Trailer Features

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NP317
Posts: 4557
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: Trailer Features

Post by NP317 »

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:
Bulge2.JPG
LTire Bubble 4-29-11.JPG
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
RedTrain at McGrawPlaza2011.jpg
RedTrain at McGrawPlaza2011.jpg (28.41 KiB) Viewed 7112 times
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Fender
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Location: Chattanooga TN

Post by Fender »

I think I rode on that monorail in 1962 during the Worlds Fair!
Dan Watson
Chattanooga, TN
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NP317
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Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re:

Post by NP317 »

Fender wrote: Tue Oct 02, 2018 8:53 pm I think I rode on that monorail in 1962 during the Worlds Fair!
So did I.
The perfect illustration that we never know what Life will serve up to us.
~RN
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10KPete
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Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2015 5:29 pm
Location: Nordland, WA, USA

Re: Trailer Features

Post by 10KPete »

My wife was there!

Pete
Just tryin'
hoppercar
Posts: 616
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2018 4:09 pm

Re: Trailer Features

Post by hoppercar »

Isn't talking about trailers and vehicles in the wrong chaski chat site ?
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Fender
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Joined: Wed May 02, 2007 8:33 pm
Location: Chattanooga TN

Re: Trailer Features

Post by Fender »

Kind of like a message in a bottle: you never know to whence the conversation will drift...
Dan Watson
Chattanooga, TN
Pontiacguy1
Posts: 1566
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:15 am
Location: Tennessee, USA

Re: Trailer Features

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

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.
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shayloco
Posts: 264
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2003 11:00 am
Location: Rhode Island

Re: Trailer Features

Post by shayloco »

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.
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kenrinc
Posts: 708
Joined: Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:11 pm
Location: SF Bay Area

Re: Trailer Features

Post by kenrinc »

This thread was helpful to me when I was outfitting my trailer for hauling trains:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=99905

Ken-
Jerry_H
Posts: 241
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:39 pm
Location: Central FL

Re: Trailer Features

Post by Jerry_H »

NP327

When was this tire change-out?

Jerry
www.chaski.com
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NP317
Posts: 4557
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: Trailer Features

Post by NP317 »

Jerry:
The Seattle Center Monorail got new feet during 2012-14, approximately.
~RN
Jerry_H
Posts: 241
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:39 pm
Location: Central FL

Re: Trailer Features

Post by Jerry_H »

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
www.chaski.com
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