Cat equip on trains

Many of the large Cat engines are built in Lafayette Indiana, and the plant is served by NS, so you would be just fine there.

Thanks!

I settled on the only one that might have a Cat under the hood? I will put on the NS "white face" next.

Caterpillar equipment on a flat car is simply freight.  It will be routed as any other freight car.  It doesn't matter what locomotive is pulling the train it's on as long as it gets to where it has to go.

The locomotive that picks up the load from Cat will not be the same locomotive that delivers it to the customer or dock.

Rusty

Yeah, I was over thinking the situation.... I think? There are some big Cat dealers around the country that I have seen from my travels alone. I bet they're on every major line's delivery?

I should paint one for the new Cat scheme though. It could look like that photo shoot that's online.

Joe,

I am a Caterpillar employee. I worked in the engine business until 2012 & then moved to another division internally. Since you are looking at G-Scale models, there are Caterpillar models of 1:25 scale engines & 1:32 scale forklifts & 1:24 & 1:32 scale skid-steer loaders.

I am familiar with the Lafayette, IN facility as I interviewed there. It has been over 8 years since my last visit to that facility but to the extent I still remember the tour, I mostly saw the large engines leave on flat-bed trailers on Class 8 trucks. But there was a railroad track going into 1 of the buildings & so there must be a way to ship engines on flat cars.

Here in central IL, I have seen Caterpillar bulldozers, trucks, wheel loaders & until recently, excavators on flat cars on multiple railroads. Most of the times, I had seen them on Norfolk Southern trains & occasionally on BNSF trains. So I am guessing these railroads serve the assembly facilities. But I have seen pictures online of Caterpillar equipment on flat-cars on other railroads too depending on which port they are destined for export.

I have seen the larger bulldozers, trucks & loaders are shipped in multiples sections depending on the maximum width & height limits on the railroads.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

I was hoping you'd see this Naveen! Thank you. I see pictures online that I could not piece together where they came from. I will look into the IL facility closer and if I can get my hands on pieces of 1/32 scale equipment to match the larger stuff. I now have three NS G scale engines looking for work.

Joe,

Caterpillar assembles the bulldozers & pipe layers at the East Peoria, IL facility that is close to the Norfolk Southern yard & Toledo, Peoria & Western yard but I have seen these machines on BNSF & Iowa Interstate Railroad trains on the other side of the river, here in Peoria, IL.

Caterpillar assembles large mining trucks, wheel tractor scrapers & a motor grader at the Decatur, IL facility.

Caterpillar assembles their medium & large wheel loaders, wheel dozers & landfill compactors at their Aurora, IL facility.

But I collect Caterpillar diecast models, especially the ones that I had some design involvement with & I am not aware of these larger machines available in a scale closer to G-Scale, except for 4 engine models or the super-expensive low-quantity models from Classic Construction Models, costing $2000 to $7000 for a single model.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

Whoa..... forget that!

I would place an EMD as road power.  Make sure it is one built after CAT bought the company!.

Dominic,

Like this. I thought this was a promotional train that also had some Caterpillar parts that are not typically transported by train. But it was popular & I remember Brian Marsh from Overland Models come to town to photograph this train back in 2012.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

I was thinking about that locomotive.  Cat also moves stuff to Galveston TX ot load onto "Row-Row" ships.  Equipment rolls on and off.  All short of stuff is loaded on these ships, and not from CAT.

Joe,

I see that you already have a few models of Caterpillar equipment but have you considered building a train with farming models instead of construction or mining models?

I ask because 1/32 is a popular scale for agricultural models is closer to G-Scale & from my visits to the Diecast Direct showroom, it seems like 1:32 scale models are priced lower than the smaller 1:50 scale models (the predominant scale for model for construction & mining equipment). You could fill up a train of large John Deere or Case New Holland 1:32 scale models for a lot less money than 1:25 models of smaller but more expensive skid-steer loaders & forklifts. And you have more choices for agricultural equipment in 1:32 scale compared to the very limited selection of small construction (no mining) equipment in a similar scale.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

It is funny that you mention that. Right after your earlier post I went to a couple of sites to see what was available. Farm tractors seem like the best deal out there in 1/32. Some of the Cat equipment that is available is fairly higher in price. I may make some pieces of my own to imitate large Cat equipment on flats to finish a decent train. I think in the future, that a bigger train could be assembled much cheaper with farm type equipment in this scale that I run.

naveenrajan posted:

Joe,

Caterpillar assembles the bulldozers & pipe layers at the East Peoria, IL facility that is close to the Norfolk Southern yard & Toledo, Peoria & Western yard but I have seen these machines on BNSF & Iowa Interstate Railroad trains on the other side of the river, here in Peoria, IL.

Caterpillar assembles large mining trucks, wheel tractor scrapers & a motor grader at the Decatur, IL facility.

Caterpillar assembles their medium & large wheel loaders, wheel dozers & landfill compactors at their Aurora, IL facility.

But I collect Caterpillar diecast models, especially the ones that I had some design involvement with & I am not aware of these larger machines available in a scale closer to G-Scale, except for 4 engine models or the super-expensive low-quantity models from Classic Construction Models, costing $2000 to $7000 for a single model.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

Hi Naveen,I'd have to disagree with your opinion that Classic Construction Models has low quality models for between $2000 and $7000, I'm a collector of plant models myself and in the last 5-6 yrs I've adapted a few US locos into my collection, CCM put out two lines, hand made brass items built to limited numbers in scales 1/87 1/48 and 1/24 any of which are meticulously detailed,the 1/24 items being the most impressive,although not motorized in any way they are fully posable to replicate the real machine,the highest price I've seen was for a 1/24 brass D11R which was sold at RRP£2400 and then appeared on ebay say 10yrs later for £17,000,the 2nd line they do are diecast,1/48 and 1/24 scales,again built to limited numbers and they are best known for their feel and built quality with regards to other 1/50 diecast makers,the diecast line can make double RRP now on ebay,

Sadly there aren't too many 1/32 Cat models being made,the vast majority are 1/50,skid steers and fork lift trucks seem to be the only machines modeled in this scale oh and the Caterpillar Challenger rubber tracted agri tractor by Norscot,NZG and Joal may have done the odd 1/32 track loader or wheel loader in the past but these can be hard to find and are quite basic compared to todays models

check again, Naveen said quantity!!

It sounds like you thought he said quality!

Every now and then a train load of Caterpillar Equipment comes past on the North East Corridor pulled by Norfolk Southern units.  Same with the John Deere Train.  Lately it seems these only come through at night, so they are hard to see crossing the Susquehanna River Bridge.

Engineer-Joe posted:

check again, Naveen said quantity!!

It sounds like you thought he said quality!

Good spot!! my bad !! 

gbarnewall posted:

Engineer-Joe posted:

check again, Naveen said quantity!!

It sounds like you thought he said quality!

Good spot!! my bad !! 

I agree that Classic Construction Models (CCM) make high quality models. I have 1 of their models & last year I got them in touch with a machine design group here at Caterpillar to get the latest CAD models when I noticed that one of the photos of the models they used when they announced a machine was outdated. I also inform my coworkers if CCM announces any model that they had design involvement with so that they could send in their reservations directly to CCM.

But as much as I love their models, I am not a fan of their limited runs. Sure if you are familiar with them & follow their announcements, great. But someone like Joe, who is looking for a specific model in a specific scale, that is long sold out then it is inconvenient to get them in the secondary market unless one is willing to pay the high prices the collectors except.

Joe,

Here are 2 more 1:25 scale models of Caterpillar engines. They are the same scale as the 3516 engines (displacement: 69 L), you have on your flat cars but these are of even larger engines & since they were released more recently, they have few more separately applied details.

The first is a 20-cylinder C175 diesel engine (displacement: 106 L) & generator model, made by CCM. This being a CCM model has amazing detail typical of CCM models, but also priced higher too like other CCM models. It is the same engine that is used in the F-125 commuter locomotives that were recently delivered to Metrolink. The real C175 is assembled at the Caterpillar facility in Lafayette, IN.

The second model is of an even larger, 16-cylinder, CG260 natural gas / coal gas / biogas engine (displacement: 272 L) & generator. Caterpillar acquired a German gas engine manufacturer, Motoren-Werke Mannheim (MWM) in 2010. MWM factory in Mannheim, Germany, was where Karl Benz developed his internal combustion engine in the late 1800s.

These are just my opinion.

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

Fantastic pictures. I would like to have those on my train.

Bump for generator load post

This relates to much older equipment, but I thought it was interesting:

When I was a little guy in the immediate postwar years, the Caterpillar dealer for the Santa Ana, California, area, was Shepherd, and they had a spur near Garden Grove, on Pacific Electric, of all railroads.  So, there were definitely bulldozers transported from Los Angeles and shoved into Shepherd's spur by PE steeple cab electrics prior to 1951, and by Baldwin VO's with trolley poles atop the hood (to activate the wigwag crossing signals in the electrified zones) after they de-electrified the Santa Ana line around 1951.