General Discussion (Model Railroader)

 
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While at the Train Show I didn’t get a chance to make any video of the layout running, I was quite busy for every minute of all three days. To make up for the missing train show video I promised to shoot, I made this one up last evening.

This is a bit HD video of operation on the Bronx Terminal, focusing on the process of unloading a carfloat following prototype practice. The fully loaded three track carfloat holds about 17 cars, two rows of 6 cars on the outer rails, and 5 down the centre (depending on car size). To unload a float, three cars are pulled off of one of the outer tracks, these three cars are then coupled onto the cars on the opposite outer track. All nine cars are pulled and stored into the adjacent yard. The final three cars from the first track are pulled and coupled onto the cars of the centre track, these 8 are then stored. This keeps the float balanced when loading or unloading and reduces stress on the floatbridge.

Amazing!
The smoothness of operation is testament to the care in tracklaying/building!

Talk about compact operations! ;)

A couple questions:
1.  are the rails from dock to float cut? my eyes aren't that great, but it looked as though it was a continuous rail from approach to float.  Since I'm building one as well, I'm thinking maybe it doesn't have to be a cassette & just leave it there with continuous rail & use as staging.
2.  what's that loco? it looks & seems to pull great! do they make it in n-scale, or do we add that to n-scratchbuild fantasy as well?

Very groovy & inspiring!
Thanks for posting!
Cheers!
--Mark

  Smooth is an understatement.Thanks for posting this!I

Hello Tim.

I look forward to a lot of postings in this forum and the Bronx Terminal updates are one of them. I was impressed the first time I saw it at Springfield and continue to be. NICE!

Den.

 Wow! Great work all around. Wow. Fortunately, I read your web site before asking about idlers. Too bad there isn't a video (film back then) of the real car float being unloaded. I bet it still rocked a bit even with careful balancing of car removal. Oh, and did I mention wow! Thanks for sharing.

Okay, I'm confused. How does leaving the barge 0/5/3 keep it balanced. I understand yard capacity, but why then didn't they pull pull more evenly?

Hi from Belgium,

Always a pleasure to look at your post and seeing running this layout after all the work it had need to build. (I have follow it weeks after weeks since his beginning on your blog).

I'm waiting for the next video.

Marc

Flashwave:

Okay, I'm confused. How does leaving the barge 0/5/3 keep it balanced. I understand yard capacity, but why then didn't they pull pull more evenly?

There's a cut in the video and a new string of cars appears on the outer track of the float, so don;t go by what the video shows, go by what he said. 3 cars are taken off one outside track, leaving that side 3 cars light. Then all 6 are pulled off the opposite side, leaving that side 3 cars light (3 still on first track). Then the remaining three are taken off (balanced with just cars on the center) and the middle ones pulled (float now empty). At no point is one side more than 3 cars heavier than the other side, the middle track is left for last.

                                --Randy

mcfunkeymonkey:

Amazing!
The smoothness of operation is testament to the care in tracklaying/building!

Talk about compact operations! ;)

A couple questions:
1.  are the rails from dock to float cut? my eyes aren't that great, but it looked as though it was a continuous rail from approach to float.  Since I'm building one as well, I'm thinking maybe it doesn't have to be a cassette & just leave it there with continuous rail & use as staging.
2.  what's that loco? it looks & seems to pull great! do they make it in n-scale, or do we add that to n-scratchbuild fantasy as well?

Very groovy & inspiring!
Thanks for posting!
Cheers!
--Mark

 Old OLD loco - MDC made a plastic one that is anything but an awesome runner, if you visit Tim's site one of his update pages is about the loco. It's a model of an Alco/GE/Ingersoll-Rand boxcab, the first diesel switcher in the US. CNJ 1000 was THE first, and is on display in Baltimore at the B&O museum. Tim's is I think an old Aristo version of it, with an updated drivetrain. Can't recall seeing an N scale version but there IS a Z scale one!

                       --Randy

 Hi,

Contrary to popular belief, these floats were very boyand and could easily take a string of cars off center without much listing.  When unloaded in this way (0/5/3) it is only off balance by three cars, which would not really effect it much.

I have seen operators unload carfloats one car at a time, and this just isn't necessary, entire strings of cars would often be pulled from one side of the float.

Here is a cool old video showing a carfloat being unloaded with a complete string of cars being pulled and replaced all at once.

Notice also just how fast they are shoving the cars onto the float, time was valuable and they didn't waste any!

http://www.bronx-terminal.com/?p=1149

Its around the 4 minute mark, but the entire video is quite interesting to watch.

 Great.

Good running engine + great track work = operation fun !

Tim, you prove it.

Wolfgang

I believe there were two factors at work in the balanced-loading practice. The first is that a square-cross-section barge hull is inherently instable.  You can load it on one side and it barely heels, but if you go beyond a certain imbalance, over she goes.  A square hull is a nightmare, as it give little warning before capsizing, in terms of progressive list.  A round bottom hull (not used for car floats) draws more water, but is more stable. Easily heeling under the first load, as the load increases, resistance to heeling increases.  Much more predictable, but not practical for car floats due to expense of construction, and draft.

From what little I know, the heaviest cars were loaded on the center track of the 3 track car floats. That would be loaded coal hoppers, special gun flats, etc. 

The other factor is in the nature of the floating bridge.  One end rode a pontoon, and the other was hinged to the shore abutments.  The trusses absorbed the twisting induced by uneven loading, which forces were transmitted directly to the hinge pins.  Not a great design, and subject to damage. You wanted that car float to ride as flat as possible  as you pulled the cars.  Well, maybe the switching crews didn't care, but the guys who maintained it did, not to mention the bean counters.  Eventually, a more flexible bridge was designed which had a mechanical lift mechanism (no more pontoon) and two side-by-side bridges.     

rrinker:

mcfunkeymonkey:

Amazing!
The smoothness of operation is testament to the care in tracklaying/building!

Talk about compact operations! ;)

A couple questions:
1.  are the rails from dock to float cut? my eyes aren't that great, but it looked as though it was a continuous rail from approach to float.  Since I'm building one as well, I'm thinking maybe it doesn't have to be a cassette & just leave it there with continuous rail & use as staging.
2.  what's that loco? it looks & seems to pull great! do they make it in n-scale, or do we add that to n-scratchbuild fantasy as well?

Very groovy & inspiring!
Thanks for posting!
Cheers!
--Mark

 Old OLD loco - MDC made a plastic one that is anything but an awesome runner, if you visit Tim's site one of his update pages is about the loco. It's a model of an Alco/GE/Ingersoll-Rand boxcab, the first diesel switcher in the US. CNJ 1000 was THE first, and is on display in Baltimore at the B&O museum. Tim's is I think an old Aristo version of it, with an updated drivetrain. Can't recall seeing an N scale version but there IS a Z scale one!

                       --Randy

 

Flashwave:

Okay, I'm confused. How does leaving the barge 0/5/3 keep it balanced. I understand yard capacity, but why then didn't they pull pull more evenly?

It doesn't. In real life the barge would lean to one side but not enough to cause it to capsize. While this could probably be simulated, I dobt it would be worth it at this point.

Irv