How Small Radius Can An 0-4-0 Go?

Nope, you're not the only one who is not seeing it. I don't see it either. It's one of those words that everyone uses that makes no sense to me, like friction bearing when what they mean is solid bearing, or wide cab when what they mean is wide nose or crew cab. That's why I never use the word. It doesn't make any sense to me. I always say "truck mounted couplers". One can also say "bogey mounted couplers". I looked up both truck and bogie in my dictionary. They share a common railway definition and are the same thing. It is interesting that people will defend the usage of these words and phrases, even when confronted with the evidence that they are incorrect or meaningless. But Ma, everybody's doing it! Froggy,

In both cases (the truck-mounted couplers and the 2-wheeled A-frame) the pull on each car's coupler is kept at right angles to its axle. I can almost see the 1940's style

3-color ad that proclaims how Mantua's new trucks use the very same principle as the most modern piece of prototype railway equipment...did I just say 'railway'? Time to lay off the Model Engineer magazines for a while.

wheel each side

the wheels of

looking too

I have a 1940s US model railway book which says that the term "railroad" is used by 2/3rds of US railways and the term "railway" is used by the other 1/3rd. As India also uses the term "Railway", we are in the majority in the english speaking world!

Regards, Greg.P. NZ

wheel each side

used by 2/3rds of

speaking world!

You might want to note that it was common practice back in the day, when a particular road went bankrupt, to name the new corporation Railway if it had been Railroad and vice versa.

For whatever reason, Railroad has been the preferred term in the USA, and AFAIK Canada.

It makes sense in that around the world, in the late 19th and early 20th century, when railways were being built, nearly all English speaking countries outside the USA were under British influence, if not actual colonies or members of the Commonwealth.

As far as it goes, it is extremely rare for anyone to use the term "bogie" in the USA. Too close to "bogus" which you certainly wouldn't want your trucks to be (snicker).

So long as we understand each other, it works.

Regards,

DAve

The only things that are called bogies in North America are the wheel/axle assemblies under semi-trucks and trailers, one-over-par golf shots, and unidentified aircraft. Nothing connected with railroading is called a bogie.

Bogart, OTOH, is a commonly used term, as in "Don't Bogart that (whatever)."

Froggy, Grateful Dead, CA. Froggy,

DaveW wrote in news:gJsOe.9934$g47.5537@trnddc07:

Prior to this discussion, I had only heard the term bogie in relation to the roller assemblies that run inside a tank or dozer track and actually bear the weight of the vehicle.

I certainly never heard it in relation to railroads. My granddad worked for the L&N for 50 years and never once mentioned a bogie, although I heard a lot about "trucks" over the years.

That is/was my experience also.

The term "bogie" is/was much in use in the USA, but just not applied to railroads. Really, not EVER as far as I can remember.

Here, a bogie is a set of two or more wheels in some form of articulated frame. As in tank suspensions, multi-axle motor-truck rear-ends, etc. Not fundamentally different in definition ... just never applied to railroads.

What others call a railroad bogie is here called a 'truck'. Since the term 'bogie' likely originated in Britain, prior to widespread RR use in the USA, why the term was not adopted here is beyond me. And where did the USA RR term 'truck' originate from?

Anyway, for most purposes: USA RR Truck = British (etc.) RR Bogie.

Dan Mitchell ============

From the same source that created bogie. They mean almost the same thing. A truck is a set of wheels designed to carry a load which is not necessarily integral to the truck, e.g., a two-wheeled hand truck as used in a warehouse.

The limited etymology that I have on the word bogie simply says that bogie is chiefly British. I suspect it may have originated as slang. The Brits are very proud of their slang. They've even developed Cockney into a virtual language of its own. The Antipodeans are fairly good at it too, I might add.

In England and Australia a railroad truck rides on bogies, or, it is integral with its bogie in the case of a two-axle truck. In North America we don't use two-axle equipment, and their truck is our gondola. Our gondolas typically ride on a pair of two-axle trucks. A few gondola types ride on a pair of three-axle trucks.

-----------However, You will find bogies on semi-trucks and trailers all over the North American continent. Thus: If it runs on the railroad under a railcar or locomotive, it is a truck. If it runs on the highway, under a tractor or trailer, it is a bogie. OK, now, truck is English (mas o menos) while gondola is Italian. So, why do we speak English, but call the tub-on-wheels a gondola instead of a truck? Although it would be confusing to use the same word to mean two different things in the same context. Yeah, that would be a tough one.

Froggy,

There's the kernel of the issue; now march forth and conquer.

wheel each side

the wheels of

looking too

used by 2/3rds of

speaking world!

The only term that stumped/misled me for a long time was "gas-electric". I wondered what sort of gas they were using, where the gas bottles were stored and what pressure they were using.

I've since figured it out but am left wondering what you call gas powered vehicles.

Regards, Greg.P.

Those assemblies that look like and work like railway bogies? ;-)

So THAT's what they're talking about! 8^O

Huhh?!?

Well yes, the two axle swivelling or flexible trucks are called bogies!

Who? What?

The first railway 2 axle trucks originated in the US and arrived in Britain and Europe via Norris and Baldwin etc imports. Britain of course is basically flat so rolling stock didn't really nead flexible underframes beyond that given by springing.

You mean a "wagon" rides on bogies.

?

"Gondola" = "open wagon".

No, a "truck" is a single axle flexible carrying frame.

Yes, why do you do that?

You do that already: "Truck" = part of a railway vehicle or a complete road vehicle for carriage of goods. "Car" = a complete railway vehicle oor a road vehicle.

Next we could have a go at "cargo", "freight", "goods" and "shipping" ;-)

Regards, Greg.P.

skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@news.east.earthlink.net...

ear Froggy et al, Just to confuse the issue on the North Eastern Railway a tub on wheels was termed a chaldron, a term which preceded steam railways by a considerable period. I believe the term Truck comes from the old english word "to truck" ie to trade which is why US drivers of Lorries are called truckers rather than drivers or hauliers.........or less polite terms......... :) As far as i know a bogie was also part of a horse drawn lorry, I prepare to stand corrected... :)) Beowulf

huge snip

and what pressure

We call them Congressmen of course!

Or did you mean something a vehicle powered an internal combustion engine fueled with propane or compressed natural gas? I don't know that we have a specific term. They are after all, rare.

Regards,

DAve

snip

Please see:

Bogart, Humphrey, American motion picture actor. Appears in the Warner Brothers films Casablanca, The Malteese Falcon, The Big Sleep, To Have and Have Not, Key Largo, and many others.

Famous for smoking a cigarette almost constantly. (Died of lung cancer).

The term Bogart was made famous in the 1969 (1970? 1971?) Peter Fonda film Easy Rider.

Regards,

DAve

Or a four-wheel open or flat wagon - a goods truck, or a carriage truck. Common usage on the NSW railway. Elsewhere in Australia, too. And, I suspect, in the UK, if the Reverend Awdry's "troublesome trucks" are any indication. :-)

Or a truck rides on bogies. Or a van.

A four-wheel open or flat wagon.

A bogie open wagon or truck in the UK or Australia. Except for South Australia, where they had an American commissioner in the 1920s. They call them gondolas. Just to be different.

Or a four-wheel open wagon. Or a bogie open wagon. Or, to confuse the issue *even further*, a truck can be the four-wheeled underframe of a single-truck tramcar/streetcar. Or the bogies under a double-truck tramcar. Hence the Peckham Metropolitan truck, or Brill 27G trucks.

Because they're both low-sided, open-topped vehicles that load and unload from the top?* That seems as good an explanation as any other.

• Yes, I know, doesn't count for GS or drop-bottom gondolas.

Yeah, we could have a lot of fun with those!

There is one obvious exception to that. A Mason Bogie. :-)