Locomotive transport

[squirrel22]

Hello, I am looking for someone to haul a 1 1/2 scale 0-4-0 from Minnesota to California.

[Bill Shields]

put it on a pallet in a box and ship it...

[Glenn Brooks]

Yes, second that. Easily to get a freight consolidator to move a palleted loco... plywood box is excellent practice.

Glenn

[Berkman]

I would be extremely careful of damage. I think there have been several cases of shipping locomotives that have gone wrong. Particularly remember reading about a NYC 4-8-2 mohawk being shipped and having heavy damage.

[NP317]

squirrel22:
Which end of the proposed trip are you at?
Sender or receiver?
RussN

[Harold_V]

I would be extremely careful of damage. I think there have been several cases of shipping locomotives that have gone wrong. Particularly remember reading about a NYC 4-8-2 mohawk being shipped and having heavy damage.

There's always risk in shipping. I had a dreadful experience years ago when I purchased a used three phase transformer, one intended to provide 480 volts for my Overbeck universal grinder. It was a used unit, purchased from eBay. When it arrived it was damaged badly by something heavy having been dropped on the top. Needless to say, I refused delivery, as it was clear that the transformer had been reduced to scrap.

H

[Bill Shields]

In reality..a small loco properly boxed and secured to a pallet is safer than with someone not setup to transport a loco.

Emphasis on properly.

I too have had my share of shipping catastrophics..but as I look back all could have been avoided had the shipping entity been more attentive.

[Greg_Lewis]

There is an article up right now on Discover Live Steam on making a shipping crate for engines and cars:
https://discoverlivesteam.com/2021/09/2 ... le-trains/

[Glenn Brooks]

There are always some stories about shipping disasters, but these days shipping companies move millions of packages every day with no issues. Two things you can do to mitigate damage risk is box it up with standard size plywood crating - no odd ball framing and a proper square pallet. The other big thing is mark the top- do not load. The freight forwarding terminals will all have a plastic conle or two they put on top of risky crates- to prevent the warehouse workers from loading anything on top. Even, an open top crate is sometimes good, as most forklift guys would never load a box on top of a suspect crate. Seems counterproductive to the idea of not building a solid crate, but it works...

These are the tips a warehouse superintendent passed on to me when I got stuck in Pa, a few years ago and had to build a crate for a big 4-4-0 I just bought - in his warehouse...

You can also buy freight insurance that covers your load for the specific trip.

All in all, I would not worry much about freight damage.

Glenn

[FKreider]

I'm going to disagree with everyone saying shipping is a pretty "safe" option.

LTL (Less Than TruckLoad) freight carriers are the absolute worst and this is basically the only option for shipping something like a couple small pallets or crates. These carriers pick up your freight and then bring them to a hub where they are offloaded and then re-loaded onto another truck which transports goods to a general region of the country. At which point your shipment may be offloaded again at another hub and loaded onto the actual local delivery truck. This process leaves a lot of room for mistakes to happen especially when you consider the employee's driving the forklifts around in the hubs are likely minimum wage unskilled labor jobs.

I've had crates show up with forks driven right through the side and into the equipment, I've had crates show up that were clearly knocked over and/or fell of the forks while being moved and I've also had crates show up that clearly state not to stack anything on top of them and they are partially crushed from having other crates put on top of them.

I'm speaking from years of experience dealing with these types of haulers at my day job.

Now... would I still ship something via LTL ? Yes of course I would because its one of the only reasonable ways to ship something bulky and heavy long distance at an affordable cost.

That being said I would absolutely make the shipment bomb-proof. Heavy duty plywood construction with structural members in the corners and maybe even cross bracing. Lots of foam and padded protection for the shipment (in this case a locomotive) so that in the event that the crate is ran into by the forklift and damaged the engine might still be ok (in other words give some space 6"-12" minimum with heavy padding between the item and crate walls.

Lastly - I would suggest and consider trying to find a owner-operator "hotshot" hauler who you can work with and speak with directly. These guys are often a single truck/trailer operation and in many cases they are running a F350 or slightly larger 5th wheel truck with an either open or enclosed trailer. Many of these guys will load up the trailer with motorcycles, antique cars, boats, etc. and move them from say Florida to Ohio or something like that.

UShip is a pretty good website where you can put details about your shipment up and basically put it out to bid and you will usually have several of these small "hotshot" companies offer varying prices to make your delivery happen. In many cases the guy actually driving the truck will be the one responding and maybe even give you his phone numbers so that you can call and discuss details and pricing.

Good luck!

[Bill Shields]

Maybe shippers on the east coast are better than where you live

[FKreider]

Maybe shippers on the east coast are better than where you live

I live in Massachusetts as my profile indicates. If I go much farther east I'll be in Boston harbor.