For you Civil War Buffs, here are some interesting cars to build.
Steve; I wonder if there has been a mistake concerning the era of those artillary cars? The cannons seem too large, as do the carriages, for the time period of the mid-1860s. The Civil War era cannon cars were more like my Brandywine & Gondor RR’s “Barog Catcher” car, although their guns would be more modern.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/davemeashey/2011Chal07.jpg)
Based on a book I have on trench railways, I am guessing the drawings are closer to the period of WWI. Another book I have on armored trains shows cannons were only approaching that size during the Boer War in South Africa. Just my $0.02. Best, David Meashey
Correct me if I’m wrong, but these were to move the guns for placement and not for firing?
Here in San Francisco, we have the largest collection of intact Civil War buildings owing, in part, to the fact that the fighting did not happen here. While field artillery, such as the Parrot Rifle is smaller than the drawings, some of the fixed mount guns were really quite big and (if memory serves) on a scale with the guns pictured. http://www.militarymuseum.org/Fort%20Point.html
Dave;
My mistake. The drawings were somewhat minimal, but did resemble the rail mounted naval guns of WWI. Were cannons that large available during the mid-1860s? I know some of the forts had really large guns, but drawings No. 2 and No. 3 seem even larger than cannons of the Civil war era. Anyway, sorry for my confusion.
Yours,
David Meashey
One of my shirt tail ancestors appears in this flick, shot in 1918. He was a US Navy Gunner’s Mate First Class on a Navy Rail Road Gun, wearing a Marine Corps Uniform, Campaign Hat and all.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpClQgAodPE[/youtube]
Dave, Field Artillery was necessarily small, because it had to be hauled by horses, but Naval Artillery, by the Civil War had advanced considerably. The Dahlgren Gun had been developed by Admiral Dahlgren after a 32 pounder burst, killing a friend of his, in the 1850s, and was commonly used by Federal Naval forces in the Civil War. Those guns have the silhouette of a Dahlgren. Pictured is a small Dahlgren.
(http://users.wowway.com/~jenkins/ironclads/Dahlgun.jpg)
By 1870, technology (the rifled gun) had passed the Dahlgren by.
Well, there’s this:
(http://civilwarwiki.net/w/images/2/2f/Dictator_mortar.jpg)
I got my brother, who’s into Civil War period live fire, a 1:10 scale model, and we tried it out on a Bachmann 20’ flatcar in the backyard because it was a pretty good look-alike for the Dictator, above (though… in reality, the Dictator was a considerably larger piece with a smaller bore (10"); this one in scale would have shot a 20" ball!!)
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/slatecreek/_forumfiles/mortarkit.JPG)
We gave it some track for recoil … loaded the 1" ball with a flag, lit the fuse and stepped back … There was a loud report. The flag flew through the air toward the woods. The car and the mortar did oppositely rotating somersaults and landed next to the track, without rolling an inch. When the smoke cleared, we decided that was probably all for the live fire railgun ops until such time as we had a flatcar made of steel, and possibly ballasted with lead. As my track is currently all indoors, I think there’s potential for a later era (a la WWI/WWII era) carbide cannon conversion … maybe. Matthew (OV)
I have a 1:35 plastic model of the Leopold rail cannon by Dragon. It’s on my rather long projects list. Even though it is in a smaller scale than most of our trains, it will still look reasonably large riding the rails. I have to figure out how to convert each six-axle truck into two three-axle trucks to get it around normal backyard curves.
Apparantly truck size was even a problem for HO. My HO model of the Leopold by Lima had two three-axle trucks at each end of the main gun carriage so it could negotiate an 18 inch radius curve.
Whether they are supposed to fire, or are simply being transported for installation, heavy artillary pieces make an impressive load.
Best,
David Meashey
Woulda been neat to see that gun fire from the WW1 film.
I always liked these type of guns and had one complete with a 22 bullet ready to load sitting on my HO layout back in the day. Question I always had about these guns though is they can change the elevation of the shot but how do they change left to right? It is all well and good if the battle is happening in line with the track a mile away but what if it shifts 100’ to the left?
??
Todd Haskins said:I believe (and I could well be off target ;)) that in operation they were shunted onto curved sidings where they could be moved back and forth to traverse. Mostly they were used for distant (and fixed) targets, so traverse was less of a problem.
Woulda been neat to see that gun fire from the WW1 film. I always liked these type of guns and had one complete with a 22 bullet ready to load sitting on my HO layout back in the day. Question I always had about these guns though is they can change the elevation of the shot but how do they change left to right? It is all well and good if the battle is happening in line with the track a mile away but what if it shifts 100' to the left? ??
I once saw a model of the Leopold on display in a hobby store window in Chantilly, VA. The canon was posed on a portable (relatively) turntable which allowed the gunners to rotate it as desired. Perhaps other big rail guns has similar provisions.
Best,
David Meashey