Possibly apocryphal
I recall hearing a tale of a Royal Ordnance Factory being contracted to build some steam locomotives during, I think, WWI. On seeing the tolerances in the wheel bearings on the drawings they concluded that such sloppy workmanship would never do, and worked to their own much finer tolerances.
All went well - the first locomotive steamed beautifully and ran happily up and down the test track. The first curve proved too much, however - the machine stuck fast.
It was common practice to omit the flanges on one or more of the inner wheelsets of locomotives with large numbers (>=8?) coupled driving wheels in order to allow them to traverse curves and points, I gather.