You can operate any locomotive on a main track or any other track, without ditch lights, but you cannot exceed 20mph over public crossings at grade. Part 229-Railroad locomotive safety standards Sec. 229.125 Headlights and auxiliary lights. (h) Any locomotive subject to Part 229, that was built before December 31, 1948, and that is not used regularly in commuter or intercity passenger service, shall be considered historic equipment and excepted from the requirements of paragraphs (d) through (h) of this section. Now the bearings, its a little more muddy. The FRA does not forbid the use of plain or friction bearings. However the AAR prohibits "unlimited" interchange of equipment with friction bearings. Which means there can be limited operations, AKA a form of trackage rights, so no "interchange", as long as there are inspection intervals, trained people and proper equipment available for inspection, servicing and or repair. With very clear limits to operation with the host RR and excursion operator. If I had the $$ to own private varnish, you better bet I'm gonna have roller bearings under it, so as to hitch it to an AMTK train if I wanted to. It can get way more complicated.
What if you installed roller bearings on a piece of classic equipment- Could you leave the friction bearing covers in place? Or are they required to be removed?
No Sir. We have all seen "convertible" trucks. If the friction bearings were replaced with "Timken" bearings, the journal box lids were to be left off, to clearly show the replacements.
The one spot class were hard riding, hard on the track, and shook their own frames apart. Many gave up their boilers for the new, homemade, cast-frame 4400s from 1937 through the war. Those boilers that didn't yet have Coffin feedwater heaters (like #1 above) got them, inside lengthened smokeboxes. The only mountain types to rival them in weight were similar rebuilds on the Illinois Central and the Frisco 4300s. Four 70" drivers fit nicely where five 60" wheels had been.
I wonder how the tractive effort related between the spot class and 4400 compared. I gotta admit that spot class looked all bidness.
A good friend gave me a stack of older Diesel Era magazines and in the July/August 2006 issue I found a feature on the Frisco's H-10-44s ad H-12-44s. I never knew the Frisco operated FMs. They owned thirteen of the former and four of the latter. All of them left the roster in 1973.
