A Train being Loaded on to a Truck

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Some time ago I posted a photo taken with a Zorki to prove that they work and so on.

I've developed the photo's from it and other film and digital cameras into a series showing a train engine, the "City of Truro", being loaded on to a low-loader and then the truck being reversed around in a car park and driving off.

Here's a sample:-

but you'll have to look here

http://idrh.smugmug.com/Trains/Moving-The-City-of-Truro/44973560_7kNDKK#!i=3612497064&k=6jsBnhF

for the entire sequence as there are 32 photo's in all. They can be run as a slideshow, it should be obvious how...

Regards, David

 

[Darthfeeble]

As a retired truck driver, I found the series fascinating. Thanks.

 

[daveleo]

Very interesting series. Thank you.
I can feel the stress in those beams !

What I can't figure out is how the front end of the train bed gets rotated up off the ground. This happens after it's attached to the structure that pivots on the truck, from slides #18-#20. Do you know how that happens?

 

[Pioneer]

Quite an interesting series. Thanks

 

[Solinar]

Would it have been too much to ask that the parking lot be closed to parking on that day?

All and all it was an amazing move - no matter how you look at.

 

[Bill Clark]

The truck is saying, "I think I can, I think I can!"

 

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Thanks for sharing that!
GREAT series that shows 'How did they do that?'.

Daveleo - Look at slide #17 where the tractor is backing up to the trailer. See the big round member on the red part attached to the tractor? That mates to the trailer and when it's tilted up level, the trailer is raised.

I wonder how much that weighs?

 

[citizen99]

Interesting sequence, thank you. I also enjoyed your site generally.

 

[Ronald M]

It is called a locomotive. Attached to rolling stock (cars) it becomes a train.

There is a steam engine built into the locomotive directly connected to the driver wheels. Modern locomotives have a diesel engine known as a prime mover and there are also electric powered locomotives that get power from overhead wires from a device known as a catenary.

These terms are not interchangeable. It is not like the English call an elevator a lift of a cracker a biscuit or a car hood a bonnet.

 

[Spavinaw]

The system of wires, poles, etc. that carries the electricity in the air above the tracks is the catenary. The device attached to the engine that reaches up and contacts the wires is a pantograph. Geometry/physics wise, a rope or chain suspended at two points will swag in the shape of a catenary.

 

[pagpow]

Thanks, David... more clearance than they needed with the parked cars!

 

[David Hughes]

Thanks folks, glad you liked the sequence.

As for the clearance, it levelled the car park by an inch or so in a couple of places.

As for the words used, I worried about it as I know that I don't speak the same version of English as most people reading or looking at the forums. FWIW, I'd describe most of the pictures as showing a (steam) engine in a car park on a low-loader, in front of an engine shed. I've put steam in brackets as to an enthusiast it wouldn't be needed as no one talks about diesels or DMU's.

Anyway, I picked the title I used because I thought it would be understandable to most people. The trouble is that there are too many versions and sub-divisions of English to ever please everyone. FWIW, I get baffled at times reading American English in these forums.

It's like jokes; another area where what is straight forward and understandable to some is baffling to many others. It all depends on who you are talking to and where.

Regards, David

PS Can you imagine what the driver would have said at the merest hint that he couldn't drive/turn/move that thing around in a crowded car park?

 

[wolves3012]

I wonder how much that weighs?

The Loco is claimed to be 56 tonnes, probably another 8-10 for the trailer? You wouldn't want it on your toe!

 

[wolves3012]

Fabulous shots David, very enjoyable. Worth pointing out that City of Truro is claimed (contentiously) to be the first steam loco to reach 100mph (in May 1904).

I see you sneaked in another record-holder, 92203 Black Prince started the heaviest goods train ever recorded in the UK, 2198 tonnes (In September 1982).

 

[rodt16s]

I remember watching the City of Truro being put on a low loader after they removed it from the Swindon Museum.

 

[Robin P]

Always something interesting to see at Toddington, I'm looking forward to being there next week. 🙂
City of Truro seems to do more road miles than most locos, it's always visiting one heritage railway after another. I too remember when it was in the museum at Swindon but am glad it gets the chance to breath fresh air again.
Here it is pulling into Norchard on the Dean Forest Railway four years ago.

 

[rodt16s]

Always something interesting to see at Toddington

I-spy by Redt16s, on Flickr

 

[wolves3012]

....and there are also electric powered locomotives that get power from overhead wires from a device known as a catenary.

Actually, catenary is the term applied to the top (suspending) wire of a pair, the lower one being known as the conductor wire. The whole paraphernalia is called OLE (Overhead Line Equipment). That's for the UK - other countries can have other, similar, terms.

The term catenary comes from the mathematical shape of the hanging wire and can be applied to other things.

 

[David Hughes]

Yup, and I'd have given x and y co-ordinates as I know it as a curve on a graph.

Back to Toddington, we always look in there from time to time when passing* or diverting. It's amazing what you see and the atmosphere there.

Like the Shuttleworth Collection we should arrange a meeting of RFF members there...

Of course, 3717 is also famous as being the last of the City class the rest were withdrawn and broken, weren't they? But obviosly not obsolete.

Regards, David

* On the way to Tywyn f'instance but not on the way to the GCR.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi Folks,

I put the pictures up in the afternoon early this week, by midnight the next day they had clocked up over nine thousands hits. Amazing isn't it?

Regards, David