[moved here from More Model Schnabel
and other Giant Cars on 17 Jan 06]
Dave Allen's Concept Models
produces resin kits of several major Schnabel cars, notably the WECX 102/301,
WECX 200, HEPX 200 (Ontario Hydro), and GEX 40010, GEX 40013/14, and
GEX 40017.
Dave also offers suitable loads for the specific cars, reactors, generators,
transformers, and even the Mt. Palomar mirror for the WECX 200!
Here, by Dave's kind permission, are two of his kits and the finished,
decorated models of the WECX 310 and the WECX 200:
(pictures courtesy of Concept Models - by permission - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]
(pictures courtesy of Concept Models by - permission - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]
As of Dec 2005, Concept offers a kit for CE/ABB's CEBX 800, and expects to
have one in Jan 2006 for GE's giant GECX 80003 drop-center flat car, both still
actively in use, plus one for CEBX 101 as well, available soon. These
kits are not inexpensive but my CEBX 800 is in and well worth the wait!
Here's the CEBX 800 development in progress, the pilot model going together,
and the parts and parts list for a half-car:
(pictures courtesy of Concept Models - by permission - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]
Those black specks threw me; they are lead shot, embedded in the resin
casting to give the requisite heft to the model.
Next we see two views of the first decorated half-car (decals are included in
the kit):
(picture courtesy of Concept Models - by permission - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed picture; click on image for larger picture]
The special, white, heavy-duty, three-outer-spring, 100-ton truck frames, all
EIGHTEEN (18) of them, are available as a separate kit (less
wheelsets) for those who don't have their own; they take "standard" 38" wheelsets:
(pictures courtesy of Concept Models - by permission - all rights reserved)
Long and short loads and a "running light" (empty) kit (with side plates to hold
the load arms together) are also available.
(31 Mar 08)
- the CEBX 800 car is equipped with
38" wheels; modelers can order the proper wheelsets (to fit Dave's
truck frames) from Northwest Short Lines as 38" (110mm wheel width) weathered
nickel silver wheelsets with pointed axles (4 sets per pack), NWSL 37136-4 (Walthers
p/n 53-371364). You'll need eleven (11) packs, plus another for spare trucks
on the support flats, if you so choose (I did).
Also, as Dave does not furnish a tow bar for running light, I made up a drawing
for that:
(01/17 Jan 06 drawing by and © 2006 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image; click on drawing for larger image]
Houston, we have a problem! Poor Dave has been told by an "expert"
that CEBX 800 is equipped with 33" wheels, not 38" wheels, and that
he was over where she's stored and measured them - 33"! No
way, sez I; if Krupp shows 38" on their drawings, which they do (Ø 965.2 / 38"
DIA - and 965.2mm = exactly 38"), then you can be absolutely assured that
that's what she runs on. You can't get much more specific than that;
besides, my original Krupp brochure, now mislaid, called out 38" wheels (but
that's only on my say-so). It would be stupid to swap out 38"-ers for
33"-ers because the side frames would sit far too low; besides, why make a
giant truck frame for small wheels. Since I can't just run over and
check, I took one of Peter Robitaile's detail shots, lightened and rotated it, and
superimposed dimension lines based on the known 6' (72") truck wheelbase:
(31 Jan 06 drawing by and © 2006 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
{on background cropped from P. Robitaille photo}
[Thumbnailed image; click on drawing for larger image]
Measure it out for yourself!
I also got my first package of NWSL 38" wheels today (31 Jan 06), so I fitted
three of Dave's truck frames (raw) with a pair of the new NWSL 38" wheelsets,
a pair of Kadee 36" wheelsets (from my mock-up), and a pair of Athearn 33"
wheelsets (originally from the trucks used on the mock-up and which I'll use
on GEX 80003); see for yourself how silly the 33"-ers look:
(31 Jan 06 photo by and © 2006 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Decide for yourself; I'm going with 38".
Here's a doctored crop from an Orazio photo of CEBX 800 with a caboose
coupled directly that shows the difference quite clearly, even
allowing for the distortion of a shallow-angle telephoto shot:
(31 Mar 08)
(crop from Orazio photo doctored by SB,III 31 Mar 08 - all rights reserved)
Those big wheels on CEBX 800 tower over the caboose wheels; let's give
it a rest, now.
The GEX 80003 drop-center flat car (the largest in the world) is the one that
was off-loading a GE generator when the Jumbo heavy-lift ship Stellamare turned over
as the load overswung in the port of Albany, New York on 09 Dec 2003 (with a loss
of three Russian crewmen). Dave's model kit is now available (and mine is in
and fab!); here's the first fit-up and the resultant model (which runs on standard
33" wheels):
(pictures courtesy of Concept Models - by permission - all rights reserved)
Incidentally, Weeks Marine's huge
750-ton #533 floating crane both picked up the Stellamare and loaded
similar 308-ton GE generators on/off GEX 80003:
[Photos courtesy of Weeks Marine, Inc., by permission - all rights reserved]
(Click on thumbnailed images for larger pictures]
Here's a cropped enlargement of the car alone:
[Cropped enlargement of photo courtesy of Weeks Marine, Inc., by permission - all rights reserved]
(Click on thumbnailed image for larger picture]
Are those guys on the ropes gonna hold back 300+ tons? Note that
the shed housing the off-setting gear is off (left end).
Nisco Steel Move in China
(moved here from Cont. Page 3 on 08 Dec 2005)
Here are two that are new to me; Brian Cooper sent me these views of the move of
two 350 metric tonne roll housings for the 3.5m plate steckel mill at the Nisco Steel
Works in Nanjing in central China (a steckel mill reduces steel plate from
300mm (12") cast slabs down to 4mm (¼") for ship plate, structural
steels and pipe stock. The housings were cast and machined by
China First Heavy Engineering company in northeast China and were
supposedly delivered by two Schnabel cars designed and detailed by Siemens
VAI in Sheffield, UK [with my uninformed captions]:
(photos courtesy of B. Cooper - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]
Trackwork (that'll get your hydraulics working!) / Shop Truck {automotively speaking}
That truck sure looks like what's left of an old WWII British artillery tractor to my
untutored eye; it runs on an old single-cylinder engine from a dump
truck (must have been quite a dump truck!).
Arrival of housing / Coming alongside the shop
{Clearly NOT a Schnabel car; appears to have the housing inside}
(photos courtesy of B. Cooper - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]
Easing into the shop / Unloading
Now, THAT is a Schnabel!
{I would suggest that the crated item shown is one of the rolls, NOT the
housing}
Only one little problem, unless I misread the photos; one car is clearly a Schnabel
whil(e)(st) the other is clearly either a gigantic well flat or even a through-well flat
(more of an enormous, stretched out, multi-trucked gondola, with or without a floor).
Brian sent along four more shots of the Nisco operation; they are not Schnabel
car photos but do give an impression of the sheer size of the housing and the
clever jury-rigging the Chinese utilize to keep costs down (especially the
rigging of a ceiling beam in the last picture):
(photos courtesy of B. Cooper - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]
In the Doorway / Touchdown / Dropping the Housing / Rigging (on a shoestring)
{indoor photos artificially lightened}
Clever, these Chinese!
I'm NOT depressed, just feeling flat, sort of like I'm in a well,
as if my center had dropped, through, heavy,
split and loaded down - too much on my plate.
I need to shift my load and inch through, if my plate has clearance.
Only joking!
Look also at the main schnabel page, et seq.
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 - 2005,
2008
- All rights reserved.
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