Jerry!!! I am sooo stealing the idea you stole from someone else!
Cheap, light, simple…Brilliant!
Edit…I tire of constantly plugging and unplugging my K-27 tenders that do not like to be plugged or unplugged! This is just perfect for storage and transport.
Mark,
I used 2" angle, you might have to go to 3", due to the size of a K-27. My carrier is 5.5" wide on the inside of the angle sides. Sure glad I have the two handles.
Mark- I am sooo going to steal the idea you stole from Jerry, who stole from someone else. Brilliant!!!
-Kevin.
Very nice Jerry, I did have a question but I note that the blocks your rig sits on are of different thickness which answers my question.
Wayne
Yeah, it angles down a little, metal only touches at the end. I ground down some there to get a taper.
Jerry McColgan said:
. . . .For that matter, do you have a special way of picking up and setting your heavy locos down without damaging their fragile mechanisms?
Thanks,
Jerry
Jerry,
Lots of good ideas on the transport mechanism. Maybe a track into the house would make it easier to move them? Then a ‘dumb waiter’ to lift them to the living quarters?
As far as carrying/moving the typical big metal loco - in my experience they aren’t very fragile. As long as you don’t try and twist the wheels off, you can lift an Accuraft under the front pilot frame and the rear truck, or similar, as they have a big steel chassis.
My problem is more like yours - they are too darn heavy to lift now that I’m not 27 yrs old any more.
Hi Pete,
My wife fell and broke her leg last month so I have not been able to work on this or other projects involving any power tools lately.
I have been reading what has been posted and there have been a few suggestions I plan to try.
I have tracks into the house but one has R3 curves (crawl space) & the other has R1 curves (garage). Both are the absolute maximum possible. Worse yet the R1 curves in the garage and the lowered level of the crawl space yard make it impractical to get heavy locos where they can be picked up.
What appears to have the greatest potential for me would be a removable section of the main line that would double as the floor/base of the transporter(s).
This could be a custom cut track section with spring loaded clamps located where the layout is waist level or possibly at the end of a siding.
The main floor of the house is about 18 feet above the layout.
Since I started this topic I’ve added an AML 0-6-0 so the transporter(s) would have to be able to handle AML 0-6-0 & K4 plus MTH Big Boy & Challengers (mainly the loco without the tender).
The next part of the problem(s) would be what to do with the locos once they are inside? Currently they are in the wood boxes or on display. I can see that it could be a PITA to move them off the shelf to the transporter to the layout, off the layout to the transporter back to the shelf every time I want to run one of them (probably why they are seldom run).
Yeah! They are too darn heavy! The USA Big Boy has sat on its 14’ track where I can run it back & forth occasionally but it will never leave that 14’ track but that’s OK. I LOVE to watch & listen to it.
I figure that I can afford to break a plastic loco but I can’t afford (or am unwilling to risk) breaking a metal loco. I have no idea how one would fix damaged running gear or body damage on any metal loco.
I don’t know what the best transporting answer is but I hope to figure it out someday.
Thanks,
Jerry
Dan,
I’ve seen you at Marty’s with them, they are great!
Thanks Jerry
Hi Dan, Perhaps if I was at a show where I could actually see & try them. My problem is that I don’t know what I am looking for. Balsa wood with the strength of steel? First I need to get my knee fixed so I don’t fall & break something. Thanks, Jerry
Dan Patterson said:
http://rapdlp1006.wix.com/g-scale-carriers#!b-bio/cy2g Jerry, check out my carriers. Dan