Those of us in HO have had several variations on the Trackmobile as a motive power option where an industry needs to do some limited switching. One of the larger models, it is capable of moving 2 or 3 cars. I came across a tiny Trackmobile today just blocks from home down at the NS yard in East Urbana. The NS comes in from the west and serves an asphalt plant and the Solo Cup/Dart Corp plant. Last summer, I rode over a number of times to get pictures, but never saw the Trackmobile until today. It's apparently been around, but neighbors say it's often out of commission.
Anyway, here is the tiny Trackmobile headed into the yard from the plant. These tracks are protected by a derail to keep the NS and it sorted out. Note how it lifts itself up for road travel.
Now it's settled down onto the tracks. Looked kind of like the older fellow was showing the younger one the ropes.
Note that it has siderods, so it's an honorary steam loco
Anyway, they headed east down into the yard to pick up some loads. The yard is an old P&EI/NYC yard. The line east ends about a mile further, but used to go all the way to Danville, then on into Indianapolis. The old line recently was transferrred to the local rails-to-trails organization, so people are looking forward to riding it again soon -- on their bikes.
Soon, the little Trackmobile that Could returned pushing 5 loads!
And behind the fence they went. It'll be a darn tough job to build a model of this Trackmobile in HO and getting it to shove 5 loaded cars will be an even better trick.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
If it didn't actually say Trackmobile on that thing, I'd think it was home-made. Those tank cars must be empty -- I doubt that it could possibly handle that many if they were loaded. It looks like it has only 4 rail wheels, so it can't have much traction.
Yeah, my guess it's the loss-leader in the Trackmobile catalog, the one where when you order it, the salesman tries to talk you into something a bit more suitable...
I'm fairly certain that those cars are loaded. It's possible that the grade from the storage tracks into the unloading facility is actually slightly downhill, but my guess is it's level from having walked it before. You don't really want to worry too much about brakes, as I'm pretty sure there aren't any train brakes with that rig. I do know it pulls the whole rack when they're empty, which is either 9 or 10 cars, because the neighbors have seen that. I suspect it's being pushed pretty hard, which seemed to be the consensus on why it often seemed to be out of commission according to the neighbors.
The smallest currently available trackmobile has a tractive effort of 28,000 lbs. A typical switcher has about 60,000 lbs. The one above looks smaller than the current smallest one. But, still, I'm not at all astounded seeing it pull 5 loads.
Here's an interesting listing of Trackmobiles in an ad:
http://www.northmsrailservices.com/Trackmobiles.html
Ed
That looks like an interesting modeling project Mike. I'm going to look for that this summer, as I'll be in the Champaign area with the wifey for her reunion with USN friends, and I plan on doing some railfanning.
Mike
My You Tube
Ed,
Thanks for the link. I looked around some for images, etc of something similar to this Trackmobile and really found nothing. So this seems to be a rather rare model.
mbinsewi That looks like an interesting modeling project Mike. I'm going to look for that this summer, as I'll be in the Champaign area with the wifey for her reunion with USN friends, and I plan on doing some railfanning. Mike
Mike,
Drop me a PM and I can show you exactly where to get pics, etc. The industry it works in is visible from the south side from the public right-of-way at the end of four short dead-end streets (Webber, Lynn, Cottage Grove and Poplar) off East Main St, but it may not be visible. I didn't see it over the course of several months last summer, so they may keep it inside a building when not in use. Here's a link to the location of the industry, Emulsicoat:
Emulsicoat Inc
Of course, I'd be happy to arrange a layout visit, too, if you're in the 'hood.
Thanks Mike, PM sent.
Mike.
The ones we had at USS could easily handle 3 or so loaded bentonite or rod cars. They even had a compressors and brake hoses. The key was that their couplers had a hydraulic cylinder that would lift up on the car's coupler to add weight and tractive effort when working.
At first I didn't think this one had train air, but looking more closely at a couple of pics I think I do see a hose and gladhand laying there near the coupler. I'll try to verify that.
Good point on how the Trackmobile manages to move so much. I suspect the hydraulic system that raises it onto its road wheels may someone be integrated into the coupler system's ability to transfer a portion of that car weight to the rails for tractive effort.