Well this is certainly an interesting photo of something I've never seen before.
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| Posted by Dana M. on March 31, 2014 | |
"Ballasted to weigh 66 tons." So Steve the boxcars were filled with rocks? Again, "There's a prototype for everything!" Let's see some boxcars like this on a few model club layouts! I'd love to tell a "rivet counter" (every club has one, am I right guys?) who says: "What's that? That doesn't look like something that ran on railroads!" then go to a computer and pull up this photo, look at the "rivet counter" and just say: "There's PROOF! Now leave me alone and let me play with my TOY train!"
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^Dana knows.
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| Posted by on March 31, 2014 | |
Believe it or not, a cut of these cars still sits at Keith yard today!
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| Posted by Andrew on March 31, 2014 | |
Sorry to ask again, but what do we have here? How accurate was it that they weighed 66 tons, and if so, why?
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| Posted by on April 4, 2014 | |
Because, Andrew, stenciling on the side of that first car said Lt. wt. 47,800 lbs., gross weight 133,600 lbs. and on the other side of the door a stencil read "ballast added, do not remove."
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I agree and like the boxcar modeling idea....just trying to imagine maybe dripping birthday-cake candle wax to create "HO icicles!" Kinda' tough in the tunnels!
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| Posted by Dana M. on February 15, 2015 | |
To reply to Andrew - the reason for these cars to weigh 66-tons was to prevent them from derailing in a tunnel due to hitting any "massive" or very big size icicles in the tunnels that would cause a light-weight car to "shudder" from the impact and possibly derail. A 66-ton boxcar is rather heavy enough to knock down any size icicle in a tunnel and not even "blink" or derail. Don't forget - it gets VERY cold in mountainous regions and icicles in tunnels can get rather large - so large as to damage locomotives, and once knocked off the tunnel roof and fallen on the track - big enough to derail a train if the weight of the car isn't heavy enough. A 66-ton car is heavy enough to even crush an icicle on the tracks.
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