Sven: Our Loco's wheels and axles are two seperate pieces. We have a 600 ton press to take them apart and put them together. The axles are steel, while the wheels are cast iron. We had to have one made when we restored our N&W #475. The pattern for the casting cost 2 1/2 times the casting itself.
The local welding supply house shows up once a week with a fresh batch of cylinders. The process in the picture uses propane, the hoses in the picture are not as close as they look. One is a gas hose, much the same as the fire resistant one on a torch set, and the other is an air hose. You turn the gas on all the way, then wind the air in till you get a nice flame. The torches in the previous (now famous) picure, uses oxygen, this getup just uses shop air, as we are not looking for as hot a flame. These are relativly small wheels for a climax logging engine that we are doing for someone else. Some tires can be 80 inches across.
TW
We do our best to comply with all OSHA regs, and have an excellent saftey record. Wejust do a lot of stuff that's big heavy and hot.
