Video

Excellent Tim !!

Congratulations on your remarkable task. It is outstanding !!!!  Thank you for the video and sharing it with us.

Fast Tracks--- Slow Engine

I actually felt like I was at the yard here in town watching the old switcher setting up cars for the daily Drops at Kraft and White House Fruits. Great Action and that Barge and floating Bridges are really cool Very Nice Tim!!!!

Dan

Car float operations

Tim,

After spending much of the last 10 months stydying car float operations I spotted an inconsistency in your CNJ Bronx Terminal operations video. Now you may be aware of this but I haven't seen any indication of it. I feel that you have ignored the fact that the car float is floating on the water and the weight pf the cars during loading and unloading can tip the car float to the point where they can capsize if one does not carfullu follow the right loading and unloading sequence.

The center track is always loaded first and unloaded last. Why? Because the center track is on the centerline of the barge for the most part and thus the weight of the cars won't affect the balance of the barge in the water. It will sink lower with weight of the cars on the center track but it won't tilt to either side as it will if the outer tracks aren't loaded and unloaded correctly.

The cars on the outer tracks will definitely affect the balance of the car float so you don't want to put a full load of cars on eiter of these outer tracks without having a counter balance on the other track. This is done by using the following procedure for loading those tracks.

Assuming each of teh outer tracks will hold 6 cars, you will push that cut of cars onto the car float so that only three cars on the car float and three on the float bridge and apron. This will cause the car float to list to one side but it won't put so much weight on one side that the car float will capsize. That cut will be left that way and the locomotive and it's idler cars will move to the other track and push the full 6 cars of that cut onto the car float and leave those cars there. Of course they'll have their brakes set and the car floa crew will tie down the cars and place a tie or two across the rails of this track to prevent these cars from moving. The locomotive and its idler cars will then go back to the other track and push that cut of cars fullly onto the car float. Thos cars will be have their brakes set and they'll be tied down similar to the way the cars on theother out track wer tied down and a tie will also be placed across the rails. The center track was laoded first so that track ahs already had it cars tie down and the brakes set as this was the first thing done.

Unloading is basically the reverse of loading. The cut of cars on one of the outer tracks is pulled half-way off of the barge. The cut on the other outer track is then pull off the barge and into the receiving yard. The engine and its odlers then goes back to the other track and pulls that cut completely off the barge and into the receiving yard. The center track is then unloaded and the barge is now ready for loading.

If you are going to display carfloat operations at Hartford, you really need to do it right or you might find a few nitpickers there to make your life difficult. I won't be one of them since I recognize that not everyone understands this as these operations, while they haven't disappeared, occur at most one or two times a day now in the whole of New York Harbor. In the 1920s and 1930s they were a heck of lot more frequent even at the location you are modeling.

Irv

car float question

For reference, I'm not planning at this stage at having anything to do with car floats. However, Irv's comments made me reailze something that was bugging me - no idler car?

I was under the impression that most locomotives needed an idler car when it comes to apron operations.. Is the Box Cab light enough to not need one?