Good morning Alco,
Most importantly is I am glad you are on the mend!
What may I ask is the significance of the timken boxcars, I have heard of timken bearings, are they just a better quality more rare type of car ?
Gary
Timken bearings have been used since the dawn of US railroads on the cars and steam engines. Today that remains true for the rolling stock/cars and the diesel engines. Not to mention the thousand other applications cars/automobiles etc.
Here is the link:
For over a century, we’ve applied our deep engineering knowledge, advanced processes and founding vision to make the world move more efficiently and reliably.
www.timken.com
The Beginning
In 1890s, Henry Timken, a carriage maker in St. Louis, Missouri, recognized that heavy freight wagons had a difficult time making sharp turns. To solve the problem, he applied a tapered roller bearing design that could handle both radial (weight) and thrust (cornering force) loads. The results were encouraging and provided several customer benefits. First, the application ran more smoothly, reducing repair and replacement costs. In some cases, the bearings improved wagon performance so much that fewer mules were required to pull them. Finally, better cornering meant less chance of losing a load of goods. Always focused on customer benefits, Henry quickly realized that the tapered roller bearing could improve product performance in many other applications as well. Henry and his sons, H.H. and William, founded The Timken Roller Bearing and Axle Company in 1899, building the foundation for a global enterprise that today helps keep the world in motion.
Throughout the years, Timken has contributed to customer success through a clear vision, industrial focus, advanced processes and global growth. Following are key examples of how Timken has moved global industries forward since 1899.
Also:
en.wikipedia.org
The first
locomotive to use roller bearings made by Timken was
Timken 1111, a
4-8-4 built by
Alco in 1930. The locomotive was used on 15
American railroads for demonstration runs, and was purchased by the
Northern Pacific Railroad, the last railroad to try the specially-built locomotive, in 1933. It operated in regular service on the NP until retirement in 1957 and was subsequently scrapped.
As for the boxcars that I acquire, I buy them when I find a different color scheme or road number I just love having them and well there is not any or rather very rare pictures of any of the cars proto type wise. They did have a few billboard boxcars but again history and information on them are slim. I have found a video of a proto type gondola on YouTube at one of their plant locations. Even Timken switchers.
See here: You will see the switcher at the 8 minute mark and the gondolas. Notice the wheelsets on the gondolas. They are like passenger car wheels. These gondolas took a beating on the scrap metal.