Cool old video.

[locoi1sa]

Why can't my trains stay on track with a lot smaller gaps than these?

http://www.proto87.com/model-railroad-track-holding.html

         Pete

[cowman]

Interesting!  Wonder what would have happened on a curve?

Guess we should make our cars heavier.

Thanks for sharing.

Richard

[AltonFan]

locoi1sa

Why can't my trains stay on track with a lot smaller gaps than these?

http://www.proto87.com/model-railroad-track-holding.html

         Pete

Probably because the physics remain the same even when the models are scaled down.  I suspect the train's mass is keeping things together long enough to get past the broken tracks.

OTOH, the final efforts might have been useful if the object was to stop the train and attack it with small arms fire, or to raid the freight.  There were some other films in the series where the OSS finally discovered the most effective thing to do was put an explosive charge on one of the freight car axles.

And how vulnerable is a steam locomotive boiler to small arms fire?  Could a commando blow up a boiler with a pistol or rifle round?  What about armor-piercing rounds?  Didn't pilots blow up steam locomotives with aircraft mounted machine guns?

[sfcouple]

The rails always seemed to be in gauge even though parts of one or both rails were missing.  I'm thinking if one of the rails was out of gauge by an inch or so there would have been a different outcome.  

Wayne

[cowman]

Dan,

I think most aircraft had 50 and 75 cal guns, may have used rockets on trains too.  Most small arms are 30 cal, some 45 cal pistols.

Just some thoughts.

Richard 

[BerkshireSteam]

cowman

Dan,

I think most aircraft had 50 and 75 cal guns, may have used rockets on trains too.  Most small arms are 30 cal, some 45 cal pistols.

Just some thoughts.

Richard 

Tyipcal American WWII attack aircraft used the Browning M2 heavy machine gun which was 50 caliber. The actual bullets' were .50 diameter and I think around 3" long. Later in the war 20mm guns became pretty commonly used. A typical foreign aircraft would use 20mm Hispano-Suiz machine guns. It wasn't untill the very end of the war that US started to dable in rockets, which weren't much to speak of.A tube about 5" diameter with a solid-fuel rocket motor plopped in, some fins to stabalize flight, and a nose section that carried the explosive charge. It was a point-and-shoot-hope-it-hits-the-target ordeal.

[AltonFan]

I suppose the question is, could a commando armed with typical small arms of the period, induce a boiler explosion? 

[gmcrail]

No, he couldn't.  Boiler shells are usually much too thick (like, an inch or more) for .30 caliber rounds to penetrate.  If you watch the movie "The Train" (Burt Lancaster), you'll see the most effective means of derailing a train:  Remove the spikes (or in Europe, the bolts that fasten the "chairs" that hold down the rails) from an entire length of rail.  The weight of the train will cause the entire rail to simply lay down.  In this case the weight of the train works against itself.

[MAbruce]

I've seen old WWII (gun) camera footage of strafing runs on trains.  50-cals usually did the trick as the result was typically an exploding white cloud of steam, indicating a boiler explosion.

Interesting video.  I wonder if having the loco under power would have made a difference.