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Just one of those cr@ppy days when EVERYTHING goes wrong!


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Dear Tim,

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No, the vast majority of railcar trucks are not "bolted on", the body literally just sits on the trucks under it's own weight...

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EG http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/6/3/0/3630.1314459746.jpg

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Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

I remember many moons ago re-railing a Hudson & Manhattan car at the local trolley museum. The power truck had split a switch. We had no jacks that could lift the truck and the car together so we decided we would jack the car body up to take the weight off the truck, being careful not to jack so high that the king pin cleared the truck bolster (health and safety types should probably not be reading this) so that if one of the jacks supporting the car failed, the body would just fall back into place. With the weight of the car off the truck, we would then be able to jack the truck up the three or four inches necessary and slide it back on the rails.

There were just two of us involved in this escapade on a very hot summer day, assisted by about a thousand assorted flies. It took us most of that day and we were exhausted at the end of it.

At one point we discovered in shock that the kingpin was nowhere near as long as we believed it to be and the only thing supporting the car was the jacks. Given that the jacks were sitting in the dirt, there was a good chance of the whole thing going sideways. Badly shaken,Β  we had to very gently but quickly lower the car body a few clicks on the jacks.

Looking back, it probably wasn't the best plan in the world, but when all you have is a few jacks (I think the maximum lift capacity was about 20 tons), some tie plates, assorted pieces of timber and a big tub of grease, you sometimes have to have a bit of faith. If the truck had been attached to the car I have no idea what we would have done.

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