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]
Krupp Schnabel Brochure
Here, thanks to the exceedingly-kind courtesy of ThyssenKrupp's Krupp Historical
Archive, are the cover and two pages (pp. 14 and 15) of photos, diagrams, and data
from a Krupp Industrie- und Stahlbau (Krupp Industry and Steel-fabricator)
English-language brochure on "Krupp multiple-axle heavy cargo railway cars":
"Photos: Historisches Archiv Krupp, Essen, Germany."
(images from Krupp brochure, by special permission - All Rights Reserved)
[Thumbnail images - click on images for VERY much larger (~3, 2.4, and 1.3Mb!) images]
{Please note that, on all three images, the brochure format has been altered to
greatly reduce white space to conserve precious bandwidth; Krupp graphic artists had
made very much more harmonious page layouts!.}
The great significance to Schnabel afficionadoes and modelers is that the diagram
shows clearly the modular component progression from the 16-axle car to the 36-axle
car. Also, the top photo on page 14 (center image) shows the original load, a
reactor vessel, being offloaded from (or emplaced on) a barge in the lagoon between
the two loading tracks.
Special appreciation must be expressed to the Krupp Historical Archive
for furnishing, and permitting reproduction of, these fantastic images.
To honor this very special courtesy, I have used lots of memory to bring these images
to you with the photos, diagram, and data uncut.
In addition, I also have this half-car erection drawing of the Krupp Soviet 32-axle,
500-metric-ton car, which shows many details applicable as well to the other cars:
(source lost - I will remedy this as soon as found)
[Thumbnail image - click on drawing for larger (880Kb) image.]
CEBX-800 DRAWING (NOT!)
20 Apr 2004 - I found it! After many years of fruitless searching, I stumbled on
my ancient 11" x 17" Dietzgen drafting pad (with a 4x4 No-Print grid) and there,
hidden under other RR drawings, was my uncharacteristically-undated sketch in HO
Scale (1:87.1) of CEBX 800, taken meticulously from Krupp's engineering drawings
(no, I haven't found them, yet). I would guess it was done between 1969 and
1974, using proportional dividers, and the primary grid markings are 1" apart with
¼" sub-divisions. Here, with no attempt at scaling, is the drawing at
1.34Mb, and thumbnailed [EXCEPT FOR ONE LITTLE DETAIL!]:
(ca. 1970 Drawing by and © 2004 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail image - click on drawing for larger (1.34Mb) image.]
It's too bad I didn't draw up the top view (assuming I even had it).
THE ONE LITTLE DETAIL! Tom Daspit, without the fanaticism I
exhibit, dispassionately looked at the @#$%&* drawing and immediately
brought me crashing back to reality: "Great drawing, but this is not of the
CEBX 800. There are not enough axles, on{ly} 22, not 36. This
is either of the WECX 102 or 301 built by McDowell-Wellman Engineering
Company for Westinghouse. Look at the lifting and shifting area where
the schnabel arm connects to the span booster. On the CEBX there are
two parts to the schnabel arm, and on the WECX there is only one.
This is an extremely good drawing of one of the Westinghouse cars."
Coises! Ferled again! Tom is, of course, quite right; the
drawing is the one I made for the WECX 102 or 301 mock-up shown on my
main schnabel page and reproduced here:
(photo taken 03 Nov 99 by and © 1999 S. Berliner, III - All Rights Reserved)
My, did I ever get excited when I found that drawing! Well, Tom is too
kind but it's no mean drawing in its own right, even if it isn't the one I sought.
Schnabel Linkages (linkages, NOT links to other pages or sites) - this
is awkward because I don't want to spend too much time on this but I've been
asked many times to explain how the Schnabel arms work, how the load shifts,
and such. I've already shown how the arms swing to pick up and drop a
load on the first Schnabel page
(SCHNABEL CAR LOADING TECHNIQUE). What I've done here is to take
the RICA and eisenbahn magazine illustrations and combine and
doctor them to show how loads are attached to Schnabel cars:
(24 Apr 2005 drawing by S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
The top outline (after RICA) shows a load sitting on a pallet; the pallet takes
both draft and buff and is firmly bolted to the load arms (it can be empty and
still function and the pallet and car halves together form a sort of drop center
flat car). The second (middle) silhouette (after eisenbahn)
shows a load rigidly bolted directly to the load arms; the load becomes an
integral part of the car, taking both draft and buff (and must be designed for
such forces) and this is a true Schnabel configuration. The third
(bottom) silhouette (after eisenbahn) shows the load sitting on tension
beams; in this arrangement, the tension beams absorb all draft and much buff,
but the load also takes some buff and the tension beams and car halves
together form a partial well flat car but can not function without the load in
place. There is also a variety of the third configuation in which a load
platfom, which extends the full width of the car, is fitted in place of the tension
beams; in this case, the platfom and car halves form a partial drop center flat
car but can not function with out the load. In the configurations with
tension beams or a load platform, the main pins act as hinges and the load
itself keeps things from just folding up.
Next, we address how the load arms on the more elaborate cars adjust for
curving and for shifting. First, I use half a Krupp diagram to indicate
that the vertical and horizontal movements occur about separate pivot points;
in this way, the functions can be controlled separately. Hydraulic
cylinders (or other actuators) can move the arms up and down independantly
of the angular displacement from curving:
(24 Apr 2005 drawing by S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Then, I take the illustration from U. S. Patent No. 4,041,879 and doctor it by
adding a Fig. 1e in which I show the difference beween curving with a Schabel
feature and without. It takes a bit of studying but, if you'll look at the
increasing cuvature of Figs. 1a through 1d, you'll see how the horizontal pivots
(A)9 and 10(A) in horizontal slider 12 move outward in tracks 7 and 8,
restrained by inner and outer restraints 11 on car halves 3 and 4 acting on
stop I on the underside of load arm 1. When load arm 1 moves past the
half-way point, the outer restraint 11 halts at stop 13 and the inner restraint
becomes fully compressed, forcing slider 12 all the way to the outer end of
tracks 7 and 8 and allowing the load 2 to move outward relative to the curve.
On the left half of artificial view 1e, I show how the load would be far further
inboard of the curve if there were no inner restraint 11 and the slider 12
stayed in the middle of track 7; the right side of the break in load 2 and the
right half-car 4 are the same as in 1d, for comparison:
(24 Apr 2005 drawing by S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
By having sliding horizontal pivots 9 and 10 and relatively stiff restraints 11,
the effective pivot points are shifted inboard and the load does not have to
obtrude as far into the curve. Using actuators to force the sliders 12 to
move along in tracks 7 and 8 can move the load from side to side to clear
trackside obstacles. Hopefully, this all will give you some vague idea of
the linkages that allow the Schnabel car (and some other very large cars) to
shift the load to clear obstacles.
I'm running out of room on the other Schnabel pages, and don't really want to create
another, so I'm sticking Bruce S. Chamberlain's pictures of his LEGO brick CEBX 800
(from his Brickshelf
Gallery page) here; it's not a scale model but is so ingenious that it well
deserves coverage here (and links on my Schnabel
Continuation page 2 (after the Model List), hobby,
and model RR pages):
(Photos courtesy of B. S. Chamberlain, by permission - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - click on picture for larger image]
That arch bridge is something in its own right, so I show it in full.
[Right image (only) thumbnailed - click on picture for larger image]
[Thumbnailed images - click on pictures for larger images]
(Photos courtesy of B. S. Chamberlain, by permission - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed images - click on pictures for larger images]
[Some images cropped.]
Bruce corrected the truck arrangement but then had to rebuild the truck/bolster setup
"to get a better angle for the load arm". The end result, although not
prototypical, will actually run around a 180° curve:
(Photos courtesy of B. S. Chamberlain, by permission - all rights reserved)
(Photos courtesy of B. S. Chamberlain, by permission - all rights reserved)
The problem is that the innermost truck is on an odd span bolster, NOT paired with
the second truck out and that second truck is paired with the third one; see my
main Schnabel page for a diagram and a side-view photo of my tracking mockup
for the actual configuration. Here is my doctoring of Bruce's photo 02 (second
one, above) to show the incorrect and "correct" configurations; I do not have all the
LEGO bricks necessary to mock this up on my own and there's little reaon to do so
since, as Bruce points out, it won't work on LEGO track:
(26 Nov 03 photofake by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
The load had to be foreshortened because the car will go through the straight part of
turnouts but the load catches on the turnout control arm when the car attempts to go
through a reverse turnout. I demurred; kidding Bruce by suggesting he go with
the long load and use the hydraulic load shifting capability to lift the load over the
control arm. Incidentally, the load can be detached and the arms connected
together to travel as an empty Schnabel car. The car measures 155 studs long,
coupler-to-coupler; i.e.: 117cm/~46" [LEGO is based on 7.5mm stud spacing].
Bruce kindly sent more detail shots; the arms and load ends showing the black
connector pegs, the underside and inside of the ends of the arms (again showing the
pegs), the unloaded car, and truck detail (showing the reversed bolstering):
(Cropped 03 Dec 03 from photos by B. S. Chamberlain - all rights reserved)
Similarly, rather than start yet another page, here is Peter Ziegler's photo of a Trix HO
Uaai 839 model with 24 axles:
(Photo courtesy of P. Ziegler - all rights reserved)
CEBX in Houston - 28 Mar 2005
.
CEBX 800 was on the move again on 28 Mar 2005; she had been rebuilt in March
2003 and was working a 745 ton vessel destined for Suncor in Commerce, Colorado,
on the BNSF. The material overloaded this page and is now on a
new page.
LIRR Loads
I can't believe this; right in my own backyard and I've had these shots since January
1968! I was looking for old photos, especially those of a huge rotary kiln (or
some such structure) that I knew I'd photographed in the Long Island Rail Road's
Long Island City or adjacent Hunter's Point yards; I found them (from January 1968) -
the whole rig from one side and a "panorama" of the left, center, and middle, showing
the three long (TT?) flats, two supporting the load and a center one as an idler:
(Jan 68 photos by and © 1968/2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images - click on pictures for larger images.]
These photos were artificially lightened to show some detail. That's all I know
about it; I just happened to spot it, had a camera, and caught it. However, at
the same time, and I must assume it is an end for the kiln, I shot this huge drum on a
big four-truck Pennsy car, well-flat #470249 (where is my Maywald book on heavy-
duty cars when I need it?@) [if you think that the car itself registered with me back
then, think again!]:
(Jan 68 photos by and © 1968/2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images - click on pictures for larger images.]
The left photo was artificially lightened to show some detail. Now, does
anyone know what this (these) shipment(s) was (were) all about?
23 Jan 2006 - PRR #470249 was specially built in 1963 to carry a large spherical
bearing for the 140' radio telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at
Green Bank, West Virginia; more information on this car and that load is sought.
(23 Jan 07)
@ - the car's not shown in Maywald!
SCHNABEL (and related) REFERENCES
[mostly in descending date order] (moved here from main schnabel page 14 Sep 02)
Tom Daspit's fabulous site, noted above.
(new URL - 31 Mar 05)
Horst Felbmayr GmbH's fantastic heavy-lift and -transport site at
http://www.felbermayr.at/seiten_engl/start_engl.htm!
This is the English version of their German site; either version is well worth "navigating", with their plethora of photos of European heavy rail, road, and marine operations.
See also Paul Bowers's "The Schnabel Webpage" (with other over-sized load coverage).
The Railway Industrial Clearance Association of North America (R.I.C.A.) site, noted above.
{Revised URL as of 01 Sep 00}
Original CE and Krupp materials (also referred to above).
"Mammoth Reactor Rides Southern's Rails", (staff), TIES (The Southern Railway System Magazine), January-February 1970, Front Cover and pp. 4-6.
"How to Tote 600 Tons", David H. Hamley, TRAINS, July 1973, pp. 20-24, Kalmbach Publishing Corp., Milwaukee.
Hamley's article is superb, although it pre-dates CEBX 800; it is mostly about WECX 102,
with some coverage of 102, 200, 201, and 202, and photos of 102, 101, 201, and 200 and
specifications of 101 and 102, which were completed on 01 Ju 1967 and 10 Nov 1969 at costs of
$550,000 and $650,000 (approximately), with load limits of 523 and 600 tons, and light weights
of 529K# and 516K#, and stretch 119' 2" (159' 0") and 135' 7" (175' 1") empty (max. loaded), on
20 and 22 axles, all respectively. Those axles sat in eight trucks; 6-4-4-6+6-4-4-6 for #101
and 6-6-4-6+6-4-6-6 for #102.
Just for laughs, CEBX 800's trucks are arranged as 4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4+4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4 (really)!
Talk about a centipede; it's more like a millipede!
More accurately, CEBX 800 is arranged this way:
<[(4-4)-(4-4)]-[(4-4)-{(4-4)-4}]>+<[{4-(4-4)}-(4-4)]-[(4-4)-(4-4)]> (or some such)!!!
"German Railway Guns in Action", Joachim Englemann, Armor No. 15, Squadron/Signal Publications, 1976.
"Classic Freight Cars - The Series", Vol. 6, Loaded Flats and Gondolas", Henry Maywald, H & M Productions, Flushing, NY, 1984, ISBN 1-882608-06-2.
Although miscaptioned in some cases, this is an invaluable reference, with many heavy
duty cars of all sorts in color, including the FD2 Depressed-Center Flat, Queen Mary,
as PC #766163 on page 35 and PRR #470245 on page 36 and schnabels GEX #40010
on page 61, WECX #301* empty on page 62 and as a drop-center well flat with
tension and compression members holding a mis-labelled reactor vessel on page 63,
and WECX #200 in tan (dirty white?) at Long Island City, NY, and in red at Pueblo
on page 64, plus a giant turbine on a huge USDoT over-the-road trailer
on the inside back cover.
* - miscaptioned as "the largest car with the greatest capacity of anything on America's rails".
Photo (and blowup detail) accompanying "Interview with Claire I. Clugh", KEYSTONE, Volume 29, Number 2, Summer 1996, Pages 14-15, PRRT&HS, FD2 #470245 in Apr 1952 (with Mr. Clugh and another in front for scale - WOW!).
"TTX Heavy-Duty 12-Axle DSH-45-Class QTTX Flat Car", James Panze, RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN, March 1999, pp. 86-90, Carstens Publications, Inc., Newton, New Jersey (with photos, drawings, and roster).
"Scratchbuilding an HO Heavy-Duty QTTX Flat Car", Jim Panza, RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN, March 1999, pp. 91-95, Carstens Publications, Inc., Newton, New Jersey (with photos).
See also Viktor Schiffer's fantastic (mostly-European) freight car site auf Deutsch and in English.
{more to be added}
Look also at the main and succceding 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.
of this series of Schnabel Railroad Car pages.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 2001, 2002,
2003, 2004, 2005,
2007
- All rights reserved.
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