Thinking of putting together proposal to move railroad cars by barges. Would be easer if they were unhooked from there riding trucks. There would be less slipage and more clearance
I believe they call this concept “containers”. They come in various sizes from 20’-53’. They can be loaded on ships, barges, trains, and trucks. No removing cars from bolsters required.
Just out of curiosity – are trucks ATTACHED to a car body? or does the car body just SIT on the truck bolster, held down by gravity? (I have mental pictures of a GIANT 2-56 screw, up through the truck bolster into the body bolster). Been deali ng with HO too long…
Every freight cars sits on its trucks strictly by the force of gravity, no fasteners of any type are involved.
Freight cars have been moved on barges and ferries of all sorts for a very long time. Those of us around the Great Lakes are familiar with C&O’s and Ann Arbor’s enclosed carferries across Lake Michigan and the open deck carferries across the Detroit River at Detroit-Windsor and the St. Clair River at Port Huron-Sarnia. New Yorkers are familiar with carfloats in New York harbor and there is also open-water barge service to Alaska.
Clearances are not a problem and it is a lot less time-consuming to move the cars on their own wheels even with the various jacks and tie-downs used compared to removing each car from its wheels for loading and returning it to its wheels upon unloading.
“Every freight cars sits on its trucks strictly by the force of gravity, no fasteners of any type are involved.”
You mean that 2,000 pound trucks could go flying all over the place in derailment? The Trucks are not held in by some sort of cotter pin?
Yep, thats exactly what happens.
Exactly right. I visited a car repair facility back in the 90’s and was amazed that the trucks are not attached. There is a pin which sticks up and fits in a hole in the bottom of the body of the car. That’s it.
I also remember seeing pictures of a train which had blown over in a tornado. The trucks and locomotives were all sitting on the tracks. The cars were sitting on their sides next to the tracks.
Less damage to the track in a tornado that way!
The top of the truck bolster has a cup that fits around a center plate on the body bolster and there is about a 1" to 1.5" steel pin in the center of that as has been previously mentioned. It has worked very well for over 100 years. Passenger cars and locos have mechanical fasteners to replace the center pin.
Kalmbach’s new book about freight cars has photos of these components.
That the trucks are not attached to the car is partly by design, especially on tank cars. It supposedly lessens the possibility of damage to the car. At least that’s what I was told at a RR hazmat familiarization session.
Brake rigging. It doesn’t exactly hold the truck on the carbody, but disconnect it before lifting the car off its trucks.
The trucks themselves are held together by gravity. If you lift a truck wrong, it’ll disassemble itself explosively. Safety first.
If you want the trucks to stay with the car when you lift it, that can be done. Talk to wreck crews - they do it all the time.
So this is by design? Not even a cotter pin? You would think that if there was a train wreck and a RR car truck landed in some guys lap in his living room that would be a major insurace problem.
If you live close enough to the tracks for a wheelset and truck to land in your lap, your already a insurance issue!
One set of trucks, with wheels, weighs more than most full sized pick ups.
It takes a lot, and I mean a lot, to get them airborn…
One of the reason they are not attached by anything other than a kingpin and gravity is because it allows the truck sideways play on bad track.
It also is designed this way so if the car does derail at speed, the trucks will fail, and allow the car to hit the ground, much better than a loaded railcar that can roll free, with or without track!
You literally want to kick the feet out from under these things if they get free and rolling.
Last, the system has worked quite well for over a century, why change something that works?
Ed
So if a car is loaded top heavy it could fall off its trucks and land on its side?
[tup][tup][tup] Attaboy, MISTER UniHead!
Plus - What do you need a cotter pin for with all the brake rigging holding the truck in place.[:D]…Hard enough getting the car to seat on the plate on the truck after replacing the bullpin/kingpin anyhow. If one of those rascals bends in a derailment, oh boy![banghead][banghead][banghead]
Yeah; guess it WOULD take one heck of a cotter pin…
So there is no Cotter Pin? So what is the procedure for lifting the car body off the trucks? Unhook the brake chains and lift off the car body with a heavy cargo crane? What kind of Wire cable would I need to lift a fully loaded 100 ton RR car? Hate to be the guy who has to go under a 100 ton railroad car and line them up with the trucks.
Big bottle jacks.
I mean big, they look to be about the size of a 55 gallon drum.
And, once you have the car sitting on the jack, about the only thing that can knock it off is another rail car hitting it.
Read the light weight numbers on just about any railcar, these things are heavy, real heavy, it takes a lot of energy to make them move in any direction other than the way the trucks and wheels are pointed.
Ed
Not always a cable or bottle jack lifting the car either, especially with tank cars. Big wide padded lifting straps…
I like Hulchers “little” dozer, back hoe and crane in one!
Should make every city keep one on hand for freeway duty!
Give those guys a little room, some chain, a few blocks of wood, and they can pick up just about anything you want![:D]
Ed