Back in November of 1967, GE manufactured a 158" quartz glass telescope mirror blank in Willoughby, Ohio. It was then loaded onto a flat car for the short trip to Toledo for grinding and finishing at Owens Corning.
I recently came across these photos of the mirror blank being loaded onto a Southern Pacific flat car.
I don't have a decent shot of the N&W Nottingham Yard job picking the car up but here's a view taken from a magazine photo.
NOAO?AURA/NSF photo
Here's the blank, three years later (!) at Corning Glass in Toledo. You can see the same steel housing GE used in the back repainted with the Corning-Illinois markings. I would assume that the mirror continued by rail to Arizona. The Mayall 4 Meter Telescope is still in use at Kitt Peak. More information here: http://www.noao.edu/outreach/kptour/mayall_hist.html
I thought this would make for a neat "conversation piece" on your layout and, in my opinion, open-top loads are always more fun to look at than a string of "house" cars. You could even justify a special High-Wide run on your layout. This enclosure could easily be fabricated in Evergreen styrene and the signage printed in your favorite graphics program.
Just tossing an idea out there to file under the Interesting Loads department!
Have Fun, Ed
An interesting load indeed, and thank you for posting these shots. There is actually a sort of history of large telescope mirrors being transported by rail, and I recall reading that the movement of the Mt Palomar mirror by rail, using a special NYC well car, was something of an event in the towns it passed through, with people lining the tracks to see the unusual train.
In these shots my eye was also drawn to the crane -- Baldwin Lima Hamilton, so a successor to the Baldwin and Lima locomotive works.
As for modeling this, I maintain a large inventory of "interesting" plastic shapes that come in various forms of packaging and various products, which would otherwise go to the recycle bin or the landfill (or as I sometimes suspect, first the one and then the other). The mirror blank itself resembles a plastic washer that comes with toilet seat white plastic nut and bolt sets at Ace Hardware. The steel casing for the move has some resemblance to certain dental floss containers on the lower end, and a hotel/motel type shampoo bottle on the top. Some TicTac and other plastic candy containers might also be promising raw materials. The model would not be exact but could be close. For exact we'd need some measurements some of which can be guesstimated based on the height of the men on the car.
As to the cushion underframed SP flatcar 598394, in the January 1967 Equipment Register it is listed as an AAR FM designation; F102 type Code, 60 foot car (64 ' "outside" length; that's the cushioned underframe at work) part of a group of 31 cars, 598351 to 598400, many of which were in airplane parts service (dedicated service). 150,000 lb capacity. The car still shows up in a 1994 ORER.
The SP's own spec sheet from 1968 mentions 38 such cars by the way and has some other information of interest
http://espee.railfan.net/sp_fcss-11a.html
Dave Nelson
Ed,
That is a great one-of-a-kind load. But I could also see an outbreak of telescope building, so all you would need to do is to change the signage on the container, just like the prototype did, to suit different projects.
BTW, I bet that container -- and maybe the lens blank, too -- would be great projects for either resin casting or 3-D printing.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Neat article Ed, but one small correction, the lens was ground at the Owens Illinois Facility, not the Owens Corning. Owens Corning make the pink insulation while Owens Illinois makes glass for many different things including telescopes.
Rick J
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
Thanks for the comments Dave & Mike!
My junk box is full of "Good Stuff" that can easily be morphed into interesting, and plausible, car loads. As you say, the shippers and railroads relished the publicity and often had signs proclaiming the destination and use of the unique loads. Somewhere I seem to recall photos of cars loaded with assemblies for the huge watertight doors on the Panama Canal project.
Take a look at these four examples from the MESTA Machine Works! More great ideas for car loads...
I recall that the Erie was one of the prefered routes in the east for excess dimension loads because of its generous clearances. I'm looking forward to the day I finish my PRR F-22 flat cars so I can mount the 16" Naval gun from AMB on it. I have photos of a 16" gun that was delivered to the same GE plant in the scenes above for use as a hydropress vessel using 35,000 PSI to press powdered tungsten! Thanks again for your comments!
Ed
Hi, Rick
All I had to do was look at the bottom photo to see the Owens-Illinois painted on the casing! Thanks to this new format I do not have the ability to edit my post when I first saw the mistake! I had an old friend that worked at the Corning Glass Works and I always associate glass with Corning but Toledo Is Glass City!
Thanks for keeping things "crystal clear!" Ed
gmpullmanI recall that the Erie was one of the prefered routes in the east for excess dimension loads because of its generous clearances.
Ed.
Great pics of the Mesta castings. That's some serious heavy metal.
Yes, the Erie had the capability to move the widest loads because it was originally built to wide gauge, 6'. Thus all along the original Erie route was lots of clearance.
gmpullman ...I do not have the ability to edit my post
Ed, the magnifying-glass icon in the bar above your composition window (right beside the smiley) allows you to edit your post.
Wayne
Hi, Wayne
The trouble I'm having, though, is in IE8 at least I do not have the three buttons- edit; reply; quick reply; at the lower right of my original post. I can't get to the composition window. My following replys have the button EXCEPT if I post a picture link, then they disappear.
The gang over at weekend photo fun is discovering this.
I have tried to reduce the view size even down to 50% but the buttons just aren't there. I see some reply buttons in other posts that get cut off but in my case they are just not there. Seems like some users with other browsers do not have this problem but in all of my recent posts that include a photo link I have NO edit button.
Thanks for the tip but in my case, it's a no go ED