I forget if we have a running thread about freight car loads. I know we got a thread about freight car colors and weathering and the like.
Many of you have probably seen the modern day trains hauling 737 fuselages for Boeing. (They even have their doors on!) (Oops, did I say that out loud?) In fact, a few years ago a derailment dumped several fuselages into a river.
“A 1945 image of a Sturmtiger and Maus captured by the Soviets, on their way to Kubinka for further examination. This Maus was a combination of a hull and turret from two separate vehicles in order to create a single “complete” example. The combined weight of just these two vehicles is 280 tons - equal to more than 9 Shermans”.
Royal Navy X-51 Class Midget submarine HMS Stickleback railroad transport
The X-51 Stickleback was one of four X-Class boats built between 1954-55. Although built for a proposed Cold-War mission, the operation was ultimately cancelled. On 15th July 1958, HMS Stickleback was loaned to Sweden and re-named Spiggen. After being decommissioned in 1977, she spent several years at the Imperial War Museum, before returning home to the Scottish Submarine Centre in 2016.
Back in 1988 I was riding with a truck driver and I had fallen asleep. When I woke up we were stopped for a train at a crossing and it looked something like this.
A Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engine on a rail car, waiting to be taken to Lakeland Electric’s new power plant :
Each of Lakeland Electric’s six new RICE engines manufactured by German-based MAN are approximately 21-feet tall-by 43-feet long and weigh approximately 310 tons.
On a side note, one of them derailed in October 2023 :
Those nuclear cask cars look like daleks from Doctor Who.
Glad you found that LCI photo. I have some HO LCIs that I’ll be reviewing soon and just today was contemplating putting them on a flat car, wondering what kind of cribbing and support was used.
The excavator on the flatcar can climb from one open top gondola freight car to another one, but needs a ramp to get on top of the first gondola. They use the excavator to load/unlaod ties. The gondolas have been removed for loading or unloading or the excavator is being moved to another worksite. If you see the combination flatcar with ramps and open top gondolas it is more clear (from Reddit)
