Here is a short video from the W&W shop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1EpBFe ... e=youtu.be

Definitely not an electrical problem, since it was fixed with a couple of hammers!

How did you know when to stop heating?

Really great video, thanks for posting, and, "hey", you're blocking the camera!

They are heated to between 300-400 degrees and we checked the temperature with a heat gun. Alternately you can just tap them from time to time and see when it starts to move. I'm no expert by any means. This was the fist time I've seen it done and I sucked at hitting the tire with the sledge hammer. I don't actually do enough manual labor these days.

Dave,
When you hit the tire with a hammer the tone changes when it comes loose!
Kind regards
Jos Koopmans

I didn't see transducers in use, and wondering what the check was - rough and practical, just like the locomotives themselves. There are many ways to get these things done.

The tires on the #2 and #3 axles were removed with the engine jacked up about five inches. Then the jacks were run up enough to roll #1 drivers out. The #2 and #3 tires were loose enough to get off after about ten minutes of heating. We didn't have any way to measure the temperature, just kept the ring lit until the tires started to move.

It seems like the ring was not heating up as much for the #1 tires as it was for #2 and #3 and we don't know why. Looking back, we probably should have gotten the tire in the video hotter before starting to drive it off. The shim may have made it harder to get off. The other tires were shimmed also, but their shims weren't as thick as the shims on #1 and they weren't all in one piece.

Tim Cronin

The way they did it at the shop my dad worked at (UP's KCMo shops) is that the wheel was often pressed off the axle, then the wheel was layed flat, supported by bricks under the tire itself. Put the ring of fire under it, and once it was 'hot 'nuff', cold water was poured on the wheel, the wheel just fell out of the tire. To put it back on, the wheel was layed flat with the tire propped above it, heated with the ring of fire, and once it was up to temp, the props were pulled out and the tire fell onto the rim. I think there were plenty of people with large hammers on hand to make sure it went all the way home.

I don't know if they were changed with the wheel on the axle. I guess life was different when you have all the equipment right on hand, drop pit, cranes, presses, lathes, quartering equipment, etc all right there plus a entire crew of shop forces to do it.