Trolley sand motor

[bparrish]

Well gents..........


It's the first cool day here in downtown Idaho so it is time for a new fall / winter project.


The NMRA national is in Salt Lake this next year as it is 150 years since the completion of the trans con RR.


As with any project..... if you are going to build something for judging and contest, that decision has to be made at the outset.  It cannot be dolled up later and compete well.


I found these photos of a sand motor in a Chicago Surface Lines book and decided that I can do this ! ! !

Curiously..... there are only two photos of these cars, motor R 201 and motor R 202 and they are both taken of the same side of the car.  So I have to rather guess what the other side looks like.

The motors were built by the Chicago City Railway in 1911 and re-lettered for the Chicago Surface Lines in 1914.  Both were retired at the same time, June 18, 1953.  The winter of 1952-53 was the last winter for the trolleys.  Almost all street rail equipment was retired by 1954.   The sub frames and motors were taken from withdrawn from service equipment.  Chicago did not use four wheeled cars for passenger service for very long as it brought too many complaints from passengers as too rough riding.


The motors carried 10 cubic yards and the sand was distributed by a small fleet of these types of motors to the various car barns around the city.  The sand was used by the passenger and maintenance equipment when the rails became icy.  Like a sand blaster today, the tank was pressurized and the sand was blown into the sand bins at the various barns.  There is no record of what pressure it required but it is evident that each motor had an electric driven compressor.




I've gathered up what parts I already have in hand and started on the two motorman's shacks.  I'm building them with styrene as I have never done much with that medium.  It cuts easily and I use Tennax for a liquid glue.  It goes off really fast and does not stink up the place.



I will be using an old Tenshodo power truck that they called a Spud.  There will be space in the sand tank for a decoder.  I will be making this up to run of two rail power source so the pole will be kept down.

The side frames are really old Red Ball castings that will need to be modified.



I built the tank some years ago and I'm not sure I like it enough to use so I may build a new one that is closer to the photos.  I've had a lot of practice of using brass since I built the Falk locomotive three years ago.

Here is a close up of the start of the motormen's shacks.



More later
see ya
Bob

[GPdemayo]

Unique piece of equipment Bob.....neat choice for the contest. 

[Oldguy]

Cool work motor.  Have you seen this page - https://thetrolleydodger.com/2015/09/05/chicago-surface-lines-work-cars-part-1/  If you scroll down about 3/4s down the page it has, what looks like the other side of R201.

[bparrish]

Bob....


Thanx...


I had not found that page.  This IS in fact the other side.  It does reveal a few things that I had only before to speculate on.

Below is a work flat that I built two of about 8 years ago.  It is at the top of the page you sent me to.

again thanx
Bob

[NEMMRRC]

This one should place well in the show. Great work.


Jaime