Marine Railroads/Railways?

[green16]

Does anyone use a marine railway to go from their boathouse into a lake or river? Do they work well? What problems do you have with them? Do they have to go straight or can the rails have slight curves in them?

I am building a boathouse for two boats. My problem is that we have a pretty shallow grade, the town won't let you build over the water and I don't want to pay a ton of money for dredging and the thicker foundation that would be necessary if we dredged.

Thanks
green16

[MOP]

I have never used one but they were a very common thing on the shallow creeks sown here on Long Island, I know they did worl well, there is no reason not to have a resonable curve in the tracks. To get the cars to ride out a curve you do need the proper wheels. Take a look at train wheels they are ground at an angle to alow them to turn, they need a little more distance between the tracks to be able to shift side to side. I just searched for the link below which turned out to be a good one.

http://members.aol.com/stevef88/puzzles/tranwhel.htm

[AVickers]

Actually, the wheels could be mounted independently on their axles like on a trailer and distance differential because of turns shouldn't be a problem. There's not enough weight there to require the huge solid axles and bearings that are required for trains. (Did you know that they used to use solid bearings -- bushings -- with wick-type oil boxes on trains? It was one of the Oiler's jobs to make sure all the feltboxes had oil in them. When they went dry, lots of heat was generated. It was cool to watch a train at night when one of the feltboxes caught fire...)

Anyway, the main problem with a curve on a tram is that the pull cable (usually running from a winch) can't easily be made to negotiate the curve. Also, many trams use a counterweight so that a smaller winch can be used. This counterweight runs on a parallel set of tracks set into and below the main tracks. The cable for this would also have to negotiate the curve.

"Nothing difficult is ever easy..."

[green16]

Thank you. Keep the thoughts coming.
John