Roller bearing

Thirty mixed-traffic 4-8-2 locomotives recently completed by the Vulcan Foundry Limited for the 3 ft. 6 in. gauge Gold Coast Government Railway have all their axles, big ends, and coupling and eccentric rods fitted with British Timken roller bearings.

In 1930 the proposal of placing all axles of a steam locomotive on roller bearings was viewed so suspiciously that the Timken Roller Bearing Company couldn't even obtain permission to equip an existing engine at its own expense. (It ended up buying a demonstrator loco and equipping that with roller bearings instead.)

The five roller-bearing A1s are now averaging 120,000 miles between shopping; this figure is an improvement of about 50 per cent on the norm of other ex-L.N.E. Pacific types.