Miller Transfer
Something has to lift these giant loads; see Big
Cranes.
Jump to SB,III's RAILROAD Page for a goodly set of
RR links
and to SB,III's MODEL RAILROAD Page for a
goodly set of model RR links (yea, verily, forsooth!).
SCHNABEL and other
giant RAILROAD CARS
(and highway variants)
[contInued]
If this subject interests you, you must also see Tom Daspit's site, linked below!
* - Spelling of the Name: SCHNABEL vs. SCHNABLE
- "Schnabel" is the KORREKT spelling! It is the German word
for "beak", which I originally thought referred to the beak-shaped loading arms,
but now know was the name of the German inventor of the design ca. 1930 or
so. I don't know where or when I started using "Schnable",
but it was wrong and I don't mind admitting my error.
If I ever find my original CE and Krupp materials (referred to below) and
they show "SCHNABLE" (however unlikely), I'll have to correct this
back again!
72-wheel 880-Ton Schnabel Car CEBX 800
Bob MacLeod, who lives(ed?) up Sasketchewan way, took these pictures of
CEBX 800 "in Pilot Butte, about 7 miles east of Regina, where the {Co-Op}
upgrader was built. I was shooting about as fast as I could compose
the pictures with a Pentax SpF 35 mm camera. They were running at a
fair speed for the first load through. I guess they had built up some
confidence in the trip. They arrived and then they were gone real quick.
I missed the following units as there wasn't as much hoopla as for the first.":
(All photos R. MacLeod - all rights reserved.)
That's CP Rail trail loco 3134 flying the Co-Op and Sasketchewan provincial flags, followed by endless cars of parts and accessories (and even what appear to be spare trucks):
Then a caboose used as a crew car appears and CEBX 800 finally comes into view:
Endless wheels later, a giant upgrader cylinder comes along; note it is on a pair of tension members, thus it is (in this configuration) only a semi-Schnable; the load is only partly a part of the car absorbing some of the buff but none of the draw. More endless wheels and another couple of cabin cars:
(All photos R. MacLeod - all rights reserved.)
Off we go into the vile blue yonder. Thanks, Bob!
[My thanks to Tom Daspit, who backed up these images better than I did
and thus allowed me to restore them!]
More about 72-Wheel CEBX 800
(moved here from Schnabel Page 2 on 09 Jan 2002)
Here are Jim Banner's photos of the ABB 72-wheel CEBX 800 toting a 35.080m
(111' 93/4") reactor vessel on 05
Jan 1991 in Saskatoon, Sasketchewan (Canada). Sure looks like the
TransAlta car to me!
Part of the confusion on this car is because I had it mislabelled as a 36-
wheel car instead of a 36-axle car, with 72
wheels! There is only one such car in the world; Krupp/Combustion
Engineering/ABB CEBX 800 .
The first shot is a composite panorama made up of six (6) or seven (7) photos assembled and running a whopping 558,631Kb! So don't be in any hurry to click on the thumbnail; I have split it into three sections for your convenience, the A2 (left on the picture) car (81,033Kb), the load (211,217Kb), and the A1 (right) car (117,335). Next is Jim's view of the right car (143,865Kb), then a closeup of the left load arm (142,924Kb), the load inching through a through-truss bridge (160,935Kb), and finally a closeup of the center of the load:
(1991 photos courtesy of Jim Banner - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
Then here's a detail of the A1 (right) load arm showing the ABB and Krupp logos:
The ABB logos replace the original CE (Combustion Engineering - hence, CEBX) logos.
The third and last shots were taken to document the A2 (left) load arm and load stencilling, so I have provided blowups here for your convenience:
The A2 (left) load arm reads:
(in a circle):
EXCEEDS
PLATE
F
CEBX 800
* CAPY 1779260 LS
* LD LMT 1779260
LT WT 740890 NEW 9-80 {*}
while the load reads (below the tarp):
GROSS WEIGHT : 634,200 kg {or 834?#}
MEASUREMENT : L x W x H (MM) {sic*}
34M.080 x 4M.920 x 5M.200. 
MADE IN JAPAN
THE JAPAN STEEL WORKS. LTD.
The very top of the first line is hidden under the tarp and the decimal points (periods) are under the "M"s in the third line.
Strange sort of train, with a caboose/cabin car/hack at each end, but the left one is a rider car and the engine is to it's left, beyond an old heavyweight passenger car.
Bill says it was 40 below (°C or °F?)
[Ha, ha! - it's the one place on the thermometer where they are exactly equal!]
and that the conductor later told him they had the engine fitted with special electronic controls which could inch it along at as little as 1/10 mile per hour.
Note that this car has load members between the ends, under the load, so it is technically a through-well flat car in this configuration; so who's quibbling?
Incidentally, the ratings above mean that the car is rated to carry a 1,779,260 pound (889.63 ton) load with a light weight of 790,890 pounds (395.445 tons - huh?). Krupp/CE's original 1980 nominal rating was for a 800-ton load plus 40 tons per light ½-car, or 880 tons fully loaded(!), i.e.: 1,600,000 pounds load, 160,000 pounds light, and 1,760,000 pounds loaded.
The load measures 34.080m x 4.920m x 5.200m = 109' 41/8" long x 15' 9½" wide x 16' 8¼" high.
* - So, what's the LT WT mean? Decimal point error? Ditto the Japanese dimension unit - MM - hardly millimeters; try CM - centimeters!
# - The load at (either) 634,200Kg (or 834,200Kg) = 1,395,240 pounds/697.62 tons (or 1,835,240 pounds/917.62 tons - I vote for the former).
Lest you list me looney, the A1 and A2 designations are from Krupp/CE:
[The flags are the Canadian flag/le drapeau Canadien, an American one, blue Husky Oil flags (with a stylized Husky dog - Husky is the Canadian oil company which runs the upgrader at Lloydminister Saskatchewan where the reactor vessel was being shipped), the green and yellow flag of Saskatchewan (the wheat sheaves represent agriculture, their major industry, the yellow symbolizes ripening wheat fields in the fall, and the green represents "bring money" - their taxes are high and it is expensive to keep warm up there when it is 45° below; the animal is either a stylized lion, or possibly a gopher that stayed on the highway too long, the flower is supposed to be a Tiger Lily, the official flower of Saskatchewan, but somehow the leaves ended up looking more like marijuana!)]
{If you detect a wee bit or irony there, it's from Saskatoon, not New York!}
Hey, schnabel fan(atic)s, you'd better enjoy this coverage;
it's using up a staggering amount of server memory!
Martin Bolhuis, who worked at the plant that the Saskatoon reactor vessel was made
for gave me "a little on what it was" {edited slightly}. "There were two
identical reactors moved one at a time from Thunder Bay at Lake Superior to
Lloydminster, Saskatoon. They were moved in the winter to ensure that the
ground was frozen. They were 'H-Oil' reactors that are the guts of a
hydrocracker and were made in Muroran, Japan, by Japan Steel Works (JSW).
The size of the load was such that they crossed the pacific, traversed the Panama
Canal, and came up the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Lakehead for rail shipment.
The ship that carried them was owned by JSW and was called the "Starman Asia".
It has some really large side boom cranes mounted onboard and lists heavily when
loading. Each of these reactors was hoisted into place with something called a
transilift. Husky Oil who owns these reactors claims that this was the
heaviest single load rail move ever made in North America. I know that they
have a promotional video called 'From Muroran to Lloydminster' that documents
the entire move from Japan to Lloydminster." {emphases mine}.
- Tom Daspit was in the Chicago area, went up to Duluth on a Friday afternoon (05 May 00), and found CEBX 800 parked on two sidings (it was unloaded and split) about 50' from Lake Superior; these are what he calls "teasers"{!}:
(05-06 May 2000 photos courtesy of Tom Daspit - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
Will ya look at all those wheels!
Some guys have all the luck! I was up there in Aug 99 and didn't see it (sour grapes). Thanks, Tom!
Tom now (Aug 00) has the rest of these photos (he took a lot - three rolls worth - surprise!) up on his site.
Next, along came Bill Tokaruk of Regina, Sasketchewan, with a completely
different series of pictures of CEBX 800 from the Co-op Upgrader site in Regina in
Jan 1986 and from the Bi-Provincial Upgrader site in Lloydminster in Jan 1991:
[These images were lost and Bill kindly dug them up and resent them 25 Jan 04]
(27 Jan 04)
The schnabel arriving at Regina, Sask., in Jan 1986, via CP Rail:
(Jan 86 photo courtesy of Wm. Tokaruk - all rights reserved)
CEBX 800 being moved to the unloading area of the Co-op Upgrader site in Regina,
Jan 1986.
(Jan 86 photo courtesy of Wm. Tokaruk - all rights reserved)
The operators cab (one located on each half of the schnabel car), outside Regina,
Jan 1986:
(Jan 86 photo courtesy of Wm. Tokaruk - all rights reserved)
CEBX 800 being spotted under the gantry crane at Lloydminster, Jan 1991:
(Jan 91 photo courtesy of Wm. Tokaruk - all rights reserved)
The reactor parked under the specially-constructed crane at the Bi-Provincial
Upgrader in Lloydminster, Jan. 1991:
(Jan 91 photo courtesy of Wm. Tokaruk - all rights reserved)
Half the schnabel car after the reactor was unloaded at Lloydminster, Jan 1991
(count them - nine trucks - 36 wheels!):
(Jan 91 photo courtesy of Wm. Tokaruk - all rights reserved)
Please note that in these two operations, the car uses load beams as tension
members under the loads, so it is not strictly a schnable in this sense, only sort of
half a schnable and half a depressed-center flat car.
On the main Schnabel page under
References, I refer you to
Viktor Schiffer's site; here are two views of the Uaai-class DB #778 2x4-
axle heavy depressed-center flat car in Offingen on 06 Aug 97:
RE-
(2x4-axle, not 2x6 - 11 Nov 02)
and an unladen 2x(4+5)-axle Preußenelektra Schnabel at Paderborn on 09 Apr 88:
(Photos courtesy of V. Schiffer - all rights reserved)
Tom Daspit has two series of fabulous photos of a 24-axle version of the Uaai #778 car (#678.0 and #838 - ???) on his site at #687.0 and #838.
Both sets are from Michael Baier's (MiBa) fantastic German-language site.
(I always wondered what MiBa meant!)
Uh, oh! The above meaning of "MiBa" is correct as used here, but it is
also the name of a German model RR magazine,
Miniaturmodellbahnen!
Also, Kibri came out with an HO model of Uaai #687.9 [their #16502, a 20-axle {2x(5+5)} unit], and a road version:
(Photo courtesy of T. Daspit)
[Thumbnail image; click on the picture for a larger image.]
Tom Daspit was watching TV 03 Jan 03 when he thought he saw a Schnabel car; it
was "Enemy at the Gate" and there IS a Schnabel car plain as day
about 15 minutes before the end, just before Ed Harris gets killed. Tom thinks
it may be the Preußenelektra car.
Mammoet
(Dutch for Mammoth)
Mammoet/ETARCO/van Seumeren
On May 23, 2000, van Seumeren Holland B.V. announced the
purchase of the Mammoet group of companies from Royal Nedlloyd
N.V.; van Seumeren claims to be the world leader in international heavy
lifting and crane services. Mammoet is claimed as a
leader in international heavy ground transport and heavy-lift shipping.
Van Seumeren claims to be the major shareholder of ETARCO
(formerly Engineering and Transportation and Rigging Company Limited),
which is a North American (Canada) based company specializing in
multi-modal transportation and rigging services. The new
company will go forward under the name and logo of
MAMMOET. All of this bodes well for those of us who like
such activities and models of such equipment.
(23 Nov 04)
Here, from the ETARCO site
are a group of images of Schnabel and related rail cars, starting with an 86.5
ton 18' diameter dryer shell moving on a depressed center railcar with double-
end overhang and a 174 ton generator on a 12-axle railcar at Halifax ready for
shipment to Fort McMurray, Alberta:
Here are a 340 ton capacity 12-axle depressed center railcar with a 205 ton
turbine and a Schnabel carrier on 2x12 axle railcars moving a 350 ton
transformer from Illinois to Guelph, Ontario:
Lastly, here is a 386 ton capacity 18-axle Schnabel car with what sure looks
like that 174-ton generator:
(All photos from ETARCO site - all rights reserved
some have been enhanced or cropped.)
The following drawing is of the 36-wheel (18-axle) Etarco car ETMX 1001; the
drawing is too big to show in a thumbnail, so I cropped out a representative
section for the thumbnail. Click on the picture for a larger, full image
with an elevation, cross-section, and loading diagram:
No quite a full drawing for modeling puposes but it's sure better than nothing!
Many of these loads are also seen on road vehicles at Mammoet/ETARCO mammoth road loads.
I ran across the term "MAFI" in relation to container freight and
checked it out; guess how heavy loads get from the erecting floor to trailers or
railcars? MAFI Transport-
Systeme GmbH of Tauberbischofshein, Germany (just north of Stuttgart),
where they have an
English version; take a look!
Here's another GREAT link; the site of
J. Supor & Son Trucking & Rigging Co., Inc., headquartered in Harrison,
New Jersey. Road and rail and heavy, HEAVY, HEAVY!
You just have to go there and navigate the site for dozens of fabulous pix!
Look also at the main and
succeding Schnabel pages.
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
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of this series of Schnabel Railroad Car pages.
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2003
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