What is a Trackmobile rail car mover?

A Trackmobile is a specific brand of rail car movers. Rail car movers are vehicles equipped with sets of both steel rail wheels and rubber tired road wheels. This arrangement allows the vehicle to move cars along the rail lines, as well as travel on surface roads and through fields. Trackmobile Rail Car Movers allow operators to literally "drive" to a location and mount the rails, lower the rail wheels and raise the road wheels, and couple to rail cars.

Trackmobile, Inc. is the worldwide market leader in the rail car moving industry, producing a product that, since its inception in 1950, has managed to capture nearly 80% of currently fielded rail car systems.

(Source: Trackmobile, Inc. website. Another good article about rail car movers is in Wikipedia.)

Where are Trackmobile rail car movers used?

Trackmobile units are used all over the world. More than 10,000 of their car movers have been put into service in 54 countries.

They're used in virtually every industry you can think of, due to their low cost of operation and high maneuverability in small spaces. Some of the "modelable" industries you might want to consider are discussed in Steve Bennett's excellent article elsewhere on this site, "Modelling Industrial Narrow Gauge Railways." Many facilties in these industries also were served by standard-gauge trains and used rail car movers to shunt cars within their works.

And of course, railroads across the world use rail movers to shunt cars when a locomotive is unavailable. Facilities where railcars are used include locomotive service depots, car repair shops (see Scrapbook #73 for a good example), tie (sleeper) production facilties, ballast plants, passenger-car (carriage) maintenance and cleaning facilties, commissaries, car-sorting yards, and many others. Prof Klyzlr suggests, for tank car lovers, a look at UTLX's tank car repair activities.

Applications for a model layout that features a Trackmobile car mover are limited only by your imagination... let it roam!

About the Factory Direct Trackmobile Model

In April 2008, Factory Direct Trains began shipping a mass-market-priced model of a Trackmobile... the unit pictured on these pages. Factory Direct even has an entertaining video of the model in action. The website also shows views of the Trackmobile from all sides. Because this model is extremely compact yet powerful for its size, it is a perfect motive-power unit for a micro layout.

A Trackmobile model arrived in Pittsburgh early in April, and Carl Arendt put it through its paces. It performed remarkably well, considerably better than one might expect from such a tiny model. There's a video on YouTube showing parts of those slow-speed tests (like all model locomotives, the Trackmobile performs best on clean track!).

As a result of those tests, Carl decided to sponsor a competition for micro layouts designed to take advantage of the Trackmobile's unique size and capabilities. Contest Rules are published here. Note that Overland Models has for several years offered a similar Trackmobile model, currently listed as "Sold Out." The Overland model is also acceptable as motive power for your layout design.

Note that you do NOT need to buy either model to design a layout for this contest! We're giving you all the relevant information that we can think of that you might need in your design (see below). If you use this material as your design guide, your layout will be a potential winner!

Let's begin with the Trackmobile model's dimensions.

Length over couplers: 63mm / 2-7/16in
Width: 37mm / 1-7/16in
Height above rail: 42mm / 1-5/8in
Wheelbase: 40mm / 1-9/16in.

Note that the model has only one coupler, a Kadee #58 mounted at the rear. Several modelers have noted that it is not difficult to remove the dummy coupler and rail from the front of the model (as at left) and replace with a Kadee coupler. Shown (right) is the result of a 20-minute experiment by "Thumbs" Arendt, replacing the dummy with a #42 Kadee coupler (with overset shank) mounted in a cut-down #5 draft-gear box. It has not yet been painted yellow and will probably be replaced by a shorter-shanked coupler. (If others have done a neater job on this coupler conversion, please let Carl know—the email address is at the bottom of this page—and we'll add your notes to this Information Page.)

As this is an easy conversion, you may assume there are couplers at both ends of the Trackmobile used on your layout design, if you wish. However, note that some layout designs may be based on creative methods for reversing the TM in order to compensate for the single coupler, and these designs will be of great value for those who do not wish to alter their models. For further mechanical details there is an excellent tear-down of the Trackmobile posted by Robby Forsstrom at his website.

The model is quite heavy for its size, tipping the scales at 3.9 ounces (110 grams). This weight undoubtedly helps its remarkable pulling power. Reports from users indicate the Trackmobile can pull from 4 to 7 full-sized HO cars weighing 3 or 4 ounces each! In Carl's tests, the model easily pulled and pushed four 40-foot HO boxcars at a scale walking pace. Maximum speed at full throttle was roughly 18 miles per hour (29 kmph).

Note however that pulling capacity is drastically reduced on a grade. In fact, when the Trackmobile pushing four cars encountered a hill, it spun wheels and could not even begin climbing the grade. It's probably safe to assume no more than a single-car capacity for an uphill push or pull.

As far as curve radius is concerned, the advertised minimum is 10in (25.4cm). However, experiments have demonstrated that the model by itself will navigate comfortably around the 6in curves commonly used in micro layouts (below left).

   

However, none of our four-axled (double-bogied) cars would make it around the 6in radius without derailing, not even 40ft cars with truck-mounted (bogie-mounted) couplers. But a rake of three Bachmann On30 four-wheeled V-skips had no problem negotiating the sharp curves behind a Trackmobile (above right). So ultra-sharp curves on your layout design may limit your rolling stock to four-wheeled wagons or cars (fortunately there are lots of prototypes for these in specific applications, especially in Britain and on the European continent).

Finally, we come to the question of siding capacities. It's particularly important to know the dimensions of locomotives and cars when calculating the lengths of head shunts (yard leads) and the like. So here are the appropriate dimensions for a Trackmobile (TM) plus one freight car of various common lengths. Dimensions given are lengths over couplers for the coupled pairs.

In general, adding 10 feet to car length (or subtracting 10 feet) adds or removes 1-3/8in (3.5cm). Although these dimensions are given for U.S. rollling stock, cars from anywhere in the world could be substituted. Simply measure your stock and add the TM length given above. These data should help you design a layout that will adequately hold the rolling stock you're planning to use!

If you have any more questions about the Trackmobile or the contest, write to Carl Arendt at . Questions that generate additional information will be posted at the bottom of this page throughout the contest period.

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Additional information

(1 May) Hans van der Linden, from Eindhoven, The Netherlands, points out that the Wikipedia article referenced above contains a set of links, several of which lead to some good ideas for layout themes. In particular, he was taken with the link to the Italian rail car mover maker, Zephir.

(7 May) Brian Collins, from Utica, New York USA, found several useful films about Trackmobiles on YouTube. "Trackmobile in Action shows the trackmobile driving up to a grade crossing, moving into position over the rails, lowering itself and coupling to a hopper car. There is also a Trackmobile sales film from 1973 called Something Different for Railroad Fanatics touting the advantages of operating a Trackmobile. It explains how the Trackmobile works including using the weight of the cars to increase its tractive effort. There are other videos too, just do a search for 'Trackmobile'."

(8 May) Robby Forsstrom describes how he mounted a Kadee coupler to the front of his Trackmobile, as illustrated at his website. "I removed the stock plastic dummy coupler and drilled a #50-something hole horizontally in the end of the chassis. Sorry, can't remember the exact drill bit number offhand, but it was just big enough to allow the installation of a modified Kadee #58 coupler in the end of the model. I removed the normal mounting ring on the end of the coupler shank, filed the shank round, inserted it in the hole securing it with a generous amount of CA, then painted the coupler yellow to match the model.

"I know this installation method may present a problem for mini layouts due to a lack of side-to-side play for the coupler in conjunction with the extreme sharpness of the curves, but for my needs on a large club layout I didn't need to worry about that issue. I think our sharpest curve radius is in the high 20s [inches], and there is enough play in the normal coupler on an attached freight car to manage." (Photo by Robby Forsstrom)

(10 May) Carl Arendt notes: Model Railroader magazine's current issue (June 2008) has a two-page review of the Factory Direct Trackmobile on pages 86-87. It adds little new information but does have a reiteration of some of the extensive Factory Direct DCC instructions, noting that the system works very well. MR found that the model can move six HO boxcars on level track. They confirmed our finding that wheel slip prevents the little hauler from taking those cars up even a 1% grade. Top speed using their DCC control system was 14 mph (22.5 kph).

(16 May) 'Shortliner' Jack Trollope points out a photographic sequence on Trainorders.com that shows a Trackmobile-like unit shunting cars at an industry in Iowa USA. Viewing requires a short wait to see thumbnails of the sequence, and a fee to see the full sized photos.

(25 May) Bart Bakker proposes a simple solution to a pesky problem. "The Trackmobile is fine, but I find its blisterpack a nuisance to use. So I made a cheap and simple storage from the square kitchen ventilation duct that i use for making cassettes (duct is 5 x 11 cms).

- Cut a piece to length
- Slice it in half
- Glue a piece of track in one half
- Glue a piece of foam in the other
- Insert the Trackmobile
- Put the halves together
- Secure it with a piece of velcro.

5 minutes work." Voilà!

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