INDEX

On the main Schnabel page:

On the Schnabel Continuation Page 0:

On the Schnabel Continuation Page 1:

On the Schnabel Continuation Page 2:

On the Schnabel Continuation Page 3:

On this Schnabel Continuation Page 4:

On the Schnabel Continuation Page 5:

On the Schnabel CEBX 800 Page:

On the Road Loads page:

On Road Loads Page 2:

On the Road Loads Page 3:

Something has to lift these giant loads; see Big Cranes.

Jump to SB,III's RAILROAD Page for a goodly set of RR links

  and to SB,III's MODEL RAILROAD Page for a goodly set of model RR links (yea, verily, forsooth!).

Model Schnabel Cars - Continued

The biggest news as of Jan 2006 was that from Dave Allen's Concept Models (see below); Dave had released the giant GEX 80003 drop-center flat car (and mine was on order and came in)!

Dave Allen's Concept Models Schnabel Kits

Dave Allen's Concept Models produces resin kits of several major Schnabel cars, notably the WECX 102/301, WECX 200, HEPX 200 (Ontario Hydro), and GEX 40010, GEX 40013/14, and GEX 40017.

Dave also offers suitable loads for the specific cars, reactors, generators, transformers, and even the Mt. Palomar mirror for the WECX 200!

Here, by Dave's kind permission, are two of his kits and the finished, decorated models of the WECX 310 and the WECX 200:

(pictures courtesy of Concept Models - by permission - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]

(pictures courtesy of Concept Models by - permission - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]

Here's the CEBX 800 development in progress, the pilot model going together, and the parts and parts list for a half-car:

(pictures courtesy of Concept Models - by permission - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]

Next we see two views of the first decorated half-car (decals are included in the kit):

(picture courtesy of Concept Models - by permission - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed picture; click on image for larger picture]

(pictures courtesy of Concept Models - by permission - all rights reserved)

- the CEBX 800 car is equipped with 38" wheels; modelers can order the proper wheelsets (to fit Dave's truck frames) from Northwest Short Lines as 38" (110mm wheel width) weathered nickel silver wheelsets with pointed axles (4 sets per pack), NWSL 37136-4 (Walthers p/n 53-371364).  You'll need eleven (11) packs, plus another for spare trucks on the support flats, if you so choose (I did).

Also, as Dave does not furnish a tow bar for running light, I made up a drawing for that:

(01/17 Jan 06 drawing by and © 2006 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image; click on drawing for larger image]

(31 Jan 06 drawing by and © 2006 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
{on background cropped from P. Robitaille photo}
[Thumbnailed image; click on drawing for larger image]

I also got my first package of NWSL 38" wheels today (31 Jan 06), so I fitted three of Dave's truck frames (raw) with a pair of the new NWSL 38" wheelsets, a pair of Kadee 36" wheelsets (from my mock-up), and a pair of Athearn 33" wheelsets (originally from the trucks used on the mock-up and which I'll use on GEX 80003); see for yourself how silly the 33"-ers look:

(31 Jan 06 photo by and © 2006 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)

Here's a doctored crop from an Orazio photo of CEBX 800 with a caboose coupled directly that shows the difference quite clearly, even allowing for the distortion of a shallow-angle telephoto shot:

(crop from Orazio photo doctored by SB,III 31 Mar 08 - all rights reserved)

Should you N-scalers have a hankering for such at 1:160, Mark Runyan, Elgin Locomotive Works, makes a simpy-stunning N-scale CEBX 800 Schnabel car in resin and etched brass - see Schnabel car models on page 2.   (18 Apr 2012)

The GEX 80003 drop-center flat car (the largest in the world) is the one that was off-loading a GE generator when the Jumbo heavy-lift ship Stellamare turned over as the load overswung in the port of Albany, New York on 09 Dec 2003 (with a loss of three Russian crewmen)^@.  Dave's model kit is now available (and mine is in and fab!); here's the first fit-up and the resultant model (which runs on standard 33" wheels):

(pictures courtesy of Concept Models - by permission - all rights reserved)

@ - WRONG!   See below.

(photo courtesy of SRT - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image; click on drawing for larger image]

Bachmann has announced (ca. Nov 2011) a weird (and expensive) Schnabel car model in HO in three color schemes which is supposedly a 380-ton car with 32-axles.  It appears to be a variant on the Krupp-built CEBX 800 with only 16 trucks and doesn't match the Krupp 32-axle German/Czech or Russian 500-tonners, either.  The three versions are:   (01 Dec 2011)

80503 - Red & Black with Gray Load and Silver Trucks

(pictures courtesy of Bachmann - all rights reserved)

These "North American style" abortions measure 25½" long (CEBX 800 is 39" in HO) and sell for "only" $250!  They feature 16 sets of 125-ton roller-bearing trucks with "prototypically correct" 36" metal wheels (CEBX 800 rides on 38" wheels in white trucks)!  If I'm right and these are a farce, what an enormous amount of work which could just as easily have resulted in an accurate CEBX 800 (somewhat akin to Tyco's "GG1" on B-B diesel trucks).

AHA!  They ARE a farce as far as North America goes but are based on a legitimate prototype, the Chinese 32-axle 380-ton Qiqihar Railway Rolling Stock Group type D38.  Bachmann took an existing Chinese model and doctored it with American trucks, couplers, and decoration.   (02 Dec 2011)

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See also More SCHNABEL (and other Giant Cars) MODELS and (yet) More SCHNABEL (and other Giant Cars) MODELS.
(02 Feb 2012)

Additions to this list are always welcome.

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Incidentally, Weeks Marine's huge 750-ton #533 floating crane both picked up the Stellamare and loaded similar 308-ton GE generators on/off GEX 80003:

[Photos courtesy of Weeks Marine, Inc., by permission - all rights reserved]
(Click on thumbnailed images for larger pictures]

Here's a cropped enlargement of the car alone:

[Cropped enlargement of photo courtesy of Weeks Marine, Inc., by permission - all rights reserved]
(Click on thumbnailed image for larger picture]

Are those guys on the ropes gonna hold back 300+ tons?  Note that the shed housing the off-setting gear is off (left end).

Whoa!  I'm wrong, here!  That's clearly NOT GEX 80003 (16 axles instead of 20)!
It appears to be GEX 80000 (or maybe 80002); I'll have to get back to you on this.

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Nisco Steel Move in China

    (moved here from Cont. Page 3 on 08 Dec 2005)

Here are two that are new to me; Brian Cooper sent me these views of the move of two 350 metric tonne roll housings for the 3.5m plate steckel mill at the Nisco Steel Works in Nanjing in central China (a steckel mill reduces steel plate from 300mm (12") cast slabs down to 4mm (¼") for ship plate, structural steels and pipe stock.  The housings were cast and machined by China First Heavy Engineering company in northeast China and were supposedly delivered by two Schnabel cars designed and detailed by Siemens VAI in Sheffield, UK [with my uninformed captions]:

(photos courtesy of B. Cooper - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]
Trackwork (that'll get your hydraulics working!) / Shop Truck {automotively speaking}

That truck sure looks like what's left of an old WWII British artillery tractor to my untutored eye; it runs on an old single-cylinder engine from a dump truck (must have been quite a dump truck!).

Arrival of housing / Coming alongside the shop
{Clearly NOT a Schnabel car; appears to have the housing inside}

(photos courtesy of B. Cooper - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]
Easing into the shop / Unloading
Now, THAT is a Schnabel!
{I would suggest that the crated item shown is one of the rolls, NOT the housing}

Only one little problem, unless I misread the photos; one car is clearly a Schnabel whil(e)(st) the other is clearly either a gigantic well flat or even a through-well flat (more of an enormous, stretched out, multi-trucked gondola, with or without a floor).

Brian sent along four more shots of the Nisco operation; they are not Schnabel car photos but do give an impression of the sheer size of the housing and the clever jury-rigging the Chinese utilize to keep costs down (especially the rigging of a ceiling beam in the last picture):

(photos courtesy of B. Cooper - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed pictures; click on images for larger pictures]
In the Doorway / Touchdown / Dropping the Housing / Rigging (on a shoestring)
{indoor photos artificially lightened}

Clever, these Chinese!

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I'm NOT depressed, just feeling flat, sort of like I'm in a well,
as if my center had dropped, through, heavy,
split and loaded down - too much on my plate.
I need to shift my load and inch through, if my plate has clearance.
Only joking!

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Look also at the main schnabel page, et seq.

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You may wish to visit the Railroad Continuation Page, et seq.

of this series of Railroad pages.

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LEGACY

  What happens to all this when I DIE or (heaven forfend!) lose interest?  See LEGACY.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

See Copyright Notice on primary home page.

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THUMBS UP!

THUMBS UP!  -  Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!

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Contact S. Berliner, III

(Junk and unsigned e-mail and blind telephone messages will NOT be answered)

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of this series of Schnabel Railroad Car pages.

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© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 2005, 2008, 2011, 2012  - all rights reserved.

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