PEACEKEEPER RAIL GARRISON CAR

[Anonymous]

When the White House under Pres. Ronald Reagan announced the Peacekeeper Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) program in 1986 it was planed that 50 of the 100 new missles will be mounted on trains.
25 trains, each with two missles. Each train would consist of two locomotives, two security cars, two missile launch cars housing the missiles, one launch control car, one fuel car, and one maintenance car.
After the end of the cold war this program was canceled in 1991.

In the Airforce Museum at Dayton, Ohio, the very interesting prototype of the missle launch car is on display since 1994.

The picture at the web PEACEKEEPER CAR is not very good.

Overall body length of the launch car is 87 feet. Fully loaded, it would weight more than 520,000 pounds.
But you can not see the wheelarrangement of the or the type of the truck.

it looks like 2 trucks with spanbolsters at each end, and 4 wheel trucks (100 ton RB). Correct?

I ask because this truck arrangement and the extreme weight limit the "use" of this car to the mainlines.

BTW: in the 60´s Minuteman-rockets - I think without warheads - were transported by train! At 6 axle flatcars and loaded in a special 3-axle transport roadtrailer.
In one of the Morning Sun books about UP´s equipment is a photo of such a transport.
Later such transports are made by air.

[Anonymous]

2

[ckape]

I found a slightly better picture on railpictures.net. Looks like it's got 2 two-axle trucks on a span bolster at each end, for a total of 4 trucks per car. There's also a lower section in the middle of the car that's not very visible from the other shot.

http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=66926

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ckape

I found a slightly better picture on railpictures.net. Looks like it's got 2 two-axle trucks on a span bolster at each end, for a total of 4 trucks per car. There's also a lower section in the middle of the car that's not very visible from the other shot.

http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=66926

THANKS !!!! [:)]

This photo is very good.

I think this 5 light painted pieces between the trucks are a hydraulic support system that fixed the car on the rails when the Peacekeeper was fired.

And 4, not only one, of this cars were built.

[red]Where are the other 3 cars?
Owner of the car at Dayton was Westinghouse (WECX) ?[red]

Well, I think I will scratchbuilt one or two of this cars - but not after a visit at Dayton (only a 10 hours flight away)
And then use the cars in a normal freight train - the prototypes on their way to a museum .

I like such "UNNORMAL" transports. At the moment I rebuilt a Boeing 737-200 fuselage transport between Kansas and Seattle.
The 2 railcars were easy and cheap to rebuilt but the 737 fuselage - was a not real cheap model.

And I found a website with some good pictures of the car in Dayton FAS site about Peacekeeper

[8D]

[michealfarley]

I know in North Dakota, the idea was with all the branchlines north of US Hwy 2, that they would deploy these trains to the area, and move them around, once a week or so, to keep the enemy from fixating on a specific missile location. This area was also stocked with minuteman missile silos due to the proximity to the USSR and the remote locations. The theory was that they commies wouldn't think of a prairie state has having the capability of defending the entire country. Too bad it never really "got off the ground" (ooh, bad pun indeed!) as it would have made for some great modeling opportunities.

[jrbarney]

Although all of my operational time was in B-52 B, C, D and G model aircraft, I had some friends that were "silent silo sitters of the sixties." For the missile fans, here's a related article from the Index of Magazines:
Missiles on rails, Trains, October 1988, page 36 a proposal for an MX train
( "BOLDRICK, MICHAEL", MISSILE, WAR, TRN )
Bob
NMRA Life 0543