Here’s an 18” gauge spin skip described in blueprints from 1887 The Engineer and 1888 Institute of Mechanical Engineers. The skips were used on the Horwich line in England, but no longer exist.
These skips are (might be?) unique in their multipurpose function, combining the traditional role of a tipper car (with an added "twist") and that of a log or lumber car.
I'll explain. The car rides like a traditional tipper car (I'll show a sequence of photos) and when it is ready to be tipped or loaded, the skip tub swings outward (right or left side), along with its cradle (attached to the body with a pivot).
Coal was the usual load. The skip rested on its own weight in the cradle, with no fancy attachment. It is a simple, but practical design.
The second innovation (the first is the swivel), is that the skip tub can be removed (I have a photo of mine removed), and timber baulks can then be extended between 2 of these skips. IOW, you can put lumber, logs, pipes and other long objects between 2 tippers and since the cradle swivels, it can negotiate curves. Nifty.
So naturally, I needed one of these multiuse cars for my 18" gauge railway.
I selected copper as the material. I've worked with wood and steel but never copper. Except for the scintered iron wheels and the skip tub's 027 rail cradle rest, the entire car is made from copper.
The copper comes from a 1" copper plumbing pipe. At the time, several years ago, I paid $14 for the 10' long pipe. This week, I went to Home Depot and the same pipe is $34!
Anyway, I chucked the pipe in my vice, which has a pipe vice, happily.
I then used my variable tension adjusting hacksaw to make a long longitudinal cut.
Once cut, I used wedges of various sizes to open up the pipe, which I then flattened on my shop press.
Interestingly, the 1" pipe flattens out to 3.25". I didn't check the pi R squared formula so I'm unsure if it computes, but that's the measure. The walls of the copper are 1/16" thick, btw, which translates to just under half an inch thick metal.
I couldn't find my small torches so the entire car was made using a large industrial propane torch, about half of which was sweat-soldered. Pieces were cut with a band saw.
Now for another trick, if you look at the pivot in the drawings, you might wonder what I used. After thinking bolt and nut, I discarded the idea for something more simple. A rivet.
Normally, which you rivet something, it secures the pieces tightly. The trick to getting the 2 pieces of metal to turn is to insert heavy-gauge paper in between the pieces and drill thru the paper. If you fold the paper in 2, for double-thickness, it will spin even more freely. I tested the concept out first on scrap metal.
To then remove the paper, I used a torch to burn it out, but you can use water and twist the pieces and the paper will dissolve and tear away.
I weighed the tipper and it came out to 1.4 pounds.
We have about 3 feet of snow outside so I cleared an area to show the tipper in action.
The sequence is pulling up, then turning the skip tub outboard and dumping. Note that the dump in the fully extended down position does not fall off the cradle.
I made the body of the tipper with a double-layer of copper for added weight and the tub, even when full, remains balanced. The last photo shows the tub removed so pipes or logs can be extended from 1 tip to another.
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These skips are (might be?) unique in their multipurpose function, combining the traditional role of a tipper car (with an added "twist") and that of a log or lumber car.
I'll explain. The car rides like a traditional tipper car (I'll show a sequence of photos) and when it is ready to be tipped or loaded, the skip tub swings outward (right or left side), along with its cradle (attached to the body with a pivot).
Coal was the usual load. The skip rested on its own weight in the cradle, with no fancy attachment. It is a simple, but practical design.
The second innovation (the first is the swivel), is that the skip tub can be removed (I have a photo of mine removed), and timber baulks can then be extended between 2 of these skips. IOW, you can put lumber, logs, pipes and other long objects between 2 tippers and since the cradle swivels, it can negotiate curves. Nifty.
So naturally, I needed one of these multiuse cars for my 18" gauge railway.
I selected copper as the material. I've worked with wood and steel but never copper. Except for the scintered iron wheels and the skip tub's 027 rail cradle rest, the entire car is made from copper.
The copper comes from a 1" copper plumbing pipe. At the time, several years ago, I paid $14 for the 10' long pipe. This week, I went to Home Depot and the same pipe is $34!
Anyway, I chucked the pipe in my vice, which has a pipe vice, happily.
I then used my variable tension adjusting hacksaw to make a long longitudinal cut.
Once cut, I used wedges of various sizes to open up the pipe, which I then flattened on my shop press.
Interestingly, the 1" pipe flattens out to 3.25". I didn't check the pi R squared formula so I'm unsure if it computes, but that's the measure. The walls of the copper are 1/16" thick, btw, which translates to just under half an inch thick metal.
I couldn't find my small torches so the entire car was made using a large industrial propane torch, about half of which was sweat-soldered. Pieces were cut with a band saw.
Now for another trick, if you look at the pivot in the drawings, you might wonder what I used. After thinking bolt and nut, I discarded the idea for something more simple. A rivet.
Normally, which you rivet something, it secures the pieces tightly. The trick to getting the 2 pieces of metal to turn is to insert heavy-gauge paper in between the pieces and drill thru the paper. If you fold the paper in 2, for double-thickness, it will spin even more freely. I tested the concept out first on scrap metal.
To then remove the paper, I used a torch to burn it out, but you can use water and twist the pieces and the paper will dissolve and tear away.
I weighed the tipper and it came out to 1.4 pounds.
We have about 3 feet of snow outside so I cleared an area to show the tipper in action.
The sequence is pulling up, then turning the skip tub outboard and dumping. Note that the dump in the fully extended down position does not fall off the cradle.
I made the body of the tipper with a double-layer of copper for added weight and the tub, even when full, remains balanced. The last photo shows the tub removed so pipes or logs can be extended from 1 tip to another.
