Stronach-Dutton Road-rail tractor

Hugh Norwood · September 30, 2016, 13:41

I have a low voltage controller :)

Hugh Norwood · February 27, 2018, 14:59

Stronach-Dutton Road-rail Tractor by H Norwood, on Flickr

The Stronach-Dutton system has remained on the back-burner for moths, as I was looking for a better model to try out the system on. Fortunately, I acquired a Keil Kraft of the 1924 Atkinson

danny · February 27, 2018, 18:34

That looks very nice. Does this mean you are going back to the original concept of driving the road wheels rather than the Portram bogie?
Danny

Jeff Schumaker · February 27, 2018, 19:40

Very nicely done, Hugh. I'm looking forward to see what you come up with next.

Jeff S.

danny · February 27, 2018, 23:20

Just a thought - could anything from (for example) the Faller car system be converted for this?
Danny

Graeme Dunbar · February 28, 2018, 09:58

That looks really good, and some nifty lateral thinking!

Hugh Norwood · February 28, 2018, 10:28

Quote from: danny on February 27, 2018, 18:34
That looks very nice. Does this mean you are going back to the original concept of driving the road wheels rather than the Portram bogie?
Danny

Indeed.

Hugh Norwood · March 05, 2018, 10:21

A brief update.... it has crew and a load (to add weight)

Stronach-Dutton Road-rail Tractor by H Norwood, on Flickr

danny · March 05, 2018, 10:31

Looking good. Are you planning to haul any stock behind it?
Danny

danny · March 05, 2018, 14:46

In a similar vein there's this: http://www.tramz.com/br/rj/vj/vj.html
Danny

Hugh Norwood · March 05, 2018, 20:18

That really is weird. But... it works

Hugh Norwood · March 05, 2018, 20:24

I do not know how much it would be capable of pulling - and of course it would probably have to do it like the prototype did; using a drawbar connected to the rail-bogie and going under the chassis, supported by a castor near the far end to prevent it dragging on the ground!

danny · March 06, 2018, 00:45

Quote from: hughn on March 05, 2018, 20:18
That really is weird. But... it works

I'm not too sure what purpose the rail serves on that other than as guidance. It doesn't seem to be particularly weight bearing and when a trailer is hauled it's just a normal road trailer, removing the reasons why the Stronach-Dutton system uses rails. It is petrol powered so it's not a power rail. Have you used the model on any very steep gradients as seen on the prototype?
Danny

clayliner · March 08, 2018, 20:09

Quote from: danny on March 05, 2018, 14:46
In a similar vein there's this: http://www.tramz.com/br/rj/vj/vj.html
Danny

Yes, really quite bonkers, and the centre rail hardly seems necessary. That guy Allen Morrison seems to know everything there is to know about trams in Brazil! Many parts of the city are/were inaccessible by road, especially the favelas high up on the hillsides (though I suspect that Santa Teresa is a bit more upmarket), but the city have built a number of cable cars to help residents access the main parts of the city and so help integrate the favelas into the city. These cable cars are free for residents to use, but still cheap for tourists, and give amazing views over the city's rooftops.

David.

P.S. Are those gas cylinders on the roof, or beer kegs?

danny · March 08, 2018, 23:31

Quote from: clayliner on March 08, 2018, 20:09
P.S. Are those gas cylinders on the roof, or beer kegs?

I'm not too sure what they are or what they're for and I don't want to take the thread too far off topic. It seems to have been rebuilt into a slightly weirder form: http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/05/91/25/30_big.jpg
Apparently it does have 24 hour service though! Quite tempted to do a model but I'd probably need a larger scale to make it work.
Danny