how about a trail ride for jeeps with railroad wheels??????

1941 - 1945, MB, GPW modifications, sugestions, and ideas, official MWO's and unofficial WWII field mods NO EBAY or COMMERCIAL SALES.
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diamond jim

how about a trail ride for jeeps with railroad wheels??????

Post by diamond jim » Mon May 10, 2004 4:57 pm

i just pickup a set at churchville,for my 42gpw,what do you think,jim


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Mike D
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Post by Mike D » Mon May 10, 2004 5:15 pm

Now this is a cool idea! You have any photos of the wheels and/or how to build them that you can send me? I know of a 30-40 mile shortline at my parents hometown here in Texas I think I might can get permission to run on.

I have been looking for new project. Always have wanted to build a Hand Car or rail bike, this would be way better!
Mike DeWeese
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Post by AndrewCranfield » Tue May 11, 2004 1:12 am

This is a long term ambition of mine as well. The gauge over here in Europe is different to the US, so your wheels are no good for going to Normandy(What am I saying?)

However, you need to lock the steering when on rails. See the book "Jeep "by Emile Becker and Guy Dentzer for drawings on page 291 and 292.

Page 116 of "the standardised wartime jeep" by John Farley has some good pictures of putting a jeep on and off rails.

Has anybody any experience of running jeeps on rails that they could share with us?

Jim, do let us know how you get on.
Yours as ever

Andrew

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Post by David Webb » Tue May 11, 2004 4:28 am

AndrewCranfield wrote:This is a long term ambition of mine as well. The gauge over here in Europe is different to the US, so your wheels are no good for going to Normandy(What am I saying?) .
Andrew, you are wrong on this. Standard guage is the same in USA, UK and most of Europe (and a lot of the rest of the world. The exception is Spain, where they use a wider guage (mostly).
David

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Post by AndrewCranfield » Tue May 11, 2004 4:46 am

David,

I am not a railway espert but I was always led to believe that this was the case. If I am wrong then that is good news indeed and thanks for correcting me.

Am I right in thinking that the Former East German and Russian system is a different gauge as well?
Yours as ever

Andrew

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Post by David Webb » Tue May 11, 2004 5:39 am

Andrew,
Russia is wider, as is Ireland. I think East Germany is standard (they were relatively recently using wartime German steam locos, I believe).There are lots of narrower guages about the world, usually on cheaply built secondary routes. Some in the USA, which might be what you were thinking of.
It would be interesting to see how far your jeep could get once it was through the Channel tunnel.. .. I would guess somewhere in the middle east. The old Orient Express got as far as Istambul.
David

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Post by AndrewCranfield » Tue May 11, 2004 6:14 am

David,

Thanks for that. The mind positively boggles at the thought of gently driving through the channel tunnel and out the other side. What a wonderful idea!
Yours as ever

Andrew

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Post by David Webb » Tue May 11, 2004 8:06 am

I remembered where the site is that tells you how to make RR wheels -

http://webs.lanset.com/buzz/rrjeep.html

David

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Post by Mike D » Tue May 11, 2004 9:04 am

David,
Thanks for posting the link. I remember this page, I just didn't remember where it was. Interesting project for a slow weekend.
Mike DeWeese
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Post by Lee Bishop » Tue May 11, 2004 9:18 am

You should be very careful with that. Putting that Jeep on "some old RR track" is a ten on the "bad idea meter". It's trespassing even if the RR is abandoned, and most RRs will gleefully pay to bury you under the jail to make an example of you. Maybe the best alternative is to hook up with a local group that runs track speeders on RRs with their permission. If there's any local tourist RRs near you, I'd also try talking with them for any special events where a Jeep would be okay.

Narcoa is a nationwide group that would keep you legal. They're a group of track speeder owners and they sponsor events.

http://www.narcoa.org/
They offer insurance, and coordinate runs across the country. My RR club back in Florida owned several speeders and we ran them all the time (they still do). Heck, it's like a Jeep for the rails; no frils, easy to maintain, small and light...

Personally, I'd love to have a set of those wheels as there are several RR museums and tourist operations where I might get permission to run. As you can tell, I'm also a huge train nut!
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Re: how about a trail ride for jeeps with railroad wheels??????

Post by dct » Sat Jan 29, 2011 7:27 am

The Russians used a different gauge as a means of avoiding a railroad-based invasion. Imagine changing the wheel spacing on every car at the border!

Dan

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Re: how about a trail ride for jeeps with railroad wheels??????

Post by M38JEEPER » Tue Feb 01, 2011 2:47 am

Everything is wide in Ireland, make sure to tie on a board, so yah don't get lost!! :roll: :D

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Re: how about a trail ride for jeeps with railroad wheels??????

Post by Desertdog » Wed Feb 09, 2011 8:47 am

Here is two photos of the wheels we made for our friends Jeep at the 2006 Bristol Docks 40s weekend. Martin used GMC rims cut down with the split rim welded in place, he had centers turned up to fit the Jeep wheel stud PCD and welded these into the GMC wheel centres.
As previously mentioned the steering clamp is a must again Martin made one from the drawings in Emiles book.


Image

Image

If anyone needs more info please let me know as we still have the wheels here.

Jim.
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Re: how about a trail ride for jeeps with railroad wheels??????

Post by ElwoodJayBlues » Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:59 am

Very cool!

Could you please post some close up pics of the wheels?

Thanks,

EJB
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Re: how about a trail ride for jeeps with railroad wheels??????

Post by kw573 » Wed Dec 27, 2017 1:54 pm

Hi,
I was just wandering through these very old threads.

I know a couple of guys that did make RR wheels and go on an unused 3'6" out-in-the-country track. They were (stupidly) none-too-discrete and got into trouble over it.

Their wheels were lock-rim type 20" truck rims of any sort, but with a riveted disc. This allowed the rivets to be removed and the disc moved and stitch welded to give an offset (hub face to rim bead lip) of 110mm. And a laser cut centre to match the hub/studs was welded in. I helped make them. They didn't restrain the steering at all (I've seen their finished setup), which allowed fairly easy mount/dismount at a rural level crossing. They did about 15kms.

It worked fine and they had an absolute ball, until the wrong person saw the pictures!

So, it can be done from a practical point of view on that gauge.

My 2cents.
1942 Script GPW (Daily driver).
MB-T trailer.
Diamond T 969. ('The Glorifier')
Diamond T 969, rusty, complete, for sale.
Kenworth M1A1 Heavy Wrecker x 2.
M2A1 white HT. ('Clarrie')
Light Recovery Trailer (Ford?).
3ton GS (Blitz) Trailer.
150gal water tanker trailer.
Air compressor trailer, 100c.f.m.


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