ezielinski wrote:Here it is in it's final place. I used ties and planked over the area between the rails even with the speeder shed platform. All I need to do now is landscape it...
Here it is in it's final place. I used ties and planked over the area between the rails even with the speeder shed platform. All I need to do now is landscape it...
Way to go!! Looks great!!!!!
Any time I've seen the shed where the speeders were kept, there was a platform was constructed between the rails. They pushed the speeder over the rails onto the platform, then used that to swing it into position on the track. You could see the marks in the wood where the wheels had been.
Usually the sheds were not on the main line, but sometimes, they were.
Our neighbour across the street worked for the CPR on the track crew, riding those speeders down the line (which was in our backyard.)
When I was a young boy, we lived in a house that was along the tracks of the old Delaware Division of the Erie. Right next to the small depot, which was right across the tracks from our house, there was a speeder (motor car) shed. I could see the track gang crews getting ready in the mornings to go out on the rails. They would roll the motor car on rails that were prependicular to the main (double track), pull out handles from the back of the car, which resemble wheelborrow handles, and pivot the car onto the rails of the main. Often, depending on what kind of work they had to do, they would also have flat cargo cars that they could also lash up behind the motor car for hauling tools, track parts etc. Sometimes they might have as many as four or five of these cars lashed behind the motor car. These are some of my earliest memories of my fascination with trains.
Thanks for jogging such fond memories.
T. H.
ezielinski wrote: So if I fill the area between the rails with timbers (minus clearance for the mainline flangeways) in front of the speeder shed, I should be set? Also, If I understand correctly, It can be located adjacent to the mainline?Thanks.
So if I fill the area between the rails with timbers (minus clearance for the mainline flangeways) in front of the speeder shed, I should be set? Also, If I understand correctly, It can be located adjacent to the mainline?
Thanks.
They aren't typically located on a main. The one I built was for a museum railroad, which is a special circumstance. I will try to find some "satellite" pics of a couple on the Santa Fe that I know of.
Edit: I couldn't zoom in enough on the sat pics, but here is a good shot to give you a good idea.....
http://www.piedmontsub.com/graphics/DetailsShed.jpg
I have actually built a motor car setoff using ties, and some crossing timbers. I "stole" this idea from the Santa Fe. I used ties like rail for the setoff, and placed a short section of crossing timbers between the mainline so you could turn the car (all that ever ended up on it was a topless M-9).
I have also seen something similar to what the Walthers shed uses for the setoff rails (actual rail). I was on the motor car crew at the railroad museum I volunteered at before we moved (most of the time I was the motor car crew). I got to know the Onan CCKBs real well.
A speeder can be lifted by one man. With the engine acting like a balance weight, the speeder would be pivited on its front wheels and sat on the track. At the speeder shed you might find old ties laid in the railguage. These ties would act like a crossing for the speeder to get on the track.
Speeders was used by Track inspectors, MOW gangs, Signal Department, Bridge and Building Departments, and also the Forman of Road Crews( The big Trainmasters).
If ya ever get a chance to ride one I would suggest do it. They are fun. Kevin
Along the Hudson River on the NYC, half a century ago (time sure does fly!) there were speeder sheds every few miles. The shed was perhaps 20 feet from the nearest mainline rail, and the ties between the rails were planked over for perhaps 8 feet centered on the speeder rails.
Speeders are lightweight, and wouldn't need a real diamond to get over the mainline rail - especially since they would be pushed over it, not run under their own power.
Chuck (native New Yorker, 2500 miles removed)
Having a pivot jack would be a luxury for many of the speeders in use by track crews. Most of the cars had long handles that would slide out from the car frame, much like a stretcher, and one man could lift and pivot the car, at least the smaller ones, by himself. The wood "rails" into the shed did not always need flangeways since the cars were light enough that they could roll right on their flanges.
Speeder sheds were usually located at division points where one track crew would be assigned to a particular division. Sometimes on a busy division there would be several sheds at maybe ten or fifteen mile intervals. A speeder could be "set off" at a grade crossing or sometimes there were designated set-off points where there were ties or planks set perpendicular to the rails so a speeder could be set out to allow for passage of regular train traffic. Usually speeder wheels were insulated so signals and grade crossing lights were not activated and special Motor Car Permits were issued by the dispatcher for a car to operate within a designated area. Track crews using speeders would frequently have to telephone the dispatcher for an update on train movements and some railroads, notably Union Pacific, had special "miniature" track car signals mounted at nearly eye level (about five feet) for the speeder crews to keep abreast of train movements.
www.NARCOA.org for some additional Motor Car information
ED
From what I've read a speeder is rolled out of the shed and onto the main line ( it would be side ways at this point ) then a bottle jack either attached to the bottom of the speeder or placed there is jacked up and the car is spun or pivoted to face the proper direction.
as for where to place the shed I'm not really sure.
hope this helps
bill
Hello to all.
I have the Walthers speeder shed. I have assembled and painted it, but don't really know how/where to put it on my layout. My question is, how does the speeder get from the molded rails on the shed platform to the mainline track when placed perpendicular to them? Does anyone have any pictures of theirs finished and installed on a layout (not just sitting on a plywood/pink syrafoam prarie)?
Thanks in advance.