At 12:00 AM 2/26/01 -0800, you wrote:
>From: Charles Brumbelow
>Interestingly, wonder how knurled tread would work in our scales?
Charles,
It would probably work fine, except for the faint hum of the knurls
running on the rails. Another consideration would be machining. The
conventional knurling operation puts a great deal of pressure on the
workpiece (say a spoked wheel in this case) and I could see that there
would quickly be a point at which the pressure required to cut the knurls
into the treads would be greater that the radial strength of the wheel
resulting in broken wheels. Many Ga1 spoked wheels are already so delicate
that special workholding fixtures or operations are needed to keep from
breaking the wheels during turning of the basic tread. For tired wheels
this could be circumvented by turning and knurling the treads first, while
they are still in the form of bar or pipe. Personally, I wouldn't
allow knurled wheels on my railway. I think it would be like driving
around with snow chains on your tires (with no snow). In my opinion a
solution which would be less destructive yet give the wheels a "tooth"
would be to sand blast the treads with a rather coarse grit sand.
Regards,
Harry Wade
Nashville, Tn
