This website has been archived from TrainWeb.org/willsrr to TrainWeb.US/willsrr.
Will's Railroad Projects - Side Dump Ballast Car |
This project started out as a companion project for the Steam Shovel that is in early design stage, but will be finished far in advance of the shovel. When I speak of a side-dump ballast car, I'm not talking about a modern air-dump, but the old 2-axle cars that were the mainstay of construction projects. I've found prototypes at two different facilities, a pair of standard gauge at Camp 6, Point Defiance Park, Tacoma, WA, and a narrow gauge car at the BC Forestry Museum in Duncan.
I've made two trips to Tacoma to take photos and measurements of the standard gauge cars, a friend brought me photos of the cars in Duncan. I've acquired axles for two cars, and am starting to do the formal drawings that will precede bending the archbars.
I'd like to build a train of these, a half-dozen or so, of which the first one will be rough, a proof-of-concept car, to make certain that I get the geometry right for the dumping, hopefully being able to dump a scale car without rolling it with the dump. Sometime in the production run, I'll build one to keep the rivet counters happy, a fine scale model, using appropriate materials and fastenings.
| Will's RR Home | Will's Rambles | Will's Suppliers | Will's Links |
