I've read/heard about a cable device that is used to move cars.I'm looking for more info or photos. What do I search for?
thanks
Sounds like you mean a rail car-puller, used to positioning cars at industrial sites without having to use a trackmobile or switcher.Here's a sales page from one company with info: Thern Car Pullers
It is a car puller.
.
I have only seen them at automatic industrial loading facilities. United States Sugar has several that are used to pull open top cars through cane loaders.
I am amazed at how small these are. The one I got a good look at one day only had a two horsepower electric motor. Gear reduction is amazing!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Chutton's link was great!
UNCLEBUTCHI've read/heard about a cable device that is used to move cars.I'm looking for more info or photos. What do I search for?
I just did a search: railcar cable puller. Then looked at images. Lots of great pictures and diagrams.
Mike.
My You Tube
And for completeness, an older style car-puller is available (the site still seems operational) in HO from Showcase miniatures: HO Car Puller
chutton01Showcase miniatures: HO Car Puller
Wow! They have a lot of neat stuff! I just checked them out, and what they offer.
Mike, fyi - I recall seeing a car puller at a grain facility in Avelon Wisconsin. Now I would never, ever advocate tresspassing to take a look at it. just thought I'd mention it.
The ones I have seen often involve the car puller at one end and a capstan at the other, so you need only one motorized car puller. I would have to think the brakeman stands well clear of that cable when a car is being pulled.
Dave Nelson
About 55 or 60 years ago there was even a wheelbarrow-like rail car pusher. It had a wheelbarrow's two longish handles meeting a frame on which was a small gas engine that drove a rubber tire meant to grip the rail under it. Ahead of the frame was a buffer block meant to be forced against the end sill or some other part of the car. Just a bit of history.
Well I'll be... I tought for sure it had some sexy name,never tryed simple ''rail car puller''
thank you
dknelson Now I would never, ever advocate tresspassing to take a look at it
There is one great advantage to having repaired Industrial High Horsepower and Heavy Duty Diesel Engines for 25 years. I had the opportunity to get up close to all this cool stuff without trespassing! Heck, they paid me to be there!
Hello all,
In the most basic form it is a winch.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
Several years ago I designed an acid transfer facility in Northern Nevada that required a "Positive Control Dual Direction Railroad Car Pulling System" to handle seven loaded, and one empty acid tank cars on a 10-degree curve on a 0.1% downgrade. Our vendor was Pullift Winches. Our system ended up with a 20,000# pull capacity winch using a 20 HP motor.
The submittal calculations were very interesting. The capacity was a function of temerature and track curvature. It's 9# pull per ton for straight track, an additional 8# pull per ton for -30-degree cold weather, and an additonal 10# pull per ton for the 10-degree track curvature for a total of 27# pull per ton.
Due to the track curvature, we had to have intermediate pulleys on the cable. The cable was 7/8". The pulling speed was 32 fpm. It never occurred to us to be cautious of standing next to the cable (other than to avoid tripping and/or getting caught).
Ray
It takes suprisingly little force to move a railcar on straight level track. They used to have a bar that you could wedge under a wheel and pry to get a car moving - one person could move a car. The coefficient of friction of steel wheels on steel rails is a big part of why trains are so efficient.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker It takes suprisingly little force to move a railcar on straight level track. They used to have a bar that you could wedge under a wheel and pry to get a car moving - one person could move a car. The coefficient of friction of steel wheels on steel rails is a big part of why trains are so efficient. --Randy
An example of this about the 8 min 30 second mark.
https://www.nfb.ca/film/grain_elevator/
Jeff
jeffhergertAn example of this about the 8 min 30 second mark.
That is a great film. I've seen it many times.
rrinker It takes suprisingly little force to move a railcar on straight level track.
Absolutely true!
I was once on a site where the car puller was broken, and they were using a pick up truck in 4WD LOW to move a string of cane hoppers. The truck had no problem with the task.
One of the more impressive car commercials of the early '70s, long before the Toyota-tows-the-Space-Shuttle 'marketing opportunity', came not long after the famous Ford LTD is quieter than Rolls-Royce series. They attached a Ford station wagon to not one, not two, but three boxcars ... not small boxcars either, as I recall ... and made a great deal of how easily the plain ol' 2wd car would pull them. ISTR someone calculated they could have pulled a much longer string without terminal loss of tire adhesion. (Lots more effective TE with the trailer-towing package than the girls pulling the Niagara developed...)
The challenge is not the getting them going, but the getting them stopped...
Especially if there is a slight downgrade to the track. One slight enough that you don't even notice it walking the tracks is enough to get cars rolling out of control. That's when things get real fun and you hope there is a closed and locked derail before the main.