Sunday, February 25, 2024

a 1950s Whiting Trackmobile... how have I never seen one of these ever? How about that, 17 years of blogging about wheeled things, a lifetime of being interested in wheeled things, and this is the first I've ever seen a Trackmobile



Dave emailed to say:

What this is is a machine to move rail cars that are dropped at a siding in a manufacturing facility or warehouse. 
They are owned by the company that unloads the contents of the rail cars. 
The rubber tires are to get the unit off the rails so the rail cars can be delivered or retrieved.
 Typically a 3 cylinder diesel engine powering a hydraulic pump for hydro static drive for both sets of wheels, the steering and moving the rubber tires up and down.

That got me looking online for more... and using Google Image Search, a very useful tool for finding similar things to what you're curious about, I learned that this is a 1950s Whiting Trackmobile. 


Set the speed of the video setting to 2X, it's a very slow video

Trackmobiles are a cross between a airport tug and a tractor, and are built by the Whiting Corporation. Other companies under other trade names build similar machines. They are capable of moving a handful of cars on the rails and then moving themselves by road to another location to move some more cars.




https://www.ebay.com/itm/312726906781
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4 comments:

  1. rlk12:18 AM

    This is most likely an industrial mule, a device industry X would use to move rail cars around it’s property. The business would save the cost of having a railroad come in to make the moves. “Switch fees” are not cheap. An additional benefit would be the industry saves gobs of time not having to wait for a local switch job.

    It appears as if the front wheels pivot forward and down individually on this rig, and I’m guessing the rear is equipped with an axle that does likewise. How they would get the cab off the platform is a mystery though.

    I’m guessing the sawmill device is also a mule, much improvised it would appear. Notice the battering ram in front...the plate is perfectly aligned for giving a rail car a nudge or two against the knuckle.

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  2. rlk12:35 PM

    Thanks for your extra effort to clarify. Now I can lay down at night without the trouble of pondering the mystery.

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    Replies
    1. Jesse1:46 PM

      you're sure welcome. This is a blog for me sharing what I learn, and darn it, asking about what I don't know! As there is about 200 years of wheeled mechanical vehicles that are all over the planet, and I'm still learning about things in my own county! My own state!
      When it comes to learning, decades of immersion in a topic of study are only a good start, and only have educated me slightly above the majority of the people in my country, just on this one topic, but there are an endless number of people who know far more about any one specific thing in the category of "wheeled vehicles" (like you RLK) and somehow, some of them have found my blog and help me learn a LOT more.

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    2. Jesse1:46 PM

      I sure do wish I could find some website similar to mine that has an endless amount of content like mine, so I could just read for months and never need to leave that one site.

      Delete