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OK guys-- Go to the following 2 locations: http://www.kasgro.com http://www.triarchy.com/kasgro/searchresult.asp The first is the web site for the manufacturer/owner. You'll find the car by doing a railcar search on FD-depressed center flat car AND 340001-350000 lb capacity. This will pull up a page with the second address above. Go down to the 12 axle cars and you'll find an entry for car #s KRL 300300-300304. This is the car type in the photo. On the right is a link in blue that says A19644. Click it. That will pull up a .pdf file with a drawing of the car and relevant specs, used by prospective lessees who want to rent the car. The drawing shows truck centers of 68'-6", centered on the kingpins of the center trucks in each 3-truck set. What this means is that the three trucks on each end of the car ride on a longitudinal (oriented along the length of the car) beam called the bolster, which pivots on a kingpin which also handles the center truck. The other two truck kingpins mount through holes in the swiveling bolster beam and pivot on the beam. Because of this arrangement, the trucks on the two ends of each bolster beam swivel on the pivoting beam as though it were the car's center sill. Since the bolster beam is not the car's center sill, but it can pivot, the entire 3-truck assembly can also pivot out of line with the carbody, i.e., around a sharper curve than if all 3 trucks at each end were attached directly to the car's center sill. If that's still confusing, think of the apparatus as a long steerable 6-axle truck, where the first 2 axles steer as an independent unit, the next two do the same, and the third do as well. That means that the entire six axle assembly can swivel under the car, and each of the 3 trucks can also swivel individually. This lets the entire 6-axle truck assembly (needed to spread the 350000 lb/175 ton weight of the load), which has a wheelbase approximately 5 times longer than a single truck, track around a conventional curve that otherwise would be an impossibly sharp curve for the car. Schnabel cars and some larger/more sophisticated FD's work the same way, except they also have hydraulic controls that let an on-board operator shift the entire carbody to one side or the other on the bolster beam kingpin, to allow the long car and oversize load to clear obstacles on the side of the car, like buildings or other trains passing on a curve. Needless to say, these cars do NOT usually move loaded at high speeds. Hope this is clear. If not, shoot back a post and I'll try again.[:D]
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