Railway (railroad? rail car?) mortars

[Cat Whisperer]

With the trend of us making replicas of mortars in mini, milli, micro, nano, pico and femto scales, I got to thinking, "where does HO gage fit in?"

I haven't seen any threads here on rail transported mortars!

Surely there must be some good pictures out there!

Cannonmn, post a picture of a railroad mortar that you HAVE in your collection!

 

[cannonmn]

None!  Have cast iron model of 13 in. Dictator type model that I think was made by Fort Pitt foundry, but no rail car under it!  There's also a very large, heavy "folk art" blackpowder railway gun of some kind, but it isn't a mortar.

[GGaskill]

Just for the record, HO scale is 1:87, so a scale 13" mortar would have a bore of just over 1/8".

The large scale trains are either 1:29 or 1:20, the latter being of 3' gauge prototype.

[lance]

Tim, does the reason for this topic have something to do with the train tracks running through your town

[Cat Whisperer]

Tim, does the reason for this topic have something to do with the train tracks running through your town

Maybe.  More likely the train tracks through my mind.

In WWII (OFF topic) the Germans had a number of different and BIG cannons 800, 900 and 1000 mm bore diameters mounted on train cars (some that took dual train tracks to support and a crew of over 1000).  When I was in OCS I had an instructor that was a 'powder man' on one of them at the time we bombed it.

So, having seen SOMEWHERE a picture of a mortar (could have been the Dictator) on a rail car being moved, I was curious what the history of moving and USING mortars on rail cars was early on (ON topic).

[GGaskill]

Probably the best known mortar of the Civil War had a railroad connection, the Dictator, seen here is its archetypical image.


Its mobile platform is typically described as a "reinforced flatcar" implying that a standard railroad car was reinforced for its use.  However, the image clearly shows a special car with inside bearing axles spaced as close together as possible.  The deck appears to be a standard mortar platform with perhaps a extension on the forward side, here holding a small pile of shells and a bucket.

[KABAR2]

 
Well I guess it depends which scale you want to make and how detailed or how much money you want to spent..........





There are several large scales that would work and trucks are available.....
But I think you would have to build them your self to be correct as to era.

http://www.oneinchrr.com/cattoc.htm



http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/A-forsalepages.htm

Its all a matter of how big or small you want to get! 

This last link is a little off topic.... but shows what can happen if your project gets out of hand!
Go all the way through his build it's worth the look! 

http://www.vonabt.co.uk/models/Dora/index.html

[Evil Dog]

Oh my gawd.... not THAT is one serious model !!!!!

[Double D]

 
http://www.vonabt.co.uk/models/Dora/index.html

Not impressed, it's wooden and doesn't make smoke or fire,  When Mike and Terry build theirs it will make smoke and fire...okay so I am impressed, but  M&T's will still make smoke and fire!!!

[GGaskill]

While looking for a larger view of the cannon on railroad mount image above, I found the George Eastman House Online Photography Collection which has lots of pix.  This is another online source in addition to the Denver Public Library Western Collection.

Might be good references to add to the Reference section.

[seacoastartillery]

     Finally found it.  This version is large enough to show quite a bit of detail on the railroad carriage, itself.  Looks like a 30 pounder Parrott, but it's very hard to tell with this rear view.  It does not have the almost full hemisphere breech of the 100 or 200 pounder Parrott.  The link below is a very good one for civil war photos in general and specifically this railroad gun.

Regards,

Tracy and Mike
                                                              http://www.old-picture.com/civil-war/Railroad-crew-and-gun.htm

[Cat Whisperer]

T/M -

THANKS  --  Great link! 

I wonder how much action rail based artillery saw in the CW?