We need to lift this approx 40 ton 4-4-0 (Danish State Railways, Nord Sjælland Veterantog). We can not figure out how to do it without an overhead crane. Where would the lifting points be for screw jacks in a derailment?

Can we lift it on the plate steel buffer plates?

Can't answer for a locomotive but I've seen vertical channels on tracked military vehicles (about that thick) fold like a soda can against the rest of the weight pushing on it from above.
I sure wouldn't try it.

Well, just my opinion, but I would not use the bottom edge of that buffer plate as a jacking point.

Regardless of the strength (or lack of) it is not going to be very stable. If that buffer plate starts to bend on one side the whole thing could become over-centered on the jack and come sideways, probably be a bad thing if the wheel is out or part way out when that happens.

Is this an outside frame locomotive ? Is the piece just above your thumb (with the red trim stripe) the frame of the loco ? Or just a running board/cab floor support ?

I would try to get an I beam across under the rear coupler support and try to pick up the frame there with some hardwood blocking.

Or remove the brake rigging hangers and get a jack right under the coupler pocket, but you would need to be away from your pit for that.

Try to avoid tall narrow jacks, the chances of things going wrong get higher. The best jacks will have a base that is several times wider than the height for stability. You can always build up solid wood blocking (with a wide footprint) under a shorter jack. Lift a little, then insert wood blocks, lower the load onto the blocks and reset your jack with blocking underneath it for another lift.

Always a good idea to have blocking ready to fill in the gap between the floor and the item you are lifting for a large lift, the distance to a stop if something goes wrong is less.

Good luck,

Cheers, Kevin.

Long I-beam on each end, long enough to give you room for the jacks AND the cribbing. Bolt/strap/chain/wedge the I beam to the loco so it can't possibly move, and keep the cribbing close to the I-beam so any failures drop the minimum amount. Clear a very, very wide area around the entire locomotive, I would say 10 feet from the sides of the engine but more is better, so you can both sight the entire rig and also people can run away and not be trapped by stuff, if needed. The escape routes need to let you get far enough away to unquestionably be out of danger.

Consider that 40 tons is not really a massive lift for a portable crane.

How high do you need to lift it?

Changing a driver? Rolling out the pilot truck?

You want to lift by the frame, be it directly on the frame or by using
steel I beams.

If you don't know what you are doing, get a expert!

House mover, Machinery mover.

Also remember to chock all wheels, nothing like a driver
starting to roll down the track to ruin your day.

-Hudson

Also,

You want very little (almost no) blocking between the working end of the jack and the item being lifted. Way too unstable, the blocking can kick out if things get out of line.

A relatively thin piece of clean (not oil soaked) hardwood or solid plywood (less than an inch, 25 mm thick) between the jack and item being lifted will crush a little and make a reasonably HIGH friction connection between the top end of the jack and the item being lifted. Less chance for the working end of the jack to slip sideways off the load, or the load slipping sideways off the jack.

Any really necessary blocking between the lifting device and the load needs to be firmly secured with chains/straps/bolts/screws, etc. so it can't move sideways.

Good luck.

We want to remove the engine truck. One option being considered is just lift the front end of the locomotive and tilt the engine back on the rear driver. Should we block the rear axle boxes to take the load off the suspension? Will we damage the spring rigging if all the weight is on the rear axle?

The lift has to be about a meter to clear the pilot/rail scrapers. Removing the pilot has been discussed, but it is more involved as a frame member, not just an attachment to the front like an American engine.

These engines traveled with a pair of screw jacks mounted on the tender. I am still curious how these jacks would be used to rerail the locomotive. Or were they only for rerailing cars?

We have rented cranes in the past for boiler lifts, etc. These jacks were used successfully in the past to lift the chassis of our tank engine described here before, but that engine has more obvious, accessible, heavy lift points. I think the desire to jack this engine is based on the success and convenience of lifting the tank engine, but we have no experience lifting this engine.

We are lifting the locomotive enough to get the pilot truck out to carry out repairs on it and to access the pistons (cylinder heads cant clear the truck). The locomotive needs to be raised about 3-4 feet for the truck to clear the cylinders.

One option considered is to lift just the front end of the locomotive and pivot everything on the rear driver. It has apparently been done before with a similar size locomotive at the state railway work shops in the preservation era. I would be worried about the locomotive wanting to move even when braked from behind, but who knows when its just being lifted a bit. Weight would be taken off the springs by shoving large pieces of wood into the space between the axle box and the top of the horn block.

Another option is to remove the ash pan and send a cross bar setup in the space between the frame and the equalization bar. The jacks would lift on this bar for the rear of the locomotive, and with another cross bar on the front of the locomotive. Positive to this is the Ash pan also needs work, but the jack point is not all the way at the end of the locomotive

Third option is to remove the brake rigging, bolted to the frame with the brake shaft and big heavy braces, and jack there. This is behind the second set of drivers and has a nice flat spot, the problem is it just results in more loose parts laying around the shop.

I think we have decided against jacking on the rear buffer plate, as it is only about 1/2"-5/8" thick and that would be a lot to ask it to carry roughly 57-60% of the weight of the locomotive!

Our welder will create a cross bar from either two or three narrow profile I beams bolted or welded between two long rectangular plates

Funny how my dad and I decided to post at the same time!

The buffer plate in the picture is continuous across the back tender buffers and drawbar pocket.

One thought that occurs to me is whether we should weld reinforcement on to this plate and create permanent jacking points here.

What would we do to rerail this engine if a derailment occurred on the line? The national railway does not maintain a wrecking outfit. We operate under a lot of overhead wire, so cranes are problematic. It might be better to be prepared for the need to jack this engine in the future.

running an I beam or bar across underneath (perhaps several) then you can lift on the beams, not on the engine, do it in slow steps secure them with some supports, Ties or whatever. You would think they would have designed lift points.

Jacking one end only is the least safe way to do it. I'll assume the jacking point will be about 20 feet from the rear axle... lifting the front 4' will is an angle of 1 in 5. The jacking point will try to move five inches closer to the rear axle, either by tipping the jack, or the axle rolling five inches forward, which would be preferable. The frame will now be sitting on the beam at more than a ten degree angle, and just asking to it kick out. While with proper rigging this can be done, it would be a lot easier to just use two beams and four jacks and lift the loco straight up.

To think outside the box, could you instead disassemble enough of the pilot truck in place and remove the parts, rather than jacking up the locomotive to remove the pilot truck in one piece? Just a thought, and perhaps this is an option you've already ruled out.

When we rebuilt the Pilot Truck under the #1238, Jack had us cut the rail and dig out for a "backwoods" drop table. We used a pair of air jacks to raise and lower the "table". Maybe no the safest way of doing it but it worked.

Will our 4-4-0 stand up without its truck?