I saw this on a siding for the Pioneer Valley Railroad in Westfield, MA not far from the Mass turnpike, exit 3.
No couplers. Chains are used. Two air line quick release connectors. There is a electrical connector I have seen on battery powered forklifts. There is a release handle to allow the dump body to swivel to either side. Might be a nice project for someone who models a shortline.
Rich
That is certainly something different…
If no couplers, then how do thay move it? Certanly not push it, especially with a load. I agree though something out of the ordanary. Makes this place one of the most interesting sites I know of. Oh reall dump “TRUCK” (one truck)
You can see the hitches on each end in the pictures. They would pull that behind a hyrail truck, most likely one of the larger 10 wheelers.
Could be just extra load capacity that wouldn’t warrant another truck. Neat to see something different like that.
Shades of “Oscar” and “Piker” (two single truck HO passenger cars Walthers sold at one time.)
…Remember the “Tunnerville Trolley”…{or was it "tooner}, I believe it had but just one truck.
Edit: Just hunted it down and it was: “Toonerville Trolley”. I refer to the comic strip trolley.
Modelcar & others -
Yep, it had (barely) a single truck. I did a Google Advanced Image Search for “Toonerville Trolley” and got a bunch of links. Here’s one that has several different types* of images:
http://www.MichaelSpornAnimation.com/splog/?p=1500
Interesting little invention, of which necessity - or poverty - is the mother. Leave it up to a bunch of rails to think up and then actually build something like that. Thanks for sharing.
…That was fun seeing those pic’s of the “Trolley” again…
Years ago I saw a unique unit built for much the same purpose. This ballast hopper was owned by a non-RR RR construction company and was working on a newly built industrial park.
The truck was cut into front and rear, then directly welded under the slope sheets of a wedge-shaped open-top sheet-metal hopper. Thus it was unsprung. I figure it could hold quite a few yards of ballast, probably thrice as much as the one above. Under one slope was cross-mounted a Ford V-8 which was connected via chain-drive to power one axle. Hey, I don’t remember if it was automatic or four on the floor!
And who among us remembers the old “Smokey Stover” newspaper cartoon strip, with Smokey’s two-wheeled (one axle) “foo fighter” fire truck? Alan
I raise my hand as one who remembers: Notary Sojac
The track contractor I worked for had 3 like that, except they were unpowered. Also, the wheels & axles were from heavy-duty motorcars or track equipment, not mainline equipment - so were much lighter. Approx. dimensions: 8 ft. long, 8 ft. wide, 7 ft. above rail, 4,000 lbs. light weight, capy. 8 to 10 tons of ballast. The shape as viewed from the side, was roughly riangular - with the point down - and the front and back at a 45-degree angle. They had 3 sliding doors at the bottom of one end - 1 middle door for between the rails, and 1 outboard side door on each side for outside the rails. The sides were vertical - at just a little bit (3" or so) inside the tie ends. They were pulled by ballast regulators, connected by a drawbar - nothing fancy there, just a 2" or so diam. piece of pipe with a clevis or link-and-pin type connection at each end. We never pulled more than 2 at a time.
I see this one looks like it has brakes - truck-mounted, inside-only, like WabCoPac or similar - which is definitely a good idea. Ours didn’t, which was OK until - after I’d been there about 4 months (this was about 34 years ago) - the time that one of the ballast cars was on the downgrade side of the regulator That warm afternoon, the nut on the bolt in the c
I don’t remember the comic references above, but as I kid I recall seeing what must have been ancient wooden MOW ballast cars used for branch line work. Probably of pre-twentieth century construction. I swear the boxes were no deeper or wider than the one in the picture above but were long enough to need two trucks. Maybe 20 feet long. And it had chutes in the centre and sides like Paul mentioned .The CPR sure new how to sweat the assets.
AgentKid
Now think about it this way…
Smokey’s little two-wheeler could well be the 50- or 60-year-old predecessor to the modern-day “SegWay” scooter, couldn’t it?
AGJ
If “Smokey” were still among us, he could purchase a modern version of his 2 wheel vehicle…even modify it to his purpose and repeat his once…so odd contracption.
Wonder just what motivated Smokies creator to use just the one axle and two wheel vehicle.
I first witnessed the comic strip in Ligonier, Pa., in a Latrobe paper…Early 40’s. {Brought into Ligonier daily from Latrobe {10 miles}, via a doodlebug on the Ligonier Valley RR.
Build it and see if it works.
Ok, I am going to resurrect this thread. I found out how the dump body is towed.
Rich