Cape gauge rolling stock

[keiichi77]

Hey guys, while reading on the Cape Gauge Newfoundland Railway I noticed that the longest piece of rolling stock was about 65'. With the Japanese Cape Gauge lines the longest piece of equipment is in the 60 to 65 foot range.  What I was wondering is does anyone know of longer equipment (like say an 89' flatcar) being used on any Cape gauge railway in the world? If not, then why not? In the case of the NFLD Railway curves we simply way to sharp, but Japan's Cape Gauge lines seem to be built to Standard Gauge standards. Any info are ideas why would be appreciated. ;)

 

Jason

[KenS]

Long freight cars put more weight on the axles.  It's probably track loading (and concerns about track wear) that keep freight cars in Japan from being longer, rather than curvature.  I don't know of any normal freight cars longer than about 20m (65 feet).

 

I do, however, know of a longer freight car. Much longer in fact.  The SHIKI 500 is a depressed-center flatcar of 26.07m (85.5 feet) length (Japanese, photo).  The SHIKI 700 is a 28-axle "Schnabel" flatcar (the ends separate and clamp to a load between them, like a large tank or transformer), and without a load the total length was 38.49m (126 feet), loaded it could be 47.84m (157 feet) long (Japanese, photo). But those would have only been used in special trains, probably creeping along at extreme low speed when loaded.

[Triplex]

What are the maximum axle loads in Japan now? I don't recall any of their steam getting up to 20 metric tons, so it was lighter than that of Britain and Europe, or heavy freight-carrying 3'6" lines like in South Africa.

 

Incidentally, Japanese passenger cars (and many other Cape gauge passenger cars) are similar in length to European standard gauge. Most of the world's railways don't have rigid equipment as long as North America.

[westfalen]

The European Orient Express cars ran in Japan on 3'6" bogies.