Wear & impact resistant steel for the railroad industry
Since 1971, Clifton Steel has served as the preferred partner for the railroad industry, providing prompt delivery of freight and transit cars, locomotive truck and coupler wear plates, liners, and shims. Our extensive fabrication capabilities, demonstrated industry command, personal service, and low cost make Clifton Steel a solid choice for the railroad car builder and repair shops.
In addition to AAR standard wear plate products, Clifton Steel offers custom fabrications to customer specifications. Clifton Steel not only fabricates from high manganese steel, but is also capable of producing wear parts from carbon, low alloy, stainless, and other corrosion and wear resistant materials. Clifton Steel’s in-house capability for complete fabrication provides costs savings and ready-to-install wear parts that will save the car builder and repair shop both time and money, while assuring precision, long wearing truck and coupler assemblies.
Common Railroad Products
- Horizontal Center Plate
- Liners & Shims
- Bolster Pocket Wear Plates
- Brake Beam Pocket
- Horizontal Wear Liner
- Pedestal Roof Liners
- Side Frame Column
- Wear Plates
- Locomotive Journal
- Box Liners
- Locomotive & Transit
- Pedestal Liners
- Manganese Coupler Carrier
- Wear Plates & Liners
- Coupler Shank & Yoke
- Bolster Replacement Rims
Manganese steel specialists
Clifton Steel maintains one of the largest 11-14% manganese steel bar and plate inventories in the Great Lakes region, Clifton Steel also carries other wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant alloys, including carbon steel, high alloy and stainless.
Bolster pocket wear plates
In the railroad industry, friction can be a real problem. Clifton Steel’s bolster pocket wear plates are designed to eliminate this friction.
Bolster pockets are openings in the sides of the railroad car truck’s bolster that were put there for an important purpose. Specifically, they serve as a means of keeping the friction snubbing system wedges in check by damping motion between the side frame and the bolster. When force is exerted against the column wear plates, the bolster vertical motion is limited, thereby resulting in the aimed-for reduction in friction.
Without proper reinforcement of the column wear plates, however, these bolster pockets can endure a lot of wear and tear. As the Journal of Wheel/Rail Interaction explains, “After many miles of operation, the constant frictional rubbing of the friction wedge against the pocket and column wear plate creates wear on the steel surfaces. The result of this wear is that the bolster pocket gets larger, the column wear plate wears deeper into the side frame and the friction wedge itself gets smaller in dimension.”
Fabrication
Clifton fabricating capabilities use modern cutting, welding, drilling, forming and heat-treating equipment.
Drilling and chamfering
Clifton Steel drills quenched and tempered plate with hardness to 500 Brinell; also manganese steel plate and SAE 1095
Forming and shearing
Key to economical parts fabrication is the use of modern equipment such as a new precision hydro-mechanical 3/4″ by 12 ft. shear. The machine is capable of shearing steel plate up to 400 Brinnell hardness.