That was the main question that I had -- how durable and cost effective were these wheels?
According to this page (p.148) of the "The Railway Purchasing Agent (Jan 1881)" they had a service life of 500,000 miles vs 50,000 miles for cast iron wheels resulting in an operation savings of 3.5 cents per 1,000 miles.
Given the rave reviews and obvious cost savings, it makes me wonder why|when they fell out of favor; my naive assumption would be a dramatic improvement in metallurgy?
Disclaimer: statements made using an historical sample size of n=1 ;)
According to this page (p.148) of the "The Railway Purchasing Agent (Jan 1881)" they had a service life of 500,000 miles vs 50,000 miles for cast iron wheels resulting in an operation savings of 3.5 cents per 1,000 miles.
[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Railway_Master_Mechanic...]
Given the rave reviews and obvious cost savings, it makes me wonder why|when they fell out of favor; my naive assumption would be a dramatic improvement in metallurgy?
Disclaimer: statements made using an historical sample size of n=1 ;)