Strange Train Prototypes

[airtime]

Just three from me...

Joe Airtime

[Midland]

I recognise that first one; it's an LNER Gresley A1/4...

Or maybe that should be .25 for all you new maths kids...



Cheers

25% of Nix

[whistlehead]

The first looks to me like a run-of-the-mill experimental streamlined loco, the second one is a narrow gauge steam loco, temporarily adapted for Standard gauge rails, and the third is probably a steam railmotor.

[Thomas_The_Tank100]

Originally Posted by airtime

Its a Japanese Steam loco.
The rail gauge is spaced close together (i.e. 3'6" gauge)
The coach behind the loco is of Japanese origin.
I'm not so sure how successful it was, as I can't find the loco's class number.
I've also seen a picture of a scale model in the Railway Museum at Omiya, Japan.
~TTT_100~

[bendorsey]

The Dora and Gustav were 80 cm - not mm (80 mm is only 3.15 inches). 80 cm is roughly 32 inches. There was a third but it never made it out of the Krupp Iron Works before it was bombed. One was used at the siege of Sevastpol in the Crimea. The other at the siege of Lenningrad (or was it Stalingrad. I always get the two mixed up). Took a month to erect on parallel curving tracks (for lateral aiming). Rate of fire was two rounds per hour. Not very efficient but if you were on the receiving end of one of its 9 ton shells it wouldn't matter much. Plans are available tho I can't offhand remember where. Its been a while and I think the link was on the DLS before the great server crash. Be an interesting (and challenging) thing to model.

I have a few railguns on the DLS and have plans for several more German and American ones but all are World War 1 vintage. I make one every once in a while (when I get tired of making bridges, lol).

Ben

[magickmaker]

I think amazingmike has the diesel locomotives used with the railgun somewhere.

[teddytoot]

Airtime's third loco is the 600hp Armstrong Whitworth 1-C-1 diesel hydraulic locomotive supplied to the 5ft 6in gauge Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway in 1929.

[UP5521]

That first picture of a steam engine looks really odd,in fact I don't really know if I can call that a steam locomotive or something else!

[UP5521]

Now this keeps getting weirder and weirder by the minute I stare at that second picture!

[simulatortrain]

Oh, wow Klinger! Since people have been discussing this before and nothing had ever come of it, I was considering making this one somewhere down the road. Will I be texturing it, or are you going to learn? (By the way, I'm sending my computer back this weekend so I should get it back by the end of the month hopefully. Sorry for the delay on 537 and 21.)

[burbri45]

A Utah-Idaho Central boxcar...with a headlight!
here
Why on earth would it have one?

[Ronayne]

Originally Posted by American_Connections

It's threads like this that make comin here worth while! Love your idea!

Heres a good one. No joke and apperantly I worked too!
Gives me an idea to build something like this for trainz, just for fun.

I do believe that is a "monorail". I read about it in a book. That must be a work car.

[teddytoot]

That is the Brennan monorail car built in England in 1909. A generator driven by a Wolseley 80hp engine was used to power two gyroscopes (referred to as gyrostats) which gave it its stability. It was technically successful but did not progress further because of limitations such as you could not have trailers (how would they balance ). A similar but smaller gyro car was the Scheil gyro-car demonstrated at the Berlin zoo.

Wolseley also built a two wheeled gyro car on the same principle for a Russian Count for his narrow paths on his estate. World War 1 prevented delivery and it was eventually buried.

An interesting and slightly disturbing point about these gyro vehicles. Because of the way a gyroscope reacts, if you step onto the vehicle it will rise up slightly rather than dip down as you would expect.

EDIT I see looking back I have actually answered this before when the original appeared. I am definitely getting senile!

[simulatortrain]

Originally Posted by burbri45

A Utah-Idaho Central boxcar...with a headlight!
here
Why on earth would it have one?

Well it also has a trolley pole and a smokestack, so it could have another purpose. Probably not powered, but it could be some kind of MOW car using electricity to power something.

Or it could have been used as the lead car for something, hence the headlight, and the trolley pole to trip grade crossing sensors. Pacific Electric had some diesel switchers with trolley poles on for that reason.

[UP5521]

Hmm,that really is strange unless they really wanted them to have such equipment on them!