I read in a book the other day that to combat the high cost of transferring freight from narrow gauge to standard that the East Broad Top used to swap out the trucks on their frieght cars to fit the gauge of track they would be running on. How clever is that.
So if anyone out there has a smaller scale boxcar mixed in with their standard frieght it is OK. There is a prototype for that.
Photo lost in forum update.
Yes. The EBT narrow gauge trucks they used to set standard gauge cars on, had extra supports on the bolster, to help prevent rocking of the car.
I run some 1:32 MDC/Roundhouse cars in my 1:29 trains. I figure that freight cars were of various sizes, and seeing cars of different sizes adds some visual variation to my trains.
Somewhere, I have a picture of the special trucks rotting away in the yard at Mt. Union. They re upside down so most of the special detail is hidden. FEBT hopes to someday return them to Robertsdale or Orbisonia and clean them up for display. A few would like to also see a Std. Gauge PRR box car on top of them, but that is an expensive undertaking.
And if you want to go the other direction, running smaller cars there is always this prototype practice showing cars of two eras together…
I use that as the justification for using 1:24 cars in my 1:20.3 trains…
I still need to up-scale the details, but as you can see from the picture, they aren’t too bad as-is.
There is a how-to thread here: http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/17251/thinking-about-body-mounted-coup
An interesting practise indeed.
I once bought a bachmann 20’ boxcar which once I got it home didn’t look so good next to my regular 1:24 stuff so I swapped out the trucks with full size ones which made it look like a toyish Lionel (no offense Lionel fans). I still thought it didn’t look quite right so I sold it. After reading this and seeing the photos maybe I should have kept it. Just goes to show there is a prototype for everything.
Jon Radder said:
Somewhere, I have a picture of the special trucks rotting away in the yard at Mt. Union. They re upside down so most of the special detail is hidden. FEBT hopes to someday return them to Robertsdale or Orbisonia and clean them up for display. A few would like to also see a Std. Gauge PRR box car on top of them, but that is an expensive undertaking.
Here’s one of the trucks that were used to support std gauge cars - note the wide bolster support:
(http://www.iceandcoal.org/ebt/mupix/truck.jpg)
Denver Public Library has a few odd photos scanned, including this one of an EBT steel boxcar and a PRR ventilated boxcar on EBT narrow gauge trucks.
There are a couple of photos of my 36’ standard gauge boxcar running behind EBT #12 (live steam) in this thread:
http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/20046/fall-steam-up-at-the-i-e-amp
[Bob seems to have changed the Albums, so I couldn’t get the URL of the actual photo?]
Not only the EBT, it was common practice on most NG routes that interchanged with SG routes, or had three rail track spurs.
The Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon did not do that. They transloaded from standard gauge cars to narrow gauge cars. But the P&CS mostly hauled coal from the mines in the south hills to the steel mills on the south side of Pittsburgh, so very little was translaoded to be shipped from Pittsburgh to Overbrook, Fair Haven or Castle Shannon
The EBT used an overhead crane to lift the cars and swap trucks. Much more fun is the Ramsey Transfer, which uses a pit. I’d love to see a working model of that !
See http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/ramseys_cartruck.htm
That is a neat system you linked to Pete and it would be cool to see it modelled.
In the article it said that the EBT swapped out trucks up until 1956. Imagine if RR’s never agreed and never went to a standard gauge that they could all run on. If I remember right it was after the Cival War that the Goverment moved in to make a standard gauge.
I wonder if the track gauge was never made standard if trains today would have some sort of adjustable wheels? I can’t imagine a 100 car long container train swapping trucks. How long that would take.
Now we all know that it is OK to run different sized cars in our trains. They were simply picked up at the interchange at the far side of the yard behind the bushes.
Todd Haskins said:
That is a neat system you linked to Pete and it would be cool to see it modelled.
. . .
I wonder if the track gauge was never made standard if trains today would have some sort of adjustable wheels? I can’t imagine a 100 car long container train swapping trucks. How long that would take.
. . .
Todd,
You’d be surprised how fast they can change trucks on a freight train. I recall seeing a video of a truck being swapped in the field due to a wheel failure. They just jacked the car up with a forklift, pulled the truck out and put in a new one. (Should be on Youtube somewhere, tho I have no idea what to search for!)
Currently, Russia has a different gauge for strategic defense reasons. (5’) They didn’t want e.g. the Germans running trains direct to Moscow. I believe that some passenger trains used to swap trucks at the border with Poland (while the passengers stood and watched.)
The problem is that they have now been by-passed by freight trains from China to Europe. The Chinese built a mainline through Tibet into the old Republics, (-stan’s) and the line got completed a couple of years ago through Armenia (?) Chinese containers of laptops, model trains, etc., can now travel direct without getting off the train.
Here is a quick clip of trucks being changed on the Trans-Siberian RR. They do this at the border, and it looks like they have their act together…
and here is a longer video of the same facility…
Adjustable railroad wheel were outlawed after a horrible accident in New York State IIRC.
Yes, when the Transcontinental railroad was proposed just after the Civil War, the northern “Standard” gauge was chosen for the Transcontinental. Southern “standard” gauge, also IIRC, was 5 feet. But there were many narrow and some broad gauge railroads in place all over the north and south.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_and_Shermans_Valley_Railroad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_Valley_Railroad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Lumber_Company
No interest to me other than local history and as far as I’m prepared to go into it …but Kevin Strong can surely enlighten you more on this thread/topic
Pete Thornton said:
Here’s one of the trucks that were used to support std gauge cars - note the wide bolster support:
(http://www.iceandcoal.org/ebt/mupix/truck.jpg)
Morning Pete,
In all my study and trips to the EBT, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that picture, before. Where is that truck today? Safely stored for restoration or on display somewhere?
The Newfoundland Railway (CN) did the same thing as the EBT…
Ric Golding said:
Pete Thornton said:
Here’s one of the trucks that were used to support std gauge cars - note the wide bolster support:
(http://www.iceandcoal.org/ebt/mupix/truck.jpg)
Morning Pete,
In all my study and trips to the EBT, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that picture, before. Where is that truck today? Safely stored for restoration or on display somewhere?
Probably Mt. Union
Ric Golding said:
Pete Thornton said:
Here’s one of the trucks that were used to support std gauge cars - note the wide bolster support:
(http://www.iceandcoal.org/ebt/mupix/truck.jpg)
Morning Pete,
In all my study and trips to the EBT, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that picture, before. Where is that truck today? Safely stored for restoration or on display somewhere?
I’m pretty sure it is still in the weeds of Mount Union right about the same spot as that picture was taken. I took some shots of them during a FEBT Spring Exploration many moons ago.