Click on image to jump to videoWhile 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
M.C. Fujiwara
My YouTube Channel (How-to's, Layout progress videos)
Silicon Valley Free-moN
Smooth is an understatement.Thanks for posting this!I
Yes we are on time but this is yesterdays train
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?
-Morgan
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
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
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!
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
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
Come to us http://www.westportterminal.de my videos my blog
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
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
OK, that rates a "WOW!"
Get your tux ready, Tim. The Academy is looking at this film for Best Trackwork and Best Performance by a Boxcab.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Sounds you can get, those aren;t accurate sounds for that model, but it sounds 'close enough' . I've never seen a picture of an AGEIR loco with horns that would sound liek that either, most seem to have a 'peanut' air whistle.
Those are one of the things I stretch my model era for - Reading had 2 of them, the first of which was the second one built. However they were scrapped before 1950. But my Grandfather worked for Ingersoll-Rand at the Philipsburg, NJ plant where they did their part of the construction (bascially the diesel engine) and had one for use as the in-plant switcher (MDC made a model of that one). At one time I had copies of some official documents but they have been misplaced somewhere at my mom's house. I just love those things, so I'll stretch things and say the Reading kept one around and run one, if I find one again. A few years ago someoen had oen custom done for Reading, even changed the detailing since the MDC design really only matches one unit, and things were changed constantly on them - it was as much an experiment as a production locomotive. I did save the pictures from the auction to use as a guide to build my own.
Read more about these awesome little locos here: http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/boxcabs.html
NIce video, most impressive to me was how smooth you got that MDC Boxcab to run, besides what Tony's did with the decoder, what did you do to make that "blender" run so smooth? Can motor? , does it still have the original bull gear?
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
It's older than the MDC version - it's an AristoCraft one. Late 50's/early 60's if not older. It's remotered with a NWSL PDT which accounts for the super-smooth running. If you go to Tim's Bronx Terminal site and select the CNJ 1000 Boxcab category and go back a couple of pages (it only shows pages referening the loco when you pick the category), he has tons of photos of strippign the paint and rebuildign the drive train. Since the PDT is out of production at least for now (maybe the new owner of NWSL will make them again), there is a fellow in Australia who makes all sorts of motorized chassis and power trucks - not cheap but top quality motors and gears, and it shouldn't be an impossible task to fit soemthign of his to the MDC model.
For those looking to repower a HO scale MDC boxcab, I have found that the Bachman GE 44 tonner chassis is nearly identical in dimensions. I haven't gone so far as to examine possible truck switching but it is a start. Bachman now offers the GE 44 tonner in N scale as well.
Maurice For those looking to repower a HO scale MDC boxcab, I have found that the Bachman GE 44 tonner chassis is nearly identical in dimensions. I haven't gone so far as to examine possible truck switching but it is a start. Bachman now offers the GE 44 tonner in N scale as well.
Yes I have done this with the HO scale version, only I mounted the MDC Climax (uses the same chassis as the boxcab) body onto a Bachmann 44 ton chassis. I narrowed the body and removed the cab and handrails from the 44 ton body, and placed the climax body on top of the 44 ton body, glued it and mounted it all to the 44 ton chassis, I have all the parts to convert a boxcab in the near future. It operates nicely.
The 44-tonner chassis is a good idea, but the wheelbase is a good 2 feet too short for each truck. The centr to center seems close, I can't find the data for the AGEIR 300hp units.
rrinkerIt's older than the MDC version - it's an AristoCraft one. Late 50's/early 60's if not older. It's remotered with a NWSL PDT which accounts for the super-smooth running. If you go to Tim's Bronx Terminal site and select the CNJ 1000 Boxcab category and go back a couple of pages (it only shows pages referening the loco when you pick the category), he has tons of photos of strippign the paint and rebuildign the drive train. Since the PDT is out of production at least for now (maybe the new owner of NWSL will make them again), there is a fellow in Australia who makes all sorts of motorized chassis and power trucks - not cheap but top quality motors and gears, and it shouldn't be an impossible task to fit soemthign of his to the MDC model. --Randy
I've used those BullAnt from HollywoodFoundry with my 25-ton. Now the BullAnt is with a new belt drive verrrry quiet.
rrinker Sounds you can get, those aren;t accurate sounds for that model, but it sounds 'close enough' . I've never seen a picture of an AGEIR loco with horns that would sound liek that either, most seem to have a 'peanut' air whistle. --Randy
I've also been looking at Mantua 0-6-0T's as a possible steam switcher, that might be another project in itself to get the right sounds. Plus I'm still trying to convince the misses that a display track going around the living room would forever make me happy (with long continous rungs), would not be intrusive at all only being at most 6 inches wide and set 7 1/2 feet up from the floor, and that I wouldn't be constantly running and therefore annoying everyone. I also have a hunch that she may think when I said display loop I meant a fully sceniced mini-layout hanging from the walls, not a narrow book shelf with a couple loops of track. So far I just two loops planned, trains on one loop going say CCW and trains on the other loop going say CW, but then I just got MR issue today and say Kato's new add for UP heratige SD70ACe's and sort of decided I would need to throw an N scale track in there. I plan to get all the different schemes.
Sorry, I got waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off topic there.
Well Tim had the idea, but it's not for the faint of heart. He has a video on his site with actual sounds from an AGEIR boxcab. Workign with that and a sound decoder that allows user programmable sound, you could make an actual real thing. I liek the motor sound it has, probably close enough, I'd just change the horns and call it a day. Creatign sound sets for sound decoders is NOT an easy task.
Oh never mind, I found the sound video, it's a video of MTH's O scale version. Motor sounds seem different than what Tim has int he HO model, but the horn is the same. Still don;t think they had horns liek that, I haven't found a good picture to prove it though. Not sure where MTH would have gotten authentic sounds, it's been a LONG time since there was one of those that actually ran. Remaining ones are stuffed and mounted, or in one case, in pieces awaitng maybe a restoration someday.