Just watching Guy Martin re-metal a GWR loco connecting rod bearing on TV C4. He's cast a whitemetal bearing and pressed it into the con rod, and now machined it out.
Compare with Burt Lancaster's effort in the film The Train. Having run out the remains of the whitemetal bearing, he assembles the two halves of the split bearing housing, puts a dowel in the middle of similar size to the crank pin and casts the bearing. Once cooled, a quick fettle with a file and he's whacking the rod back on - to the great relief of the German guard.
Not much difference then. He could have delayed the art train by at least another 4 hours by machining the bearing :cool2: