Trailer Features
Re: Trailer Features
Tire story:
While I was the Maintenance Manager for the Seattle Center Monorail System, we had to deal with main load tires (semi-truck sized) being down-graded to a lower DOT spec.
And there were no replacement sizes made due to being European metric in size.
Here are pictures of what we had to endure: Yes, that's a basket-ball-sized bulge!
The solution was to engineer new wheels that would use modern truck-sized radial tires. Since the original manufacturer (ALWEG) was no longer in existence, we had to test the tires as the new "Monorail Manufacturer.' That entailed 1 million miles of start/stop testing on automated test rigs in Minnesota! We broke (actually destroyed it!) the test rig once, but eventually got it done. It took two years, but we were finally able to replace the 32 wheels/tires (plus spares) on both Monorail trains, and saw tire life-times increase by a factor of 10!
That led to other problems: Every time the load tire were replaced we lubed the bogie drive mechanisms. Now those systems required lubrication before the tires get replaced!
Unintended consequences.
And that does not include the issue of HOW those tires got replaced! Thats another difficult story.
And yet, those 56 year-old Monorails remain the USA's ONLY public-owned transit system that operates at a profit for tax payers.
Go Monorails!
And steam locomotives...
~RN
While I was the Maintenance Manager for the Seattle Center Monorail System, we had to deal with main load tires (semi-truck sized) being down-graded to a lower DOT spec.
And there were no replacement sizes made due to being European metric in size.
Here are pictures of what we had to endure: Yes, that's a basket-ball-sized bulge!
The solution was to engineer new wheels that would use modern truck-sized radial tires. Since the original manufacturer (ALWEG) was no longer in existence, we had to test the tires as the new "Monorail Manufacturer.' That entailed 1 million miles of start/stop testing on automated test rigs in Minnesota! We broke (actually destroyed it!) the test rig once, but eventually got it done. It took two years, but we were finally able to replace the 32 wheels/tires (plus spares) on both Monorail trains, and saw tire life-times increase by a factor of 10!
That led to other problems: Every time the load tire were replaced we lubed the bogie drive mechanisms. Now those systems required lubrication before the tires get replaced!
Unintended consequences.
And that does not include the issue of HOW those tires got replaced! Thats another difficult story.
And yet, those 56 year-old Monorails remain the USA's ONLY public-owned transit system that operates at a profit for tax payers.
Go Monorails!
And steam locomotives...
~RN
Re: Trailer Features
Isn't talking about trailers and vehicles in the wrong chaski chat site ?
Re: Trailer Features
Kind of like a message in a bottle: you never know to whence the conversation will drift...
Dan Watson
Chattanooga, TN
Chattanooga, TN
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- Posts: 1572
- Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:15 am
- Location: Tennessee, USA
Re: Trailer Features
You have to get your trains to the track somehow. If you are in 3/4" scale or smaller, you can probably transport them in the trunk of your car. A lot of people transport their trains in the back of their pickup. But if you have a large 1 1/2" scale, or even larger scale, locomotive and more than just a few cars, you'll need a trailer to transport them in. That's something that a lot of us in the hobby have to deal with so I don't think it is out-of-bounds at all.
Re: Trailer Features
This thread was very timely for me. I just bought a 7x16 trailer with vee nose along with some e-track. I would have ordered a short height trailer but the comments and photos here convinced me to stay with standard height. This thread was in exactly the right place or I may have missed it. Thanks to all who posted comments and links.
Re: Trailer Features
This thread was helpful to me when I was outfitting my trailer for hauling trains:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=99905
Ken-
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=99905
Ken-
Re: Trailer Features
Jerry:
The Seattle Center Monorail got new feet during 2012-14, approximately.
~RN
The Seattle Center Monorail got new feet during 2012-14, approximately.
~RN
Re: Trailer Features
Just curious. Michelin makes the tire for the Mk-6 monorail at Disney World. With the straight up and down suspension as opposed to the weird angled one on the Mk-4 they get tremendously improved milage out of them.
Jerrry
Jerrry
www.chaski.com