Sheffield No.
1 Track Inspector’s Car
Drawing Package
DWG-TIC5
Updated: 10
November, 2006
The 3-wheeled railroad Track
Inspector’s Car was the first product of the Sheffield Velocipede Car Company incorporated in Three Rivers, Michigan
in 1882. It was used to visually inspect a section of roadbed, rails and switches
by a single inspector manually powering the three wheeled vehicle over his section of responsibility. We found a full-sized
prototype, CIRCA 1895, in the Ogden Union Railroad Museum in Ogden, Utah and extensively photographed and measured it. We
then created a professional quality construction drawing package using AutoCAD 2004 and commenced building our 1/5th
scale museum quality model. These cars were easily manhandled on and off the rails by a crew or two or one, in an emergency.
Sheffield offered both standard gauge and narrow gauge versions and continually improved their products by embedding improved
materials and technologies to maintain their competitive position. Sheffield initially constructed their cars from select
hardwoods, cast many of the metal parts themselves and fabricated the wheels using wooden spokes supporting steel rims.
Our 1/8th scale
model is a faithful replica of Sheffield’s 1895 vintage Sheffield No.1 Track Inspector’s Car. Two outriggers are
drawn consistent with standard gauge (56.5”) rails and narrow gauge (36”) rails to allow the model to sit on 12”
gauge or 7.5” gauge display track respectively as a builder option. The completed model is approximately 16” long,
8.5” high and 10” wide for the narrow gauge version and 15.5” wide for the standard gauge version.
Our package of construction
plans contains 20 “B” sized (11” x 17”) plates generously sprinkled with photographs of the model’s
parts and assemblies. The plans can be scaled up of down to produce a museum quality model of any size – including the
full-sized prototype. Also included with your purchase is a Bill of Materials for the model and a listing of material sources.
We hope you enjoy building and displaying your museum quality model of this fascinating example of legacy railroad equipment.
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