Several years ago, in a moment of madness, I bought a couple of 'pairs' of Graham Farish's FIAs, like these:
(http://www.ehattons.com/images/products/377-350A_1.jpg)
I really don't know what I was thinking. I have a small container yard on one of my Japanese layouts, but have no desire for one on a British layout. Maybe the idea was to run them on the club layout. Who knows! Anyway, recently I toyed with the idea of selling them. And then I spotted a photo in 'Wagon recognition' by Martin Buck and Mark Rawlinson, of them with 'cradles' for carrying slabs of steel. The 'cradles' seem to be welded up from 'I' beams. Hunting around the www, I've seen a fair few photos of them unloaded, like this:
(http://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailRollingstock/F/FIA-intermodal-flats-Sfggmrrss/i-VJGKT5z/0/XL/FIA_33704938331-4_Ashford_270707a-XL.jpg)
But I haven't found any photos of them loaded. Does anyone have any more information on this adaptation of these wagons please? I could imagine me scratchbuilding enough cradles for my couple of sets, to add to the stock for the steel-works/steel stockholders layout that's gestating in my brain at the moment, and which may well follow my nuclear flask terminal. If someone with skill at the 3-D modelling job was feeling like it though, they might make a nice little Shapeways project?
That would be a really easy one to 3D print.
Have a play on Sketchup and Shapways, it would be a great starter to have a go with.
You can probably work out the dimensions from your model.
Alistair
Thanks. Having had a play, Sketchup doesn't seem so bad; I've used CAD software in the past and this is much easier. I think I'll have a go, at some point in the nearish future, and see if I can design the cradle thing, with walls thick enough to 3-D model, whilst striving to make it look reasonably 'in scale'.
Looking at the photo it looks as though the I-beam will be far too thin for Shapeways. Personally I would try fabricating out of Evergreen or similar I-beam.
Cheers, Mike
I was thinking much the same - you'd want to make a jig if making several but it shouldn't be too hard as you can glue the cross pieces onto the beams along the wagon then trim them to the edges of the beam and then stick the ends on.
The verticals probably need to be wire to take handling much.
Alan
Yes, Evergreen or Plastruct, or both - they make a variety of sizes between them. I'd probably make up a cutting jig and another for assembly. You're right that the uprights would be too weak if plastic - but I do have some thin rectangular brass strip - IIRC it's 0.4 x 0.8 mm, and 0.8 x 1.6 mm - either of which might do the job.
I was thinking about loads for these, and other steel wagons. For these wagons, presumably, they can carry as much steel as the weight of a fully loaded ISO container (30,040 kg?) - taking into account the weight of the cradles of course.
BAAs, have, I believe a maximum gross weight of 100t - are BBAs the same?
What I don't know, is just how much steel a typical wagon can carry, and what sizes the billets/slabs are? Steel is fairly dense - about 8,000 kg/m3, so it isn't going to be a lot, volume-wise. I can get a bit of an idea from photos, but not really enough detail in terms of sizes to do a decent job of making loads. Any help gratefully received!
They seem to vary by train quite a lot.
Best bet is to look at video footage of Newport (Gwent) and you'll get a good picture of the stuff that clangs through including rakes with runners to space the axles and keep the loading suitable for bridges on some paths.
The slab loads are not very high on the wagons.
Alan
Slightly odd choice of wagon I'd have thought if dense steel products are involved. Freight axle loads go up to 25.5 tonnes in the UK, hence 100 tonnes gross loaded weight on a bogie wagon, but small wheels can't take such heavy axle loads and this one was probably only desgned for the maximum load of a container which is quoted above as 30 tonnes (presumably including the container itself). Is it for some sort of steel coil which is mostly air?
Quote from: edwin_m on June 27, 2013, 07:25:08 PM
Slightly odd choice of wagon I'd have thought if dense steel products are involved. Freight axle loads go up to 25.5 tonnes in the UK, hence 100 tonnes gross loaded weight on a bogie wagon, but small wheels can't take such heavy axle loads and this one was probably only desgned for the maximum load of a container which is quoted above as 30 tonnes (presumably including the container itself). Is it for some sort of steel coil which is mostly air?
Those cradles aren't very big. You could probably fit a 20' x 2' x 1' slab on each cradle. 40 cubic feet is 1.13 m
3. Steel is about 8 tonnes per cubic metre, so a slab like that is about 9 tonnes. Put one on each cradle and you're well under the load limit.
That was really my point. By using a wagon designed for the job each one could probably carry several times the amount of steel.
slightly off topic, but didn't Chris have some of these on Old Warren TMD ?