Sixteen wheel HO flat car

lexon

New Member
Here is a little projectI am working on. Needs a few more details.

Flatcarwithload.jpg


lexon
 

steamhead

Active Member
WoW...That's a fine looking flat car..!! :thumb:
What is that humongous load it's carrying..? And do the trucks being so close to each other present any kind of problems on tight curves..??
 

lexon

New Member
Sixteen wheel flat car

No problem. The trucks are connected by span bolsters. The center of the span bolsters connect to the car bolster.

Spanbolsters.jpg


The Wabash Railroad had two cars like this built around 1897. This one was 37', 6” long at 60 ton capacity with a build date of 1897. The second was two feet longer but rated at 55 tons. They were used to haul large rolls of cable for building street car lines. White says he doubt cars like this were used in interchange. Quite a few railroads built twelve wheel flat cars for heavy loads at the time. Many were of wood construction though steel versions were beginning to be built.

The crank shaft is for a large stationary steam engine, probably 2000 to 4000 HP power plant. There would have been a high pressure and low pressure cylinder. There were many power plants like this being built around 1900.Some vertical engines were nearly fifty feet high which shows you how inefficient steam engines were compared to todays internal combustion engines.

I have a photo from 1901 showing the car and load outside an Allis & Chalmers factory in White's, The American Railroad Freight Car, page 386.

I have an article describing building this car written by Gordon Odegard in MR magazine, June 1960, page 52.

In 1869, the PRR has a sixteen wheel flat car, but with 26 inch wheels for hauling massive naval guns. It had a lower of center gravity.

Here is a link to an old two cylinder power plant.

www.todengine.org/home

news.webshots.com/phot...9120xGEzdh

Sometimes the engines were used to power huge blowers for iron mills at the time.

They were used to power huge pumps for cities who were developing piped water at the time.

Many powered plants for producing electrical power.

I believe New Orleans use to have one that was huge.

Rich
 

steamhead

Active Member
Nice...!!! Amazing how the ol' timers met their needs through brute power and size....Love those monster engines....

Thanks for posting....:thumb:

P.D. I remember seeing a program on the History Channel or Discovery about a monstrous pump used to pump water out of ore mines in Minnesota....Several stories tall with a gigantic flywheel....
 

BillW

New Member
Lexon,

That's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship! The crankshaft load has a lot of appeal on the heavy flatcar. I recall seeing the article you mentioned in the Kalmbach book, 24 Dollar Car Projects. That's a great a book for anyone who wants to learn the basics of scratchbuilding rolling stock. I built a flat car and wood tank car with the aid of that book.
 

Sirfoldalot

New Member
Very nice work - Lexon.
I am looking for someone to build a railcar to transport this engine:
 

Attachments

  • Huge Engine.jpg
    Huge Engine.jpg
    133.2 KB · Views: 72

lexon

New Member
Lexon,

That's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship! The crankshaft load has a lot of appeal on the heavy flatcar. I recall seeing the article you mentioned in the Kalmbach book, 24 Dollar Car Projects. That's a great a book for anyone who wants to learn the basics of scratchbuilding rolling stock. I built a flat car and wood tank car with the aid of that book.

That is where i found the plans. I have a copy I picked up used. It has been a fun project.

Rich
 
Top