (including at least one direct e-mail reply.) I will give this info to the museum and see how we want to pursue it. BTW, concerning the "exchange of a good leaf spring from an on-display sister EJ&E caboose", we thought of that possibility but didn't want the displayed caboose to acquire the "tilt" that ex-#510 now has.

One other thing, we have been running this caboose on our caboose passenger train for some time now at very slow speeds at very short distances. One possiblity is to continue to do so. What would be the eventual consequences of this action (if any)?

Thanks again!

Les Beckman (HVRM)

midlandblb@cs.com

I do not think you cn be too careful if running a piece of equipment for the public and they are riding same. In the case of a broken spring we took our IC caboose out of service immediately upon discovering the defect. In a spring, the remaining intact leafs now must carry the additional load and so they are even more prone to failure, not considering age, deterioration of cross section due to rust, etc.

Even at slow speeds there will be the inevitable bouncing over rough joints, switchwork etc and a total collapse or failure of the damaged spring could cause enough tipping to have unforseen effects including derailment, tipping of a riding visitor into a hard surface or projection, or even shrapnel to anyone standing alongside when the next stage of failure happens. Yes, these risks are low but they do exist.

A mechanical failure can happen at any time due to age or otherwise undiscovered defects; but once you know of a defect and do nothing, in today's litigious society - - - - Tread softly friend.

Bob Kutella



68trolley@comcast.net