| Posted by wi joe on January 3, 2021 | |
Now thats some crazy stuff
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What were the plusses and minuses? Sharp radius,,,yes? Traction...no? Visibility...yes? Power...no? Were the wheels steel or rubber? Gasoline engine? One of a kind? Length of service? Sorry for all the questions but this one is for the books, very bizarre.
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Well from simple observation, and the description. It was electric, dual traction motors on hard rubber wheels. No need for out track to move around rolling stock. The ability to take any path to get to or from destination. A guess with the 400 series number it is 400hp. With hard rubber wheels having a coefficient of static friction at around 50%, so somewhere in the 4,000-6000Lb tractive effort.
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Anthony,
Thanks so much for this photo! And thanks to all who continue to post comments that educate us on this specific topic. The extended PRR symbol on the boxcar is cool by itself, but the tiny "loco" and the street run are insanely cool to see!
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I wonder how hard it was to turn?
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The Baltimore & Ohio had a somewhat similar "critter" that serviced that same part of Baltimore. The neighborhood really hasn't changed very much and some of the tracks can still be seen in the streets. Some of the curves were amazingly tight.
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http://prr.railfan.net/RubberTiredSwitchers.html
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Would it be safe to assume the groove down the center of the wheel treads would be to ride rails that were not imbedded in the street?
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Jim, the PRR keystone doesn't really stand out from the car side. The black "shadow" is painted on. PRR used this "shadow-keystone" logo for many years on all types of equipment. It looked particularly good on their GG1 electrics.
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| Posted by Kibu on January 19, 2021 | |
These had some interesting features.The wheels were solid steel, with dual thin rubber tyres on them. They had a split up the middle of the tyre. That way, the driver could line it up on the rails, and basically let the rails steer it for the most part. They also didn't have steering wheels, but instead had a large wheel like you'd find on a ship. This actually replaced an old Shay locomotive that Pensy had. The shay was a "dummy" type where everything was sheathed in a kind of carbody.
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