I’m sure others have thought of this question over the past 53 years:
EDIT: Click here for the link
Original URL if you can’t use the link above:(You’ll have to reassemble it, I added spaces to let it wrap)
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Not unusual, as NASA had several shuttle components shipped via rail, which were just small enough to fit through all rail line tunnels. My 2 cents. TTFN…Old Tom aka papasmurf in NH
One reason might be:
Plane is located on east coast.
Plane going to private field on remote location west coast.
You could hire a pilot to fly it there (Expensive). But how would he get back? Drive to closest regional, then fly back as a passenger? That is a pain in the duckass.
OR…
Plane is being sold overseas and being shipped to a port.
I would lean with the shipping over seas as my story if I had one my layout. Extra hours on the engine are bad as engine rebuilds are big $$$ but I am sure the cost to fly/ amortized into the rebuild price, would come up a lot cheaper than shipping by train if you wanted to get it from one side of the country to another.
That usually doesnt happen. Boeing ships alot of their fuselages by rail though.
So then what would they do if say it was an “historical” airplane? I don’t think you would want to “fly” a Sopwith Camel across the country…or some other “valuable” historic airplane for that matter.
Just a fresh “monkey wrench” for the gears of reason to work with…
Mark
WGAS
Just because it’s shaped like an aircraft doesn’t mean that it’s airworthy. If it is, in fact, a ‘historical’ aircraft, it may very well be unflyable for any number of valid reasons.
That said, unless it’s being shipped to a metal recycling site it would be much more likely to travel by truck. Most air museums (and, for that matter, most airports) don’t have rail service.
The one that always has me ROFLMAO is the Messerschmitt bF109 fuselage standing on its wheels on a flatcar. That landing gear was notoriously flimsy, and would almost certainly suffer an ‘involuntary retraction’ if ubjected to the normal slam-bang slack action of a 1940-ish European train. If that single-seater had to be shipped by rail it would have been shipped in a wooden cradle, with the landing gear safely unloaded and retracted.
Chuck (Former USAF aircraft maintenance tech modeing Central Japan in September, 1964)
During my career in aviation we moved several planes by truck and trailer, all because of airworthiness and/or mechanical reasons. To move one a long distance by rail for similar reasons is certainly feasible.
FWIW the plane appears to be a Beech 33 Bonanza which has tricycle landing gear. There is no nose gear on the model and the main gear appear to be too far forward and are missing the gear doors.
And now my hobby is more ‘down to earth’ [;)]
Dave
I would say you are right on the money about the truck thing today, but what about say 1965 or earlier? You know, before they started hauling houses down the Interstate…
And having spent many years in the military I understand the love of abbreviations but what the heck is “ROFLMAO”?
P.S. I don’t text mail either…
Mark
WGAS
Do the wings of the Beech actually attach using tab-in-slot assembly? ROFLMAO!!
I suggest Googling the text, as forum censors might take offence if what it means was spelled out here. This has been around a long time, before texting. BOHICA!
BOHICA I know, learned it when I filled out my “2nd” tax return, my own personal favorite is WGAS. I have a cap without the abbreviation and wear it all the time, get everything from disapproving looks to “hey man, cool cap”.
I guess this one will just be a mystery for now…life is full of mysteries.
The secret to a successful marriage…is still a secret! HY
Mark
WGAS
To answer that would require breaking forum rules of no swearing. However, ROFLOL means rolling on the floor laughing out loud. Not much of a jump.
I know boeing ships fuselages by rail, but there are two answers for the small plane:
the aforementioned pilot scenario; if there’s a plant on the east coast and a dealer on the west coast, I imagine shipping planes by rail to a distribution center to be trucked out, or a large regional dealer, makes sense.
The gigantic slingshot the factory previously used showed an alarming tendency to fling the aircraft unpredictable, often destroying it on it’s travel to the dealer…
just my 2 cents worth 
They are to be finally assembled in another location. For instance, plants at various locations make subparts to be shipped to the final assembly point. Or they are to be shipped beyond the plane’s range even considering refueling, for instance, shipment of partially disassemblied P-39 planes to the Soviet Union during WWII.
Looked it up on Google, you forgot the part about “Scaring the Cat”!! That’s what confused me…
Mark
WGAS
You could always use the idea of structual failure on the airframe and the aircraft is being shipped back to the manufacturer for repair or replacement. Just an idea for shipping an aircraft by rail.
Ray
The only reason a plane would be shipped by rail is because it isn’t air worthy. It would cost to much to have a planes wings removed and then reattached and the recertified to fly again.
Maybe someone bought a plane and wasn’t a pilot.
Wouldn’t you for $18.40 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. I would with the price of gas up again.
Why would GM ship an automobile by train to the dealer when they could have somebody drive it there from Detroit??
[:-^]