In John Armstrong’s Track Planning for Realistic Operation", he states, “…even with our typical bob-tailed drags of 12 to 15 cars.”.
What is a bob-tailed drag? I’m guessing a short train.
I’m sure he’s refering to the necessarily abbreviated trains we have to accept as normal on our scaled-down railroads. Bob-Tailed isn’t a term I’ve ever encountered in railroading, though.
Truck tractors running with out trailers, yes, bob-tailing. Engines without cars, light engines or with a caboose coupled is a caboose hop.
Bob-tail? New one to me…
bob·tail
(bŏb′tāl′)
n.
1. A short or shortened tail.
2. An animal, such as a horse, having a short or shortened tail.
3. Something that has been cut short or abbreviated.
Reg
Just a more poetic way to say “shortened train.”
Drag like coal drag
I think that the descriptor is apt, although lots of branchline jobs on the real railroads could have been 12 or 15 cars or even much shorter.
Like most, my grades are too steep, my towns too close together, and the layout too small by at least a couple of acres.
It’s meant to represent a secondary branchline, so trains are short…that’s my story, anyway, and I’m stickin’ to it! [:-^]
Wayne
I suppose on today’s double and triple level basement layouts John’s 12-15 cars would be a local while 30-40 car freights would be the norm. There are videos on You Tube that shows 20-30 car trains on a large layouts.
OTOH John’s 12-15 cars would be a long train if modern cars was being used instead of 40 footers. Even 7 of my 50’ boxcars with a SW8 looks long since it almost fills two 36" sections of flex track-that’s 6 feet.
This is an example of John Armstrong’s humorous turn of phrase that frequently showed up in his writing. I periodically reread his works just because I enjoy his writing style.
Paul
I’ve heard of “Boat-Tailed” and “Beaver Tailed”, but never heard of anything like “Bob-Drag”. Where did you hear or see that term?
Also bear in mind that Armstrong wrote those words in the First Edition more than 50 years ago. The phrase “bob-tailed”, meaning “something shortened from what’s typical”, may have been in more common circulation in the general language at that time.
To quote the first post in the thread:
It could be slang for running a meduim sized train.
IIRC, Mr. Armstrong was describing operations where a Yellowstone would head-end fifteen (or fewer) ore cars and a bobber caboose - if the builder surgically modified a #8 into a curved turnout to make the siding longer. I seem to recall that as the same article where he advanced the theory that a train would seem longer if you couldn’t see both ends at once.
Prototype for a (comparatively) big loco on a short train? How about the CB&Q Deadwood branch. The 4000 class 2-6-6-2s were only rated 250 tons, and the route was the last stand of the bobber caboose because it was ten tons lighter than its 8-wheel counterparts.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
"…Put my money on a bob-tail nag,
Sumbuddy bet on the bay."
Wasn’t that a song or something?
Sounds familiar.
Camptown Races, version I know has it:
I bet my money on a bob-tailed nag
Somebody bet on the gray
Paul
Ed,Such moves was called a light move on the PRR and Chessie(C&O). I suppose if one looks through the volumes of railfan and model railroaders jargon one would find that “caboose hop” right next to “lash up”.
So the answer is------nobody really knows.
there are quite a few hits for “bob-trailed train” in google
from Railroad Magazine, 1949
It was still a bob-tailed train, though, because the G&N doesn’t see fit to own a caboose. It uses any empty boxcar that’s handy for this purpose.
OK, I vote for Ed’s response. [(-D]
Mike.
EDIT: I see the CN local with as few as 4 cars.
A bob-tailed nag is a horse that has its tail cut short. Ergo, it seems that Mr. Armstrong was talking about the rather short freight trains typically seen on model railroads. That fits the context of the comment.
Tom