Wanted: A Good Motor for Moving Railcars

Hi Jasons. Any idea as to the ratings on the motor? Volts, hp, hz? The big question though is how the two are connected. If the whole thing is housed as one assembly, you may have some problems, but if the spool can be pulled off the motor shaft, you could just replace the motor. Alternatively, perhaps you could replace the whole thing with a new one (I know, you probably looked into that and figured its too expensive)

Try to post more info or maybe a picture.

Here is a link that might provide you some good information or perhaps these people can point you in the proper direction.

http://www.blueoceantackle.com/commercial_capstans.htm

Snag one off an old jeep or land rover. Your co-efficient of friction with a railcar is minimal, hell I've seen video of guys pulling them with their teeth!

Seriously, if you're in some part of the raj-that-was, the Land Rover winch will be more than enough to work on a dead flat grade.

What you're describing sounds an awful lot like a power spooler used by electricians to pull long runs of heavy cable through conduit. Have a look at those, and see if that's what you've been using all along.

I think Jason is refering to Capstan used in the docks to pull ships or used on the ships. In abscence of name plate data, it will be adviseble to contact local Capastan Mfr or a Electric motor rebuilder to rebuild the motor mechanicaly as well as electricaly.

I thought it might be related to ships. I will look them up Monday. The rebuild was always an option. Just didn't want to be shut down for that long. Want to be in a position to always have a replacement.

The ships capstan is a good idea, make sure it is electric as some older ones used Hydraulics or steam, but you should be able to get one off a ship that is going to the wreckers! Get two from the same ship of the same type and your spares situation is also fixed!!

The ones I worked on years ago were 220 volt DC and 440 volts 60Hz AC, I am sure that ypu could find something that will work for you well in this area....

Folks are right about the capstan type winch. These are used to move rail cars as well as boats. We use them at the company I work at for rail cars. If you google "capstan rail car" you will get companies that sell them for that use.

On the topic of OLD electric motors there are ways to reverse engineer a new motor even if you don't know the specification on the old one. Another way is if you know a distributor whose has a salesperson that has many years of experience. I currently work in a plant with some very old, still functioning electric motors. When they burn up my first call is to an EE friend who has over 40 years of electrical power experience. Based on emailed pictures he can usually identify the motor or at least the type it is (starting method etc).

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=rail+car+puller provided multiple sources for your equipment, including a complete replacement unit for under USD$2,000. If you have the name of the manufacturer, most of these companies could probably help you obtain spare parts or a drop-in replacement for your specific equipment.