Why would someone ship an airplane by flatcar?

[trfindley]

I'm sure others have thought of this question over the past 53 years:

EDIT: Click here for the link

 

Original URL if you can't use the link above:(You'll have to reassemble it, I added spaces to let it wrap)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Athearn-HO-RTR-40-Flat-w-Blue-Plane-NYC-495334_W0QQitemZ400196105170QQcategoryZ19130QQcmdZViewItemQQ_

trksidZp3286.m7QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI

%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7803940796617981131

 

EDITED BY JWHITTEN: Added some spaces in the URL to let it wrap.

[papasmurf]

Not unusual, as NASA had several shuttle components shipped via rail, which were just small enough to fit through all rail line tunnels. My 2 cents. TTFN....Old Tom aka papasmurf in NH

[DigitalGriffin]

One reason might be:

Plane is located on east coast.

Plane going to private field on remote location west coast.

You could hire a pilot to fly it there (Expensive).  But how would he get back?  Drive to closest regional, then fly back as a passenger?  That is a pain in the duckass.

OR.....

Plane is being sold overseas and being shipped to a port.

[Eric97123]

I would lean with the shipping over seas as my story if I had one my layout.  Extra hours on the engine are bad as engine rebuilds are big $$$ but I am sure the cost to fly/ amortized into the rebuild price, would come up a lot cheaper than shipping by train if you wanted to get it from one side of the country to another. 

[coborn35]

That usually doesnt happen. Boeing ships alot of their fuselages by rail though.

[Forty Niner]

So then what would they do if say it was an "historical" airplane? I don't think you would want to "fly" a Sopwith Camel across the country...........or some other "valuable" historic airplane for that matter.

Just a fresh "monkey wrench" for the gears of reason to work with......;-)

Mark

WGAS

[tomikawaTT]

Just because it's shaped like an aircraft doesn't mean that it's airworthy.  If it is, in fact, a 'historical' aircraft, it may very well be unflyable for any number of valid reasons.

That said, unless it's being shipped to a metal recycling site it would be much more likely to travel by truck.  Most air museums (and, for that matter, most airports) don't have rail service.

The one that always has me ROFLMAO is the Messerschmitt bF109 fuselage standing on its wheels on a flatcar.  That landing gear was notoriously flimsy, and would almost certainly suffer an 'involuntary retraction' if ubjected to the normal slam-bang slack action of a 1940-ish European train.  If that single-seater had to be shipped by rail it would have been shipped in a wooden cradle, with the landing gear safely unloaded and retracted.

Chuck (Former USAF aircraft maintenance tech modeing Central Japan in September, 1964)

[Dave Merrill]

During my career in aviation we moved several planes by truck and trailer, all because of airworthiness and/or mechanical reasons.  To move one a long distance by rail for similar reasons is certainly feasible. 

FWIW the plane appears to be a Beech 33 Bonanza which has tricycle landing gear.  There is no nose gear on the model and the main gear appear to be too far forward and are missing the gear doors. 

And now my hobby is more 'down to earth' 

Dave

[Forty Niner]

I would say you are right on the money about the truck thing today, but what about say 1965 or earlier? You know, before they started hauling houses down the Interstate.............

And having spent many years in the military I understand the love of abbreviations but what the heck is "ROFLMAO"?

P.S. I don't text mail either........

Mark

WGAS

[steemtrayn]

Do the wings of the Beech actually attach using tab-in-slot assembly?  ROFLMAO!!

[Railphotog]

Forty Niner

And having spent many years in the military I understand the love of abbreviations but what the heck is "ROFLMAO"?

P.S. I don't text mail either........

I suggest Googling the text, as forum censors might take offence if what it means was spelled out here.   This has been around a long time, before texting.  BOHICA!

 

 

[Forty Niner]

BOHICA I know, learned it when I filled out my "2nd" tax return, my own personal favorite is WGAS. I have a cap without the abbreviation and wear it all the time, get everything from disapproving looks to "hey man, cool cap".

I guess this one will just be a mystery for now............life is full of mysteries.

The secret to a successful marriage..............is still a secret! HY

Mark

WGAS

[Packers#1]

Forty Niner

And having spent many years in the military I understand the love of abbreviations but what the heck is "ROFLMAO"?

To answer that would require breaking forum rules of no swearing. However, ROFLOL means rolling on the floor laughing out loud. Not much of a jump.

I know boeing ships fuselages by rail, but there are two answers for the small plane:

1) the aforementioned pilot scenario; if there's a plant on the east coast and a dealer on the west coast, I imagine shipping planes by rail to a distribution center to be trucked out, or a large regional dealer, makes sense.

2) The gigantic slingshot the factory previously used showed an alarming tendency to fling the aircraft unpredictable, often destroying it on it's travel to the dealer...

just my 2 cents worth :D

[markpierce]

They are to be finally assembled in another location.  For instance, plants at various locations make subparts to be shipped to the final assembly point.  Or they are to be shipped beyond the plane's range even considering refueling, for instance, shipment of partially disassemblied P-39 planes to the Soviet Union during WWII.

[Forty Niner]

Looked it up on Google, you forgot the part about "Scaring the Cat"!! That's what confused me................;-)

Mark

WGAS

[B&O SteamDemon]

You could always use the idea of  structual failure on the airframe and the aircraft is being shipped back to the manufacturer for repair or replacement.  Just an idea for shipping an aircraft by rail.

 

Ray

[Hamltnblue]

Maybe someone bought a plane and wasn't a pilot.

[sfcgadget]

Wouldn't you for $18.40 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. I would with the price of gas up again.

[wjstix]

Why would GM ship an automobile by train to the dealer when they could have somebody drive it there from Detroit??

 

[tatans]

Markpierce replied they shipped aircraft to Russia in boxes, they also flew hundreds of  fighters and bombers through Canada following the Alaska highway then over to Russia, Edmonton was a major staging area, not all of them made it to Alaska,  3, B-25 or B-26's crashed in one area  in the Yukon called "million dollar valley' they are still there.

[Lateral-G]

Northrop ships the aft fuselage of the F-18 to us in St Louis....they've been doing it for the past 30 years.

 

 

[BF&D]

Lots of semi plausible answers - but for me those flatcar airplane loads are in a league with Official US Army Missile Launcher Car and other such toy trains stuff.

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

Regardless of the reason, I'll bet some where deep in the history of Athearn there is a real life photo of just such a Beechcraft on a flat car.

The dealer/final assembly thing makes sense to me, just like new cars. If I was buying a "new" airplane, I don't think I would want it to have hundreds of hours on it having been flown thousands of miles across the country.

I surely would not pay the "new" car price for a car that had been driven from Detroit to Baltimore. If a car comes with a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty, I expect to be the person who puts 35,989 of those miles on it.

Sheldon 

[MisterBeasley]

Because Lionel had the same car in O-gauge?  That must be it.  I had that car in the 50s, and it was also a Beechcraft Bonanza, notable for the 45-degree angled tail section.

Seriously?  I doubt that Beech designed the wings to come off like that.  This was not a carrier-based aircraft, after all.

The plane, of course, was safe from train-launced missiles, unless it was located next to the exploding dynamite car.  Had one of those too, I did.

[AltonFan]

Can one of the moderators please edit the OP so that it doesn't force the thread over the edge of the screen?

[Johnnny_reb]

Maybe at the time there were no trucking lines that where shipping nation wide. I don't know for sure, but I would think that it would have been in the late 60's or early 70's before trucking lines began going coast to coast with regular service.

[Johnnny_reb]

TA462

The only reason a plane would be shipped by rail is because it isn't air worthy.   It would cost to much to have a planes wings removed and then reattached and the recertified to fly again.

You know, now that I think about it. I seen one on a tow-truck once and for same reason. It was headed to a repair shop. The field it saw at didn't do repair work and wouuldn't let them work on it there. Why? unkown.

[steemtrayn]

Packers#1

Forty Niner:

And having spent many years in the military I understand the love of abbreviations but what the heck is "ROFLMAO"?

 

To answer that would require breaking forum rules of no swearing. However, ROFLOL means rolling on the floor laughing out loud. Not much of a jump.

Aww, go ahead, tell him. This would be an ideal time to test the limits of the new moderator.

DILLIGAF?

[jeffrey-wimberly]

trfindley

I'm sure others have thought of this question over the past 53 years:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Athearn-HO-RTR-40-Flat-w-Blue-Plane-NYC-495334_W0QQitemZ400196105170QQcategoryZ19130QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286.m7QQ_

trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D78039407

96617981131

For getting it from point A to point B without spending money on fuel and a pilot shipping it via flatcar makes good economic sense. It also save wear and tear on the planes engine(s).

 

EDITED BY JWHITTEN: Added some spaces in the URL to let it wrap.

[Forty Niner]

What about things such as Military Scout Planes, they don't have to be recertified to have their wings removed and reattached, come to think of it, neither did the Aero-Car.

Mark

WGAS