Tiger tracks

[digger303]

Ok I need some info guys.
Tiger tracks weigh about 2.9t per side when they loaded them on to rail cars often they had to remove the combat tracks and use transport tracks so they could get them through tunnels and the like.
They would have needed a substantial crane in order to place the tracks on the rail flat beds. Which crane did they use and do you have any ref pic's ??
I'v looked and come up empty so far.
Thanks guys

[Tomcat64]

Hmmm hadn't thought about that - I just assumed they drove them up ramps onto the wagons.

Will do some digging and see if I've got anything that'll help.

Edit: just read it properly and you're talking about the track links and not the tank itself right? Will do some digging anyway!

[Kevthemodeller]

Good question

I was under the impression they were pulled up when you see them laid out under the tank like this this this this and pulled up like this this

But you often see the tracks coiled like this

It must be possible to pull up these coiled tracks in the same way as the tank then on to their sides, but I've not seen any pictures of track loading. They must be some, somewhere.

[CygnusX1]

Generally speaking the less need for specialized equipment to get your Tiger on/off the flatbed rail car the better.
What if your destination is some small place in Russia where there isn't a crane?

For operational Tigers they usually just drove them onto the flatbed with the combat tracks, and when they got to whichever flatbed car they were using for that particular vehicle, would unpin the combat track, and drive it onto the transport track and re-pin it. The combat track was then stored flat underneath the Tiger, as in the pics in Kevthemodeller's previous post.
They also did transport Tigers with their combat track fitted too. There are quite a few pics of this setup out there.

New Tigers were usually factory fitted with transport track and delivered with their combat track ready to be fitted.

Coils of track: honestly, I don't know, but looking through my pics it would appear that some of these coils aren't long enough to be a full run of combat track. Perhaps they're just spare links? That's a guess though.

[digger303]

This is what I saw a few pic's of and how I thought they were loaded.


I now realize this was far more common as you guys have said.


Thanks Neil,Kev and CygnusX1