• Roll-on Roll-off Elevators for Railroad Cars or Locomotives?

    From peterwezeman@hotmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 19 17:53:50 2019
    Has anyone ever used elevators to lift and lower railroad cars or locomotives from one level to another? One would push a railcar or drive a locomotive
    onto a section of track set into the elevator platform, the platform would
    move up or down, and the car or locomotive would be rolled off onto a track
    at the new level. This would seem to be technically feasible; rail cars and locomotives are commonly rolled on and off barges, and fifty years ago
    the Seabee barge carrier ships had elevators of 2,000 ton capacity to lift barges into and out of the water.

    The rail industry does use devices such as transfer tables to handle
    cars and locomotives on sites too small for conventional track and switches
    so I wondered if they had ever used elevators for the same purpose. I have
    been unable to find anything about this in an Google search. I would
    appreciate any information.

    Thank you,

    Peter Wezeman
    anti-social Darwinist

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  • From Charles Ellson@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jan 20 02:50:29 2019
    On Sat, 19 Jan 2019 17:53:50 -0800 (PST), peterwezeman@hotmail.com
    wrote:

    Has anyone ever used elevators to lift and lower railroad cars or locomotives >from one level to another? One would push a railcar or drive a locomotive >onto a section of track set into the elevator platform, the platform would >move up or down, and the car or locomotive would be rolled off onto a track >at the new level. This would seem to be technically feasible; rail cars and >locomotives are commonly rolled on and off barges, and fifty years ago
    the Seabee barge carrier ships had elevators of 2,000 ton capacity to lift >barges into and out of the water.

    The rail industry does use devices such as transfer tables to handle
    cars and locomotives on sites too small for conventional track and switches >so I wondered if they had ever used elevators for the same purpose. I have >been unable to find anything about this in an Google search. I would >appreciate any information.

    http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/b/bishopsgate_goods_station/index1.shtml

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  • From bob@21:1/5 to peterwezeman@hotmail.com on Sun Jan 20 10:31:18 2019
    <peterwezeman@hotmail.com> wrote:
    Has anyone ever used elevators to lift and lower railroad cars or locomotives from one level to another? One would push a railcar or drive a locomotive onto a section of track set into the elevator platform, the platform would move up or down, and the car or locomotive would be rolled off onto a track at the new level. This would seem to be technically feasible; rail cars and locomotives are commonly rolled on and off barges, and fifty years ago
    the Seabee barge carrier ships had elevators of 2,000 ton capacity to lift barges into and out of the water.

    The rail industry does use devices such as transfer tables to handle
    cars and locomotives on sites too small for conventional track and switches so I wondered if they had ever used elevators for the same purpose. I have been unable to find anything about this in an Google search. I would appreciate any information.

    They certainly have been built and operated, although situations where it would be useful aren’t that common. There used to be one at Waterloo
    station in London for getting rolling stock on and off the Waterloo and
    City underground line.

    Robin

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  • From peterwezeman@hotmail.com@21:1/5 to Charles Ellson on Sun Jan 20 12:29:48 2019
    On Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 8:49:13 PM UTC-6, Charles Ellson wrote:
    On Sat, 19 Jan 2019 17:53:50 -0800 (PST), peterwezeman@hotmail.com
    wrote:

    Has anyone ever used elevators to lift and lower railroad cars or locomotives
    from one level to another? One would push a railcar or drive a locomotive >onto a section of track set into the elevator platform, the platform would >move up or down, and the car or locomotive would be rolled off onto a track >at the new level. This would seem to be technically feasible; rail cars and >locomotives are commonly rolled on and off barges, and fifty years ago
    the Seabee barge carrier ships had elevators of 2,000 ton capacity to lift >barges into and out of the water.

    The rail industry does use devices such as transfer tables to handle
    cars and locomotives on sites too small for conventional track and switches >so I wondered if they had ever used elevators for the same purpose. I have >been unable to find anything about this in an Google search. I would >appreciate any information.

    http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/b/bishopsgate_goods_station/index1.shtml

    Thank you for posting this. Seeing from the article that these elevators
    were called "track lifts" or "wagon lifts" I was able find several other references to them. This is the most detailed picture, showing a track
    lift that moves diagonally:

    http://www.norgrove.me.uk/hoist.html

    From various references, steam powered track lifts were in use by
    the 1850's. Some hydraulic track lifts used an accumulator that was
    pressurized by a counterweight, a simple and reliable way to reduce
    the power needed and get some energy recovery. Goods warehouses
    up to seven stories tall used track lifts, turntables, and powered
    capstans to move freight cars around in the upper levels.

    Peter Wezeman
    anti-social Darwinist

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  • From rnetzlof@gmail.com@21:1/5 to peterw...@hotmail.com on Fri Jan 25 17:00:37 2019
    On Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 8:53:51 PM UTC-5, peterw...@hotmail.com wrote:

    Has anyone ever used elevators to lift and lower railroad cars or locomotives from one level to another?

    Many years ago, when Duquesne Light Co. had a big coal fired generating plant on Brunots Island, in the Ohio River west of Pittsburgh, there was an elevator which lowered cars one-by-one from the Ohio Connecting RR bridge to ground level. There, the cars
    were moved on in-plant tracks to the coal receiving yard. Empty cars and cars loaded with ashes went up by the same route.

    I'm not certain of the arrangements "up stairs". I think there was a siding several cars long running parallel to the main track on the bridge.

    Bob Netzlof

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