Derailment - crash bars

[Chris Hollands]

OHHHH s-----t bars , maybe I should install those bars - wish I had those bars - thank god I had those bars
to name just a few

[Harlock]

I made skid plates for the Chloe and the MEG. They generally don't de-rail unless a switch has not been reset properly and I don't catch it in time before rolling over it and splitting it. That has happened a few times, the last time at train mountain and I bent a superscale cylinder cock on the MEG. Since those are worth more than gold now, I made a plate to protect them. If you paint the skid plate flat black usually it's invisible once on the track.

[Chris Hollands]

As the first effort was so popular I changed things quite a bit .

I made them 3" wider to 15" / 380 mm they overlap the drains by 1" / 25mm and made the front one part of the pilot mount and not on the front truck anymore .

I think the end result is a better out come , thanks for the input from Fred and co .

[Builder01]

Seems like that should protect a bit better.

David

[k36no4862002]

Chris,
They look very smart it's usually a bit of rough old angle that I have on my loco.

As you may know I'm also building a Challenger and whilst I'm no way as advanced through the job as you are I do have a rolling chassis. 1 thing I have also wondered was A crash bars but also how I'm going to get it back on the rails.

I have seen the plate things that drop on the track that you can drive over and that would work in some cases. But most derailments happen on points and the plates are not always an option, so I was wondering what if the divers on the rear engine derailed? Usually with most engines we can drop off the tender and use bars to lift and move the engine over to get it back on the rails, but it's no so easy with a Challenger, especially with the drivers on the rear section.
I dont have an answer for this but I was wondering if you had thought about this? I like he idea of using the crash bars as lifting points as they seem to work Ok on my K36 but the Challenger is not a fixed frame loco that can be rerailed by simply lifting the front and then the rear to get it on the rails.

Ideas?
Paul

[mbrusso39]

Good thread Chris. Paul, FYI and BTW, my challenger boiler has 4 lifting lugs (goldmann’s design). I recall the late Bruce Hamilton mentioning the lifting lugs that were on his 1.6 scale C&O #614 Greenbriar boiler and said that a small portable crane would lift the engine in a derailment...i wondered how this would work for the challenger and figured I would strap (nylon tie down) the smokebox to the frame to keep it from breaking the hold downs on the slide mount.

[mbrusso39]

Chris, how the heck did you get that engine upside down??

[Builder01]

Chris, how the heck did you get that engine upside down??

(It derailed?! HA!)

David

[Chris Hollands]

I use lots of chain falls , I have 4 chain falls on a I beam .

2 on each side of the frames and lift on 2 and drop on the other 2 , position the rigging so it rolls the frame , pretty smooth and controlled .