If the 36-axle car was built to scale, and a load that large, you would almost need 48" curves to not derail adjacent trains... Wow, that would be one sight to see on Raton, but it's not to be...
Here's a portion of a post from Yahoo! Groups's Railspot bunch, in re: tie-down spot for the movement. It confirms what Russ posted earlier: Friday, 4-1-2005, 1800 hrs: "The train is tying up for the night at Obregon siding west of Brownwood between Bangs and Santa Anna. Crew is called for 0700 hrs. Crew says that they are only making 80-90 miles a day. Look for BNSF pace cars following via highway. Lots of BNSF employees around so watch your P's & Q's." I wouldn't be surprised to know that "county mounties" and Texas DPS officers will be close by, to keep traffic moving on the parallel highways.
They might take a southerly route through the Coleman area north of Santa Anna then run just east of Tuscola (south of Abilene) then veer off west again toward Tye and Sweetwater then head north toward Amarillo. Man I would love to drive up Raton Pass into Trinidad along side that load! I'll bet they have to put 4 2-8-8-2'a on the head end to get up the grade, and even then they may only be walking along at 2 or 3 miles an hour, snorting and snarling all the way. You can hear the stack pressure popping off the canyon walls echoing almost all the way up! This was my old stomping grounds! When he starts rolling down grade from Trinidad toward Walsonburg, he may be flying through La Junta! Then its flat into Pueblo. Just a guess. That is all back country and towns are small. (Abilene is probably 75K by now, biggest town around.) Do we have any members that live around Abilene? They could easily get photos at Tuscola where the tracks cross the little highway going down to Tuscola and on to Winters. Also, if they take the old Texas & Pacific line west out of Abilene, they could pace it along highway 80 west all the way to Midland, if they go that way. There is an overpass at Tye, where the road used to go under the tracks so the road is then on the north of the tracks. [ April 02, 2005, 11:00 AM: Message edited by: watash ]
I believe they are going to stick to the old Santa Fe line until Amarillo then jump on the old Denver & Fort Worth (CB&Q/BN) on into Trinidad. No Raton for this puppy even if they did have a bunch of 2-8-8-2s to pull it with.
It's my underestanding that the cabs on the Schnabel car are to let the crew keep an eye on the load, and actually MOVE the load to clear minor obstacles. Load can be shifted either verticle, or horizontal, depending on the situation. Check these two sites for even more information: S. Berliner, III's Schnabel Railroad Car Page Tom's Trains Pages Both are great sources of information on the Schnabel cars.
Schnabel cars always attract attention, due to their impressive appearance and relative rareness. I have been asked many times to make a kit for one, but as there are several different types and the requirements needed on a model railroad to be able to run them, I think the sales potential would be pretty low. Would make a very impressive model though
But Alan, I would think you would be in a better position to do very low number kits. I am not at all familiar with how or what goes into tooling for you, but I'd be surprised if it approached what Atlas or Kato might have to do. I would like to have a schanbel car for my power plant. I took a ton a pics of one that came into the power plant that delivered a rather large transformer. At $400 a pop for the Overland Brass model, I'll just have to wait.
Update on Schnable Train Movement 08-APR-05 – ETD From Texline – 0800hrs – target destination – Folsom, NM Note: Folsom New Mexico does not appear on the Route Map, but it is approximately 2 miles north of Twin Mountains.
I posted a link to the Teraserver site on the other thread going on about this load. http://www.trainboard.com/ultimatebb.php/ubb/get_topic/f/56/t/001072/p/5.html It shows a topo from Folsom north to the Colorado boarder. Rough territory. Here is just a little portion of it.
Do the dispatchers all have a healthy headache by now? Or has everything gone smoothly, routing other trains around this monster? Boxcab E50
From Des Moines, NM, state highway 72 roughly follows the C&S into Folsom. From there you can take state highway 456 north/east to state highway 551 and take it north through Toll Gate Gap to Branson, Colorado on Colorado state highway 389. You don't see much of the rail line until you get to Colorado, but you could take some back roads to find some spots for pictures. Branson has a siding and would be a likely place for a meet. The roads to this point are easy-to-drive paved roads. Between Branson and Trinidad (as was asked), there are gravel back roads that with a good map, a good navigator, and patience for gravel road driving offer several good photo opportunites. The roads go through Trinchera and Barela to meet up with US 160 at Beshoar. I've taken it several times, and depending on the time of year it can be a gorgeous drive. I don't know about right now, it may be too early. Be forwarned though, it may be ill-advised to take in bad weather and fairly easy to get lost. But, if you check out Mapquest, you can map it out, and if you don't want to take to the gravel, you can continue north on CO 389 from Branson and meet with US 160 then take it west into Trinidad. For those wo may not know, the BN did build a cut-off northeast of Trinidad to bypass the sharp curve downtown.
Train Update: 10-APR-05 – Departed Model, CO 0720hrs – Arrived La Junta, CO 1330hrs – distance traveled – 60 miles Train was stopped in La Junta due to a derailment of another train up the line in South Pueblo. This does not block our route but is taking crews away from the reactor train. Weather is also a factor which may cause delays.
After 2 days at LaJunta, the train will depart tomorrow Apr 13 for Pueblo. ETA Denver still Friday PM.
