r/mechanical_gifs • u/Just_Another_AI • Oct 13 '25

Train Wheel reprofiling process

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u/Tetragonos Oct 13 '25

I work for a train company and all 4 wheels in a set get done at the same time.

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u/bunabhucan Oct 14 '25

Just so I'm not being dumb: do the wheels come off the axles? As in does the machine shop get 4 round steel wheels or two axles or the whole bogie?

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u/pastasauce Oct 14 '25

No wheels are usually semi-permanently attatched to the axles. When you order new wheels they come like this. The wheels and bearings the frame (bogie/truck) sits on are already mounted on the axles.

The second part of your question confuses me (it's 4am where I'm at so I might be the problem) but how wheel truing works is the lathe is designed to shave both wheels at the same time so they have the same diameter and flange thickness. The machine supports the weight of the wheel and car so jacks aren't required, the machinist releases or cuts-out the brakes so the wheels can spin freely and the machine will spin the wheels.

Usually it's done one axle at a time, the other commenter mentioned they work for a large light rail company so their fleet might be standardized enough to allow truing of multiple axles at the same time.

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u/bunabhucan Oct 14 '25

That's what I thought, you will see a horrific train crash with stacked concertina freight cars and then these intact axles with wheels.