On a small narrow gauge line what motive power would be used to move one car at a time in the yard?
Thanks
Charley
You could go with a little rail buggy -
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/rgolding/110216%20008.jpg)
Here is a prototype -
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/rgolding/120801%20068.jpg)
or just switch with your road power.
Lots of grain elevators do it with rail tractors.
That is a neat little critter and electrified too. It looks alot like the HLW Mack engine without the hoods.
I used to do some work up near a cement plant and they used a front end loader to push the cars around. I don’t know if they were loaded probably not but I once saw them push 5 cars at one time.
Some RR’s had those steam engines that didn’t have a fire but they had a tank to hold steam they borrowed from another regualr engine or the factory boiler. I always wondered how long the charge would last and what happened if they ran out.
I use my Porter side tanker. It will negotiate R1 curves with short 1:20 stock.
I’d rather have a model of this…
I like that one Jon.
REally depends on the rrailroad…alot of them didn;t have dedicated switchers…road power would be roated for switching duties, or at the very least older smaller power would be assigned…
CCSII said:
On a small narrow gauge line what motive power would be used to move one car at a time in the yard?
Thanks
Charley
I think the operative words here are ‘small narrow gauge’. Most small narrow gauge lines would not have the finances to afford a dedicated ‘yard goat’, therefore what ever motive power was available would have done the switching. Following that logic, the motive power would not have been that large either, I would think americans, moguls, or ten wheelers. Consolidations, mikados and the articulateds were latter day power usually owned by the more economically prosperous lines. All this assumes that the line is a common carrier. Logging or mining lines I am almost certain whatever was available did the job.
Bob C.
Some of the narrow gauge RR’s way back in the day might have used a draft horse to move a few cars. I have also seen photos where cable winches were used to pull train cars either through a loading crane or up a steep incline to dump coal loads.
Ultimately it is your RR and you can use whatever means to move cars you have on hand just like the real RR’s did.
Todd - The cable winches are still in use today. The local stone distributor uses cables to move two cuts of 20 hopper cars down grade through the dump building then empties back upgrade to the staging tracks.
Jon, it doesn’t take much to turn one of those from a B’mann saddle tanker:
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/EBTDinky/EBT3rd228.jpg)
Later,
K
K - I’ve seen your version before and love it. If I ever have an opportunity to pick up a Bachmann saddle tanker I’'ll jump on it :]
I use my Kalamazoo 0-4-0 for yard switching. Used to be yellow and really looked like a toy.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/ddevoto/loco1.jpg)
I would hazard the guess that very few old narrow gauge lines had dedicated classification yards like the major SG roads did/do.
That being said, I’d expect that the road train would do its own switching, or (as has been said) which ever engine was in the yard would be used by a dedicated yard crew, if that even existed.
On larger (shortline) roads, they might have a dedicated switcher at their ONE major yard, or at a location where several industries were served together, such as the EBT’s Mount Union Yard. Course, in the EBT’s case, the switcher was a standard gauge 0-6-0 tender engine, which wasn’t much smaller than the 2-8-2 NG road engines.
One thing some roads did was to modify old road power into switchers when they were replaced from road service. An old mogul (2-6-0) might get cut down to an 0-6-0 in order to ensure that all the weight was available for adhesion. Course this wasn’t always possible depending on the engine design, such as an old 4-4-0.
By the end of steam, the big roads had dedicated switcher fleets of 0-6-0’s, 0-8-0’s, and even a few 0-10-0’s. There were a few 0-10-2’s even. In teh BIG hump classification yards, an articulated would be used to shove cars over the hump, an 0-6-6-0, 0-8-8-0 or maybe even a 2-8-8-0.
I’ve never heard evidence of it, but you’d think that a heavy Class B, C or even a D Shay/Climax/Heisler would have made good hump power because of their low-end torque and all weight being on the drivers.
If you are modeling a small NG line, you could argue that they picked up an old logging engine cheap when the logger closed to use as a yard shifter for that very reason.
In the steam era there was a tremendous market of used and/or engines that were ordered and then not delivered. I believe most major markets had/have a salesman/agent that deals in used and surplus equipment.
http://www.sterlingrail.com/classifieds
Snowy day here, so thought I’d give you guys something to look at.
The East Broad Top did. Despite the pics of the 0-4-0 3’ gauge loco which switched around the industries in Mt Union, they also had/have a pair of 0-6-0 switchers. #3 is still in the engine house - last steamed in 1956!
Its a little off topic, but someone mentioned a front end loader switching cars. At a local rock quarry they mounted a coupler on the back of a CAT 980 loader. It moves one loaded hopper or several empites at a time.
The normal operation is the DM&E spots a block of empties in front of the loading bins. As a hopper gets loaded, the loader pulls the car away and then spots the next empty.
To go back to the era I think we are talking about. The Deadwood Central did not have any dedicated switcher and required the road crews to do their own switching. Many of the mines on the line would use a cable and pully system to spot ore cars under the loading chutes as they were loading them. In the yard, most of the switching was done by whatever road engine that was available.
My first full time job was unloading hoppers of trap rock and cement at a building supply yard. We used a 5 ton, 10 wheel drive military truck with a huge hunk of concrete encapsulated steel scrap over the rear wheels. Pulled them with a big chain to get started moving and then pushed out on to a trestle with a big steel plate on the front of the truck. Worked fine. Rode the cars back down off the trestle after emptying and backing the truck away. I’d hold them with the brakes and the guy I worked with drove the truck and threw the switch to put them on the empty track. I’d release the brake and ride. Had to judge the re-applying of the hand brakes to allow them to couple at a safe speed. Worked sometime, sometime not so good. Nobody died.
Here a yard goat I wish I had time to model, sad we never had a Masterclass of this Beasty
Can’t find my “Railroads of Hawaii” book, but I seem to recall that the Oahu Railway had 0-6-0 and/or 0-8-0 switchers. Of course, it wasn’t exactly a “small” narrow gauge railroad. Maybe Richard (Da Hawaiian guy and figure modeling person whose last name I can’t spell without looking at it, sorry braddah!) can inform us as his grandfather worked for the Oahu Railway.
If you read Miks postings of the daily logs of the NG sections of the D&RG, the times listed for switching duties at the start and finish of runs into and out of Alamosa,Antinito, Chama by the regular assigned trains for that day. I only noticed that they listed Durango yards with a switcher roster on any day.
Engine 315 that was run in regular duty for most of it’s life, ended up as the Durango switch engine at the end of it’s career and ran with the cow catcher removed and switch boards installed. it’s a 2-8-0.