On prototype tenders how big are the chain links of the towing chains they commonly carried on the yard switchers?
Couldn't find any pictures, except for old logging locos. I saw a HO shay on ebay that looked like it was carrying aircraft carrier anchor chain.
Micromark's smallest chain scales out to 4.3" That's going to be a heavy chain for people to move without winches and booms.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Let's see...at 20 links /in. we get 1/20 x 87 = 4.35", and that would be ID so yep that chain would pretty heavy to lug for one worker.
Hobbylink has some that is 40 links/in., so it would be 1/2 that size, so in HO that would be like something in my home garage, not nearly big enough for RR work.
GT Mills that would be like something in my home garage, not nearly big enough for RR work.
Well, it seems you have an idea of what size chain you should look for. There are many resources from on line shops and Ebay.
Are these actually towing chains, or are they there to keep the trucks from seperating to far from the tender in case of a derail?
Mike.
My You Tube
What I see is chain on both ends and sides of the trucks (4 per truck) that will keep the trucks from leaving the tender. Also allowing the truck to swivel only so far to the left or right.
I see photos of different tenders having different size links of chains attached to the truck and body of the tender, some look like maybe a 3-1/2'' overall link and some look bigger, like you could slid a hand in to the link. I think I have one hanging in the garage, I need to inspect it.
Now what you can find is a picture with a PRR slope back tender that has a cable on the side with hooks on the ends to pull something, probably a railroad car.
My eldest brother worked for the Milwaukee Road in the Menomonee River Yard as a switchman at the exact position, "Five Rings," as Jim Scribbons ("The Milwaukee Road in its Hometown"). This was (is?) the shanty right across the tracks from the old Yard Office, which was down the hill from the original Mitchell Park Conservatory. The men would come in to collect their paychecks, sometimes bringing their wives, who would also wait for them to come off their shifts. One afternoon one of the women watched as the yard crew looked over a boxcar that had suddenly stopped following the SW1200 switcher. One of them yelled to the "Boss": "It's pulled a lung! (drawbar)! We're gonna have to pull it over to the rip track by the nuts (the nuts and bolt-heads of the draft gear)." The woman complained to her husband about the language they'd used. He just laughed. Lucky (my Big Bro) didn't know if he'd explained to to her. Railroaders often called the cable and hooks a "towing wire." Truck retainer chains were hefty enough to prevent a detrailed tender truck from turning sideways in a derailment. I'd say your extimate of the size is about right, so the chain links should be at least 32 per inch. The safety chains with hooks that flanked the couplers on passenger car end beams were usually a bit heavier and only the one on the left as you faced the car end had a hook on the end, sort of like the rail joiners on sectional track.
Deano