I've started on my container car for my railroad. Since it's a small island, the main container is the 20 foot can. Some of the industries on the island are located from the port, so this is the easist way to move the containers. They have platforms on the ends to allow access into the cans without removing them. Basically, they drop bridge plates, open the doors and load/unload. Once done, back to the port and off on a ship. I'm building one master so I can cast the rest of them. I can then have a decent fleet without all the fun of scratchbuilding. It's sitting on Atlas N scale Bettendorf trucks and will use MT 1015 couplers. I'm planning to use Plastruct diamond tread sheet for the platforms. I need to add the bracing between the centersill and side sills and the spots for brake rigging. Brakewheels will be on a stand on the end, like a caboose. Art
That's great Art! I've been thinking of building some rudimentary underframes to represent a boxcar where the body is a salvaged 20' container. Good stuff, Cody
Hi, I thought you might like to see some real NG container cars for comparisons. These are from Switzerland, however. The NG Rhätische Bahn (1 meter gauge) is serving the mountainous SE part of the country. One picture shows a container terminal near St. Moritz. There are also two-axle cars. I'll post a picture if I find one. The ones I took on this trip don't show the cars, only the refrigerated containers.
Robert, I had given realy hard thought to a drop frame car, but in order to load/unload, the container would have to be taken off the car. Kinda hard to do in the middle of nowhere. :tb-biggrin: At least, that's what I'm planning.
Here are two that I found in the internet, one a Bemo model, the other one a original showing the position of the breakwheel on the side. On the original, you can also see that they have a door on the side. Thus, one can also get into the container without having to lift it off.
That looks really cool and original! Although, and I could be wrong about this, but a fully-loaded 20' container is deceptively heavy and dense. If a manufacturer made a real-life version of your car, it would probably break! It would probably require a more sturdier frame, but I'm no structural engineer so I wouldn't know how it would be designed.
As can be seen on the pictures I posted, the Swiss cars have a fishbelly reinforcement between the axles.
20 footers are heavy. The underframe has not gotten the reinforcements I'm installing in the picture. Luckly, most of the containers we'll handle will be lighter, not the usual rocks or marble I've seen in normal containers. Just for the record, according to the data on the container, the empty weight is 5400 lbs (2400 kg) net weight 47487 lbs (21540 kg) Food stuffs and other items won't be that heavy! Well, maybe the rum... :tb-biggrin: So a car able to handle 10 tons should be good.
The Oahu Railway used 25t-30t cars in their container service. I'll use my degree in Civil Engineering to perform a few computations for you... Michael
Well, it's done.. I like it enough that I'll have to make a few masters for casting this spring. Time for some passenger stuff...
The brakewheel is a Cal-Scale brass casting, mounted on a scratchbuilt stand. The stirrups are Tichy parts. I've got a bunch of them and they're cheap! If you haven't looked at what Tichy offers for scratchbuilders, it's worth the effort.
HOn30. I'm working on a 3 unit local passenger train now. Picked up some parts yesterday at the Whistle Stop. I'll post some photos as I get it done.
Art, Very nice job on the container car. IMO you've done an excellent job imagineering the COFC car. Any chance of some measurements, like 40' long, 8' wide and truck centers and such? I know it's a bit late but for variety check some prototype equipment that used or use COFC equipment. The White Pass and Yukon pioneered containers on flat cars on narrow gauge. In the other direction, 42" gauge New Zealand has some nice looking COFC cars. Cheers, Greg Elems
The car measures 28' long and 8'6" wide at the edges of the container pedistals. Truck spacing is 20'. It looks really good and low slung on the HOn30 track. I've looked at the drop center container cars that were posted eariler. I may try one of them for the heck of it. So far, I'm scratchbuilding pretty much everything for my railroad, so I can play around with designs. I've got a couple of 28' car floors waiting to be used for something. Maybe some stock cars.
