Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Brick works plant track

I will be installing 2 foot gauge industrial plant track in the brick works for moving materials around the plant such as with the clay dump car and the wet brick rack car.  I debated what to use as the "power" for moving these cars.  I decided that the brick works I am building is too small to justify an industrial locomotive.  I then considered manpower and horse/animal power and decided that was a weak idea.  I have settled on using a rail truck for power.  Not having any kit for this I am scratch building a rail truck.  The rail truck is under construction.

The other requirement is the track.  Since this will be a non-operational rail capability I have decided to build the track from styrene as it will be easier to work with for the tight curves than trying to use metal rail plus I need 2 foot gauge track..    Below is a description of industrial track from an 1893 C W Hunt catalog.


C W Hunt was a major supplier of industrial equipment in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  Their track was supplied with steel ties.  While the catalog does not specify, I suspect the track was sold as sectional pieces.  Note that in addition to switches they provided small track "turntables"for change of direction where switches might take too much space.  The item in the lower right is labeled "special fish joint".  I guess the term fish plates that we use for our model railroads is appropriate.  

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