[Stumpy]

I was reading about railway guns recently and decided I needed to build a railway gun train.

Baldwin Locomotive Works delivered five 14"/50 caliber railway guns on trains for the United States Navy during April and May 1918. Each 14"/50 gun mounted on a 72-foot, 535,000-pound ) rail carriage with four 6-wheel bogies was under the command of a United States Navy lieutenant with a standard U.S. Army 2-8-0 locomotive, a 10-ton crane car, two armored ammunition cars carrying 25 shells each, two cars carrying the recoil pit foundation materials, two fuel and workshop cars, three berthing cars, a kitchen car, a commissary car, and a medical dispensary car. After delivery by ship, these trains were assembled in St. Nazaire in August and fired a total of 782 shells during 25 days on the Western Front at ranges between 27 and 36 kilometres (30,000 and 39,000 yd). Each 14-inch projectile weighed 1,400 pounds and was fired at 2,800 feet per second. The railway carriages could elevate the guns to 43 degrees, but elevations over 15 degrees required excavation of a pit with room for the gun to recoil and structural steel shoring foundations to prevent caving of the pit sides from recoil forces absorbed by the surrounding soil. The trains moved cautiously because axle loading under the gun barrels was 50,330 pounds (22.83 t) while French railways were designed for a maximum of 39,000 pounds (18 t). These axle journals overheated at speeds of more than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) per hour. After reaching its intended firing site and constructing the recoil pit, each gun could fire about two shells per hour.

https://www.navalhistory.org/2015/10/15/navy-on-the-western-front-the-14-railway-guns-in-wwi

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/14"/50_caliber_railway_gun

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So I bought a lot of "Army" rolling stock that had two of the big guns and a lot of 3 Pennsy passenger cars that were junk off fleabay. So far I have about $10 + freight invested in my USN Railway Gun kit bash. Some old-time box & passenger cars along with a derrick car kit will make up the rest of the consist.

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[LateStarter]

All the equipment on military trains I see these days, and IIRC during WWII, were tarped over.

 

[Stumpy]

That should be easy to do, then.

 

[Chip]

"Bang for your buck" trick, take thin cloth, cut to "tarp" size wet it, cover a tank, spray with glue when it dries, set it on a flatcar WALLA! Another "tarped Tank"

 

[Riggzie]

"Bang for your buck" trick, take thin cloth, cut to "tarp" size wet it, cover a tank, spray with glue when it dries, set it on a flatcar WALLA! Another "tarped Tank"

wow... good idea...

 

[tiger]

Neat idea.

For a real challenge, try replicating "The Paris Gun". Might need a big layout...

 

[QueenoftheGN]

Neat idea.

For a real challenge, try replicating "The Paris Gun". Might need a big layout...

whoa... that is kinda gigantic..

 

[Old_Hobo]

 

[MichaelE]

All the equipment on military trains I see these days, and IIRC during WWII, were tarped over.

Or loaded in specialty containers. They were never placed right out in the open. Guns, or missiles.

 

[Stumpy]

Last time we were at the NC Transportation Museum a train was passing on the main line with dozens of flat cars carrying military vehicles right out in the open.

Tanks, Bradleys, APCs, Humvees, deuce and a halfs (halves?), you name it... not a tarp in sight.

Can't say what they did when moving a railway gun in WW1. Can't remember back that far.

Looks like Rivarossi at one time made a version of the K5 railway gun.

 

[MichaelE]

The public (or enemy spies) is not likely to be as interested in tanks and Humvee's as would missiles or large field guns attract their attention.

 

[Andreash]

As a kid, their was a toy company called COX....they had a military train that used that Rail gun, and a boxcar that the sides came down with big machine guns. I dreamed about that set in my youth. Tyco had I believe the same type of military set.

 

[nxn]

Max range of 42000 yards at firing angle of 43 deg would give HO scale range of 481 yards or N scale range of 262 yards. No need to model all the intervening terrain, you could just model the impact blast crater in a separate layout

Dave

 

[Stumpy]

The public (or enemy spies) is not likely to be as interested in tanks and Humvee's as would missiles or large field guns attract their attention.

The budget office deemed that rooting out all spies and executing them would be cheaper than tarps. So it is done.

 

[Stumpy]

As a kid, their was a toy company called COX....they had a military train that used that Rail gun, and a boxcar that the sides came down with big machine guns. I dreamed about that set in my youth. Tyco had I believe the same type of military set.

One of the gun cars that was in the lot was in a Cox box. Got a .50 cal. car too, but not the boxcar.

 

[prrfan]

View attachment 525644

Lol. That was good! Thanks.

 

[Eilif]

I think that AHM and then later Model Power took over the Cox Tooling. Until the recent sale of much of MP's tooling to Lionel, these classics had been in near-continuous production (or at least periodic re-release) for many years. Big Gun, Missile Launcher, Exploding boxcar, boxcar with hidden guns, searchlight car, tanks on flat, etc. I've got most of these. My interests have mostly moved on, but they are fun to have and about half of them are from my childhood.

They're still easily available on Ebay and of course fairly common at shows.

What I'm wondering is whether if Lionel is successful with their current HO offerings they will proceed to reissue these cars too. It's not much a leap to assume that those who buy their current line of vintage toy'ish style HO (basically an HO version of their classic 0-27) would be interested in toy military HO trains too. Their current line even includes some military themed cars.

 

[BigGRacing]

Did you ever finish the railway gun Stumpy ?

 

[Stumpy]

No. Another shelved project.

Funny you ask. I ran across all of the cars/parts in a storage box about a day before you posted.

 

[BigGRacing]

Would be an interesting project for sure, I was a gunner in the Navy