Many interesting thoughts, ta.

<<<British railway company CME's became interested in the widespread use of particularly roller bearings on locomotives and rolling stock, I suspect because their lower rolling resistance compared to greased bushes could make a significant-enough difference to running costs?>>>

Probably, Stuart. I did find one article from the 50's where one locomotive had greased bushes and another identical one roller bearings. I don't remember the numbers but they both covered the same long route on the same day and the one with rollers use 'significantly less' coal. Although I'm not sure whether two separate locomotives would've been equally efficient to make a valid test.




<<<Again, bear in mind locomotives and rolling stock had a significantly-longer life - countries that didn't have the ignorant meddling fcukwits in government that this country had in the 1950's >>>

It seems that Britain was far and away the major manufacturer and exporter of steam locomotives so I'd imagine that bushes of any size were easier to obtain locally or more likely, replicated from a bit of bar in a Punjabi lockup, whereas he wouldn't be able to produce roller bearings.


How times change. Nowadays the USA, UAE and the Netherlands are India's top three export markets for locomotives.