Engine Repair Shop

[NMWTRR]

Have not posted in awhile as I have been working on a repair shop for my locomotives.

http://s902.photobucket.com/albums/ac226/nmwtrr/Engine%20Repair%20shop/

I am sure others have built some really awesome engine shops, engine houses, and round houses.

I am trying to figure out how to add a Walthers overhead traveling crane.

Any one else want to share photos and help us all get ideas?

Thanks
NMWTRR

[Jim Banner]

Do you want the crane entirely inside the locomotive shop or do you want it to extend outside the shop as well?  Once the crane lifts the body off a diesel or the boiler off a steamer, it has to put it somewhere.  If the shop is long enough, the crane can put the body in front of or behind the rest of the locomotive.  If it is a small shop, it can run it out the door and leave it outside.  With your door so close to the turntable, you would need to add a back door so that the crane could run out back instead.

The girders of the crane are the 10 sections that look like bridge sides.  There are 5 on each side and the bridge of the crane runs on top of them.  The girders usually run parallel to the tracks in a small locomotive shop to reduce the height of the roof but in a large shop, they may run perpendicular to the tracks to keep the bridge down to a reasonably length.  Looking at the Walthers ad, the girders look long enough to run them  through the shop and out the back too if you want to do it that way.

With two tracks in the locomotive shop, there is another option if the crane bridge is wide enough or your want to make it wide enough.  That is to lift the body off the locomotive sitting on one track and set it over on the other track.  If the other track is going to be needed, you might even drop the body on a flat car and store it outside.

Again looking at the Walthers ad, you will notice that the girders sit on top of posts that take the weight.  Also notice that the posts each have an angle brace extending down to the ground.  These braces keep the whole thing from tipping over sideways.  Inside a building, the girders most likely would be right next to the outside wall and sitting on masonry pilasters.  The pilasters along with the walls would both support and help brace the crane.  If the crane was an afterthought, the walls of the building would likely be too light to brace the crane so there may be pilasters or buttresses outside the walls too.  These would line up with the pilasters inside the building.  Alternately, the crane could be built like an outdoor crane with the girders sitting on steel posts and braced by steel braces passing through the walls to the ground outside.  With the various additional shops clustered around the main shop, outside braces could be a bit tricky to locate but the Walters crane looks long enough that you could vary the lengths of the girders so that the posts and braces would still line up with the girder ends and not have to pass through the added shops.  If I were doing the job, I would most likely support the girders inside the building on pilasters made up from strips of styrene and then extend the girders out the back using the steel posts and braces as provided in the kit.

You may have a problem getting enough height inside the building for the crane.  Making the crane lower is easy - just cut a bit off the posts and braces.  You might also consider removing the shed on top of the bridge.  The lift works (motor, gears, cable drum etc.) do not require protection on an indoor crane and even if yours were built to run outside from time to time, it could still spend almost all its time indoors.  As a last resort, you could always add a concrete foundation around the bottoms of the buildings but that is a lot of work.

I assume you will be able to see over the turntable and into the front doors of the locomotive shop.  May I suggest another detail that exists in most (all?) locomotive shops but is rarely modeled?  That is the service pit.  The ones I have seen are about 5 feet deep and the full width between the rails.  There are no ties under the rails - they are bolted to the concrete floor.  In some cases, there are a few round rods between the rails to keep them from spreading but they are few and far between.  The pits generally run almost the full length of the tracks inside the locomotive shop and often have stairs at both ends.  An alternate arrangement is to run the pits the full length of the locomotive shop and have a side entrance or two with stairs down.  Where the rails cross over the side entrances they are supported on lengths of I-beam.  If you remove the ties from the track, you can glue the rails to strips of styrene laid next to the pits.  Either Goo or ACC would be a good choice.  Use an NMRA wheel and track gauge to properly gauge the track or take a truck off a freight car and use that.  Styrene about 1/16" thick will raise the rails to about the right height.  And if anyone asks why it is there, just tell him the guy who designed the pit was also a mechanic.  He was tired of water running off wet locomotives and down into the pit so he included a concrete rim to help keep the water out.  If he still wants to argue, remind him of the two rules of model railroading - (1) This is my railroad.  (2) In case of any disputes or disagreements, refer to rule 1.  Personally, I think he will be so busy admiring your locomotive shop with its crane and pit, he will be speechless.

Jim

[jward]

can't say how it's done elsewhere, but since jim mentioned having a place to put locomotive hoods.....

the former pennsy juniata shop, in altoona, ps. places the locomotive hoods on flatcars. i don't know whether they are removed inside the shop building or out, but they are stored on the radial tracks by the turntable until needed.

i have had the good fortune to be inside the locomotive shops at cumberland, md (b&o) and conway, pa (prr).......one of the features of the interior shop tracks is an inspection pit between the rails where men can perform work on the underside of locomotives without having to crawl under them. there are also platforms even with the locomotive walkways on some tracks. at cumberland, there is an overhead crane inside the building that is often used to move locomotives by hooking onto the end and dragging them. conway has a wheel lathe which can reprofile locomotive wheels without removing them from the truck. both locations also have "drop tables" where a locomotive wheelset can be lowered from under the locomotive and slid out. the replacement wheelset is then loaded onto the drop table, slid back under the locomotive and raised into position.

[NMWTRR]

Thanks Jim and Jward for the great info on Engine shops.

Regarding the crane, I think I am going extend the main supports out to the walls. I am going to use some truss from a bridge kit for the supports. Not the stock supports. Also it won't go outside the main doors as you pointed out not enough room with turntable right there.

It is very close to the ceiling and in the real world that would make it difficult to lift because you can't get it high enough to clear things.

I really like the idea of moving the boiler or shell over to a flat car. That will make a really interesting load. Finally a use for those old engine shells!

Lastly on the pit, I actually did add a small one as you can see from this latest photo. Not large enough for much work but at least its there.


http://s902.photobucket.com/albums/ac226/nmwtrr/Engine%20Repair%20shop/?action=view&current=DSCN0432.jpg