I would like to learn of a way to power a carfloat so that engines will be able to pickup current from the rails.
I intend to run my small engines directly on the carfloats as I have seen done in NYC growing up as a child. I know about reacher cars but wish to pursue my method.
The carfloats will be used to introduce new cars to my switching layout and remove cars. The powering method would have to allow for quick disconnect of some sort, as well as rapid reconnect.
simple, economical, and above all convenient methods would be appreciated.
The Brooklyn Harbor Railroad (BHRR) has moved from NYC to the Villages in Florida.
Powering rails on a model car float would be somewhat dependent on how the carfloat is being moved. If it’s just being put on top of the (modeled) water, then you could use wire mooring lines (or a contact wire down the middle of a braided cotton mooring line) and power the shoreside bollards. If you’re using a movable harbor surface on a tea cart, then go for a quick connect/disconnect plug underneath the modeled surface.
My cassettes are powered through rail joiners soldered to the landside rails, into which the cassette rails slip. Of course, I’m only powering two rails, not five - and I don’t have to worry about appearance since the cassette dock is part of the netherworld…
(Just as an aside, where in NY did in-service locomotives run onto car floats? During my mis-spent youth I was all over the Port of New York, and don’t recall ever seeing that.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - without any navigable water)
What are the details of how the carfloat is constructed? The only commercially-made one I know of right now is the Walthers model, which is out of production but might be found if you’re very lucky. That kit comes with plastic rails, so you would have to replace the rails with metal if you wanted to power it. This kit is hollow, so it wouldn’t take much to run wires inside and connect them to the underside of the rails, and then route the wires out the bottom to a plug connector in the “water.”
They all did when the engine needed servicing or if one of the terminals didn’t have daily service (like Atlantic Terminal on the NYD).
I remember in 1981,when I was doing my off season workout for wrestling, I ran from the Brooklyn Army Terminal to The Promenade in Brooklyn Heights. One day, there was a GE 50 tonner being brought over by carfloat. Operations at Fulton Terminal were minimal at that time and they were using the engine house at Bush Terminal for all major repairs.
I recall seeing an article on building a carfloat from a kit and if I recall correctly, the modeler incorporated contacts on the end of the float that matched up with contacts in the dock structure. The friction of the float on the water surface was sufficient to keep the electrical contacts touching. I don’t recall where the article was and I also don’t recall the exact construction of the contacts. Maybe someone else can point out the article.
The CNJ Moved switching loco’s from the engine service facility at Jersey City over to their Bronx Terminal. In later years they would not leave the locomotives overnight due to vandalism.
This included the Box Cab, EMD SW’s,Alco HH and others.
Our’s is a Walthers we replaced the plastic rail with Peco Code 75 (tacking the wires on first), grouped as pos and neg and soldered to 3 micro plugs and sockets, left pos, right neg and frog rails in middle, (we glued right P&S wrong way round) and soldered the ends to the point rails (walthers No4 Y) on the Apron.
Checked out ok wiith the meter and by hand. Thats as far as we’ve got. The Trackmoble runs like a good en, and it looks like there is just enough room for a PL10 with a sprung backplate under the Apron.
Thats the easy bit, the boss wants LED lights across the bridge, thats the hard bit, the bridge and float have to be removable for transporting to shows. We keep going don’t we, it’s surposed to be fun yu konw.
Frenchman River makes a real nice resin HO carfloat model kit. The model has ME code100 nickel silver track attached to the deck and the hull is open on the bottom.
Small brass rods in the end of the float that mate up with snug fit brass tubing in the end of the dock. Install the rods and tubing first, when they are connected then lay your track across the dock and float. The brass will assure proper alignment of the rails as well as supply power to the float.
From the title of this thread, I thought it might be about how to power a carfloat so that it could run across real and/or simulated water to and from the float dock. I guess it would need a powered tugboat. What a concept!
Now you are pushing the boat out. Our head man came up with that same idea, we told him where he could put it, or try it himself. To our surprise he grinned and shot off into the workshop, that was just after new-year, still ain’t back yet. You never know.
I use the mini-connectors, shown below, to connect my locos and tenders. Using a utility knife, you can cut-off as many as you require.
To ensure correct polarity when connecting them, I drill a shallow hole and apply a dot of paint, as shown:
For your car float set-up, you can put the connectors on free-hanging wires, as with the loco/tender connections, or epoxy the plug ends in place, male or female on the apron, and the corresponding ones on the end of the carfloat. If you want an even stronger mounting method, remove the plastic insulation from the pins, then solder them directly to brass plates hidden with the float and apron, leaving only the pins and receptacles visible. Obviously, you’d need separate plates for each wire.
In the photo below, the pins (at right) are soldered in place, the top one onto a brass plate soldered to the bottom of a brass tender, and the bottom one to a piece of circuit board glued to the tender floor. I even managed to retain the plastic insulation on these:
I got mine at Sayal Electronics, but I think that they’re only in Canada. They do accept foreign orders though. Simply type the part number into their “Search” function.
The parts shown in the first two photos are:
Female receptacles #161596
Male plugs #173512
I later found similar products which are a little easier to connect and disconnect - they’re the same size, but the plugs and sockets are round, rather than square like the ones shown in the first two photos. The female receptacles are shown in the third photo in my previous post, and here’s a look at the receiving end of them and the male connectors from the loco:
The part numbers for these are:
Female receptacles #161599
Male plugs #208177
The store is a large place with, I think, a very fluid inventory, so I had to hunt for matching parts. I got two-conductor male plugs and 32 conductor receptacles for the first parts listed, and 20 conductor male plugs and 9 conductor receptacles for the round versions - the part numbers shown are for those types and amounts, so if you want to make-up a number of compatible sets, make sure that you order sufficient of each. I don’t recall how many pieces were in a package, as I put them loose in parts drawers, with only the label with the part number included. I doubt you’d need to spend more than $10.00, plus shipping, for enough to do a number of jobs.
They are same pattern we used 3 conecters, 1st pin for positive (left rail) , 2nd pin from point blades to switch polarity, we cut off, turned round and glued back the 3rd negative (right rail) pin so it could not be plugged in wrong way round.
It worked great hooked up at the dock end of the apron on the bench with a Trackmobile running.
There are at a couple of outlets over here in the UK, I reckon you’ve a load more going for you over your side of the pond (Radioshack?)
Well, I was going to mail you a couple of pairs, but of course would have needed a mailing address or at least an e-mail address to continue the conversation. It’s not a good idea to post either of those here, obviously. [swg] I did get your reply to my PM, although there was no content. If you want to try again, I have another idea.
Wayne
EDIT: I sent you another PM with my e-mail address, as it’s probably best to continue the specifics of this conversation elsewhere. [swg]
