Wheel profiling

How are wheels profiled now? Are they ground or cut with a
lathe? Is there any hardening process in use to extend life?

This is what a shop in Peru does.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=186159

Thanks. But this is sort of old technology? Is anybody
using hardening treatment of wheels in the US or
Europe?
A friend of mine is trying to find if anybody is using
plasma or similar techniques.

we use a milling machine at my shop. milling head spins fast, wheel spins slow.. makes an almost round wheel 99% of the time

When the Burlington Northern diesel repair shop was built in 1978 at Alliance, NE, a wheel truing/trimming machine was purchased from a German concern and installed. The locomotive was spotted up on the machine and the wheels were turned by the machine and trimmed with huge tool bits. The shavings were carried away by conveyor and dumped into a gondola spotted outside the shop building. So far as I can recall, there was no heat treatment involved, but that was almost 30 years ago so newer technology may well have been applied by now.

The wheels tend to get roll hardened when the wheel meets the rail and rotates.

onder wrote:How are wheels profiled now? Are they ground or cut with a
lathe? Is there any hardening process in use to extend life?

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c63/b ... varv/3.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c63/b ... varv/1.jpg

A new portable lathe for reprofiling wheels outside workshops.