towing

It's not a matter of how much you can tow. It's a matter of how much you can safely tow and control. The answer to that would be, *Not Much,* with a grocery hauler.

Without at least 3.31 rear and the Tow Package, it's not rated to tow anything. That said, pulling straight ahead with enough weight in the bed to keep it from spinning, you can probably tow a couple of empty freight cars down the siding.

With the 3.31 rear and towing package, it would only be rated to tow 4800#

Tom J

Does tire size count for anything when rating towing?

I found a "car pusher" in a store room once. :) The wood handle was shaped like a sovel handle only instead of being ~1+1/2" in diameter it was more like 2+1/2". There was a steel collar too and at the end was something that I can only describe as two steel pads that had an "action" in between them sort of like the leverage/action added to "aviation" tin snips.

Anyway, it was pretty tough to start but once the intial movement was made the you kept the movement going with a quick "jack handle" movement. It had to be fast because you wedged it back in there between the wheel and the rail and then "spread" while it was tight.

The "car pusher" was for "hand spotting of cars" the Mesa Agent said.

There was all kinds of cool old stuff in there it was supposed to have all gone to a railroad museum in Mesa AZ.

That was the early 70's and the agent said they lost the key to that store room in the mid 50's. I needed it to store my signal stuff since the track department wanted my tool-house for their motor-car after their tool-house burned down. :)

The fire was "blamed on kids, wink". You know how that goes right?

Alvin in AZ

Alvin, you can actually get that boxcar with 80,000# in it moving just by pushing on it by hand. We used to do it the quick way using a large screwdriver of a small crowbar. Once set in motion, they keep on rolling. What a set of wheel bearings they have.

Tyrone, did you work for the railroad?

I know that question wasn't directed at me, but:

I worked on a Ballast Cleaner about a million years ago, for Conrail.

Spdloader

Nope, but we shipped a lot of construction materials via rail and sometimes had to jockey cars up and down the siding, as the railroad hardly ever spotted the boxcar where our trucks could get next to them to unload.

Cool. :)

Never heard of it... but could that also be called a "ballast regulator"? They used to tear out my "track connections" and break my "iron bootlegs". :)

Alvin in AZ (Sufferin Pacific)

Could be, but like our "pickle fork" conversation, probably just a regional thing The machine was built by Loram, out of Hamel, Mn. It had 30 buckets each side, and scarifiers that would definitely tear out ties, connections, or whatever else the unaware operator hit. It ran an average of 18 hours a day, at an average speed of 3mph.

Later,

Spdloader

30 buckets? Nope I don't think it's the same the ballast regulator had a broom on the front. The broom straws were old brake hoses with a ~1" diameter solid rubber insert to help stiffen them up but the brake hose was what took the abrasion. On the back it had a wide plow that stretched out to the toe path on each side but could be folded when needed for bridges with hand rails, signals etc.

The brush would get the track connections ever once in a while but it was the "tie tamper" (that almost always worked and traveled with the ballast regulator) was the one that'd crush the "iron bootlegs" and make me have to get out the pick and shovel. ;)

To turn the ballast regulator around... it had a powered hydralic jack with a large base, you'd jack it up and slowly spin it around by hand. Crazy dangged stuff on the railroad huh? :)

Alvin in AZ

The machine consisted of :

1. Engine, 2 K-18 Cummins turning generators to power the trucks.

1. Digger Car, had two digger wheels with the 3- buckets, picked up the ballast, dumped it in shakers, deposited ballast back onto track / ties, and dumped dirt off to the side in the right of way.

2. Shaper / Broom car, has two, man driven brushes cleaning off the ties and shaping the ballast,

1. Water car, for keeping the dust of the operation down.

Yep, crazy stuff on the railroad. The worst was you could be cleaning, making good time, then every time an "AmCrash" train comes by you have to shut down that side of the machine. I don't miss it.

Later,

Spdloader