I tried to put up a pic but it didn't work. it is a shot of a BCOL bulk head flat (50' I think) filled end to end of wheel sets, either 3 or 4 sets high. Sorry it won't load, don't know what I did wrong. I use Flickr.
Try this link: 96 wheelsets
Gary
I could never be bothered, but the Tichy wheels have both the proper ends and the wheels and flanges are in-scale. Not likely good enough to be used as operational ones, but great for loads and scenery purposes, and not all that expensive, either: 96 wheelsets.
Wayne
i have often though of but never tried to make a little sleeve that slips over the pointed end of an axle to make it look like the stepped down axle ends on the real thing. anybody do that?
Charlie
charlie9 .......friction bearing sets had a cosmoline or grease coating on the bearing surfaces to prevent rust.
.......friction bearing sets had a cosmoline or grease coating on the bearing surfaces to prevent rust.
That's a detail seldom modelled, Charlie, but one which was (and probably still is) a common practice when machinery parts are stored. At the steel plant where I worked, many of the larger replacement parts for cranes and rolling equipment were stored outside due to their size or number. Bearing and other working surfaces had a liberal coating of preservative grease, which withstood all kinds of severe weather, even though other exposed (unpainted) surfaces quickly acquired a patina of rust.This grease was also used on such parts stored indoors.
the way we did it on the NYC/PC-regular wheel cars had recesses or "cups" into which the wheels nestled and that kept them on the car without any tiedowns. each side of the car had a running board that ran the full length of the car. like the photos show, they were staggered and stacked two high. the exact details will likely be hard to see since there are probably few if any photos of an mty wheel car. they arrived with good wheel sets and left loaded with the bad ones. visa-versa at the wheel shop. if anyone has a photo of this type of car empty, please post it if you can.
unloading and reloading was a 3 man job. 1 guy stayed up on the car and hooked and unhooked the wheel sets using a sling with wheel hooks on the ends. (made of heavy steel cable and worked like a pair of ice tongs) a second guy operated the equipment, we used a heavy duty forklift truck that had a special boom that fit on the mast in place of the forks. the 3rd guy stayed on the ground by the wheel storage tracks and unhooked and re-hooked the wheel sets. that way nobody had to jump and climb on and off a car or lift truck with each move.
it was important that care was taken to avoid banging the flanges against the bearing surfaces on the outer ends of the axles. friction bearing sets had a cosmoline or grease coating on the bearing surfaces to prevent rust.
Speaking of inspired, this thread inspired me yesterday to take a bunch of old plastic wheels and make a couple of removeable loads. The weight information Jim posted came in very handy to make sure I was not going overweight (and yet I don't consider myself having any prototype phobias), and the photo's are inspiring. Even the photo's by???... was it Dr Wayne?... that showed other loads, including not quite empties... have spawned future ideas.
Though neither of the wheel loads I made look anywhere near as good as the ones posted, they still need paint for detail. One of them is suitable for either gondola or 40' flatcar, the other for a 50+ ft gondola. Even not being painted, they look a lot better than just piled in the car!
Thanks for all the information you guys have shared regarding prototypicalness!
Duane
kgill Geared Steam, I have to comment on your Avatar picture. Pretty cool looking scene, my son is obsessing on these small ore cars and I think he would want to go for that look. Too bad my little 4x8 layout cant incorporate a mountain scene like this. Pretty Cool!
Geared Steam,
I have to comment on your Avatar picture. Pretty cool looking scene, my son is obsessing on these small ore cars and I think he would want to go for that look. Too bad my little 4x8 layout cant incorporate a mountain scene like this. Pretty Cool!
kgill
Thanks for the comment, would you believe it if I told you that picture was taken on a 4 X 8 layout?
The background is photoshopped in, a little cheat if you will.
The Tichy Ore cars are great to build, I like them a lot, Jamie Zepeda did a build thread on his cars, it inspired me to go pick up a couple of boxes.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
jrbernier Those 'little' Milwaukee Road flat cars were class FG - As in Flat car Gun - they were used for moving things like 18" navel gun barrels to the west coast where the big Iowa class battleships were stationed. They had a 100 ton capacity rating back in WWII - When most freight cars had 40-50 ton load rating! Jim
Those 'little' Milwaukee Road flat cars were class FG - As in Flat car Gun - they were used for moving things like 18" navel gun barrels to the west coast where the big Iowa class battleships were stationed. They had a 100 ton capacity rating back in WWII - When most freight cars had 40-50 ton load rating!
Jim
Jim,
16"/45 or 16"/50 for the Iowa's, SoDaks, & Indiana's, or 14"/and some calibre. The use navy only expiremented with 18" guns it never fielded one. And if you want to get really obscure, you could ship 12" rifles too. AND the Army fielded some 16" guns too, so you could have them heading to coastal cities that didn't have major navy stations, just large coastal defense batteries.
I use the Tichy wheel car as a simple MoW flat, and made removeable sides for it using Evergreen HO scale 2"x12" "boards" with 4"x4" stakes:
I divvied-up the wheelsets and racks to make a couple of smaller loads for gondolas:
This may help http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehoss/8385135921/
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Isambard Way over the limit for that little 30 ft flat ??
Way over the limit for that little 30 ft flat ??
Not at all. These cars were Milwaukee Road 67100-67117, good for 100 tons. Which comes to about 80 wheelsets. THAT should make an attractive little pyramid! And you'll be wanting to do some pretty intense banding, as the bottom row is going to have a lot of outward pressure from the sets on top.
Ed
Wow, another great set of responses to a novice question. Thanks!!
You got to love those little MDC flat cars.
It would probably look better with one row only, but hey, no big deal.
Here's how wheel sets are transported on the Grizzly Northern. Way over the limit for that little 30 ft flat ??
Isambard
Grizzly Northern history, Tales from the Grizzly and news on line at isambard5935.blogspot.com
dave, those look 2 high to me. we never had them more than 2 high or else it became impractical for the man hooking and un-hooking them loading and unloading. i did that off and on for years.
Here's at least 3 high:
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Keith,
Here are some numbers:
50 ton 33" wheel & axle set - 2200 lbs
70 ton 33" wheel & axle set - 2400 lbs
100 ton 36" wheel & axle set - 2950 lbs
The Tichy kit has 4 stacks of wheel/axle sets(40 sets). It is loaded '2 High' - the other axle is offset on another set of rails/channels. Using the 2200 lb figure - One gets about 88,000 lbs(44 tons) - well within the limits of an old 50 ton capacity 40' flat car. you have a 12,000 lb 'cushion' for the rails/tie down hardware. The kit is an old example of how wheels are transported - You night want to some searches on sites like 'railroad picture archive' for pictures of current wheel transport cars.
BTW, - it appears that the last stand of cast iron wheels with the cooling 'fins' was 1958. Like arch bar trucks, there were several 'reprieves'. Cast iron wheels(without the cooling fins) made by Southern Foundry were banned in 1970. Through the 70's one would see a small painted black box with a yellow 'dot' in it. All affected cars had to be checked to see if they had the Southern Foundry wheels - If not, they got the yellow 'dot' and were good to go. If they had the suspect wheels, they had to be changed out at the inspection. IIRC, this did not cover 100 ton 36" wheels, but a lot of grain hoppers got the 'dot' as the shop crews were inspecting everything to make sure they did not miss anything.
That Tichy car load is two high - and two wide - on a car with reinforcing beams over the side sills.
The bad news is that the wheels are typical fin-back cast iron wheels, which were banned from interchange a long time ago.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I have enough wheels that my 7 year old would like to make a flat or gondola load. Looking for ideas I ran across this Tichy kit and set up.http://tichytraingroup.com/index.php?page=view_product.php&id=275&category=Freight+Car+Kits
I was advised at my local swap meet recently that no more than two high as the weight would be too much for a car.
Is there a right and wrong with this idea?
Keith