# Accucraft Log Disconects



## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

I don't seem to do too well with a search in the site, but I know I have seen this addressed. I was looking for the information about the chains on the Log Disconnects made by Accucraft.


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## Ironton (Jan 2, 2008)

Mike,

I don't remember the details, I would have to dig mine out and take a look at them. The major problem is that the hook is not rigged correctly. I will attempt to explain.

The logs are held on by chocks. There is a fixed one on one side of the car and a movable one on the other side. There is a chain that passes over the top of the car and under the fixed chock which is used for positioning the movable chock. The hook is used to tie down this chain by placing it in one of the links as required to set the movable chock. Hope this makes sense, it is easier to vixualize if you look at the chains on any of the Accucraft log cars.


So what is needed is to remove the hook from where it is and place it so it appears to be holding the movable chock in the correct place. On mine I found that the hook was too big to easily fit in the links of the chain. I stopped at that point and have not gone back and decided what to do about it.

Hope this helps


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## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

i have a customer asking about them, I will take a pair out and take a closer look at them.


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Here's[/b][/b] an illustrative discussion...

Specifically this[/b][/b], and this[/b][/b].

What isn't shown here is that there was a hook on the end of the chain NOT attached to the movable chock. The chain attached to the movable chock was pulled tight to pull the movable chock against the load (i.e. the logs were secured between the movable and non-movable chocks) and the hook inserted into the link closest to the end of the bunk itself, thereby preventing the movable chain from sliding back into the bunk and allowing the movable chock to loosen.


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## RimfireJim (Mar 25, 2009)

Thanks for those great links, Dwight. Now maybe I can figure out how to set up the chains on my Accucraft disconnects. I figured it was something like that, with the chain links engaging keyhole slots in the chock - typical of chain applications.

Are you saying the hook was on the chain of the movable chock ("cheeseblock"), but on the opposite end from the chock? Or, on the end of a chain attached to the stationary chock, in which it connects the two chains together, giving insurance on top of the keyhole slot engagement? I think you mean the latter, because I can picture how that would work.


I found this interesting note in one of the posts from your link: "When trains are made up and taken to the pond, all floating blocks must be towards the water." Yet another detail to keep track of for correct modeling!!


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Jim - at one time, I bought some Ozark Hercules bunks to replace the weird bunks on my Hartford Products Santa Cruz Log Cars. I had no real idea how they worked either but found an image which showed it very clearly. I can't remember where I saw it and can't locate it on the Net (maybe it came with the Ozark bunks for all I can remember). Anyway, I did some more digging.

These photos are of a WSLCo skeleton log car scratchbuilt by Bob Poli and Mike Gray several years back as the prototypes for the subsequent Hartford Products kits. Bob and Mike are both incredible modelers, and both are very "into" the WSLSo, so their models are meticulously researched and accurate. I would trust any info coming from them regarding the West Side as impeccable. Their model also matches the drawing I saw someplace.

At any rate, there's a short chain connected to the rigid chock and a long chain connected to the movable chock. The chain from the movable chock runs through the bunk and (on the drawing I saw and in these photos of Bob's and Mike's model) both chains come out the bunk end holding the rigid chock. This is unlike the illustration I linked to previously which shows the short chain from the rigid chock secured to the top of the bunk itself. Also, the long chain does NOT run through the rigid chock, nor make any use of the key slot (also as shown in the linked illustration).

There's a ring attached to the short chain from the rigid chock, and a hook attached to the long chain from the movable chock. The movable chock is pulled tightly against the log load and the appropriate link of the long chain dropped into the key slot. The hook is then inserted into the next (empty) link as added insurance so if the link slips out of the key slot somehow, the hook jams up against the bunk end preventing the chain and movable chock from slipping more than one chain link's worth of length.

The photos...










I zoomed and cropped it for a better view of the bunk...










The original is 640 x 480, so the image clarity suffered with the zooming/cropping, but you can clearly see the chain arrangement on the rigid chock end of the bunk.

Hope that clears things up. I have no idea why the illustrations differ between my links (which I found via Google) and the arrangement shown in this post. However, as I said, I would trust Bob's and Mike's info before anything I found anywhere else. When it comes to the West Side, those guys are zealots!!! hehehe


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## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

Those are some great looking log cars, thanks Dwight.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Maybe the following will be of help.

*Seattle Car & Foundry Catalogue*
*File Type: PDF / File Size: 10MB*
*Left-click to open - right-click to download*


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## RimfireJim (Mar 25, 2009)

From the description on p. 25 (pdf p. 39) of the SC&F catalog for the Hercules bunk (thanks, Steve), the "rigid" chock is not rigid, but instead adjustable using the short change. That allows the load to be centered. Then a grab hook is used to secure the end of the long chain, clearly shown on p. 26. I don't think the Accucraft cars have the grab hook - will have to check.


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

I asked Bob Poli about this via email and got this reply... 

================================== 
Anyway, the big misunderstanding is BOTH chalks are movable. The chalk with the key hole is held by the chain running through it. That chain is secured to the sill at the center, it goes under the bunk at the slot closest to that chalk.. The outboard chalk is secured by the chain running under the bunk, it goes into the slot closest to that chalk. The chain emerges at the opposite end of the bunk and secures the chalk by hooking the chain at the closest link coming out of the bunk end. The hook doesn't go into the link, it slips over a link and the next link being at 90 degrees is wider than the link that is in the kook. The hook is just wide enough to slip over the flat of the link but will not let a link that is "on end" slip through. At the unloading dock the hook is hit with a mallet to release it. I don't know where the fixed chalk idea came from. This all sounds way more complicated than it is. Attached is a pic of my modified Accucraft car from the article I did in the Gazette. 
================================== 

So I was wrong about the hook slipping into a link - it does NOT. It slips OVER a link. I was also unaware that BOTH chocks are movable (as you point out Jim), with what I referred to as the "rigid chock" instead also being movable and secured by the short chain through the key slot. 

Sorry 'bout that.


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## maculsay (Jan 2, 2008)

Steve C....that's just what I was looking for!! 

Thanks


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

No problem gentlemen, glad it was of help to you.


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