I have attached the narrative from an e-mail from Steve Sandberg concerning the wheel press which was designed and constructed by his father, Frank, at his place of business, Con-tek Machine. The press was used to remove the right drive wheel from the main driver set at the 261 shop in Minneapolis. I have also attached five photos of the press and the driver set while and after the drive wheel was being removed from the axle.




"Just a quick note, this week we pressed apart the main driving axle on the 261. The work is being done to inspect the main roller bearings and to establish a better fit on the axle hub. (The wheel had not moved on the axle, but it was bleeding oil badly and looked to be working on the axle)

Because the 261 has one piece roller bearing housings, it required us to build our own wheel press, most wheel presses do not have an opening that will accommodate a 36" roller bearing box. The roller bearings on the 261 are a one cone & roller configuration, the same as the UP 844. This was an ALCO design, unlike locomotives such as the N&W 611, that have two roller bearing arrangement

The ATSF standard practice for roller bearing driving wheels is that 200 to 220 tons with tires removed and 220 to 250 ton for tires applied on a 13 1/2" axle.

Our press is capable of pressing upto 450 tons. The wheel came off at 171.35 tons. I would like to thank my father Frank Sandberg and his company Con-Tek Machine for designing and building the wheel press, Con- Tek Machine is one of the worlds largest manufactures of industrial presses and injection molding equipment.

Moving forward".

Steve Sandberg


Friends of the 261 is still accepting donations for the rebuild of the locomotive and additional funds will assist to place the locomotive in steam and back on the road for all to enjoy and keep the group and mainline steam "moving forward."

Donations can be mailed to the following address:

Friends of the 261
4322 Lakepoint Court
Shorevies, MN 55126

261's website is - http://www.261.com

As always, thank you for your support.

Don C.

Two more shots of the work being performed on Milwaukee Road 261 main driver set.

Don C.

Thank you for the posting. It's really great to see this sort of thing in detail. I wonder if it would be possible to see these photos in a larger size. I thought they were thumbnails linked to larger files but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Steve

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Showoff Mr. Anderson! :) LOL Did you guys have to use the electric pump or did you put alittle M-A-N into it and use the hand pump? LOL

Steamtown's wheel press should be operational very soon and the vertical boring machine.