Today we moved 57 to her new winter quarters and everything went really well she rides very well for a 126 yr old. Still tons of room left in the Silo 72

Mike Pannell

Mike:

Is the orange framework meant for an overhead crane or hoist?

If so - sweet!

Scott

Yes it was part of the missile lifting mechanism and has stainless steel rollers and rolls well, could be useful !

Mike

With a building that nice, I think you need a locomotive project..... LOL

Howard P.
Thick Walls, NY

Can you still open the roof on warm days?

You can fit an Atlas missile in there!

David Wilkins
Mineshaft-Gap, UT

Just have to ask, did they leave the basement??? or did they fill it during decommissioning?

Wish I had a workplace like that for my toys.

Best of luck,

Rich C.

But those aren't the original trucks, are they?

In any case, congratulations. You probably have the only restoration project kept in a tornado-proof structure. I've worried about that, but there's not much that anybody can reasonably do about it, at least until you found a missile launch building.

You can't just show us a missile silo and not offer more details! What kind of people do you think we are?

Following pics come from: http://asuwlink.uwyo.edu/~jimkirk/atlas.html

I had to shrink the dimensions of the second pic -- the original was impressively huge!

Ok sorry here are some details...This was one of three Atlas sites around Cheyenne constructed around 1955-57 our site has three coffin launchers (not strictly Silo's as they are above ground) and a command centre with generator building and fuel tanks, the launchers cost about $3.3 to build and were basically one time use launchers, they would have to pump millions of gallons of water into each launch pad as soon as the missile was launched in order to keep the concrete from exploding.
The roof weighs 400 tons and no longer opens as the motors are gone they opened with nitrogen and closed with electric motors. The Atlas D missiles weighed 130 tons and were 85 ft long and kept pressurized as they would collapse in on themselves as the skins were so thin...In the event of a launch the missile and roof would be opened and stood upright and launched in 20 seconds !!!
Its a remarkable place and a totally awesome site to keep our projects in, we hope to have an open day at some point in the future.

Mike Pannell

OK you've given us part of where, but who is "we".... etc etc etc.

Bob H

'we' is myself Mike Pannell owner of 1887 DT&FW/UPD&G/C&S car 57 and 1913 UP caboose 2516 the remains of DSP&P car 3 Geneva and a 1954 Bristol Double deck bus. myself and a couple of friends are restoring all this stuff and up until yesterday it was all in the open air.....
all can be seen here

http://car57.zenfolio.com/

Mike

Guess nobody told you how hard it is to move railroad cars.

You can't just hook up a tow truck and pull them. You need permits and low boys and cranes and pilot cars and all sorts of time and money and expense. It's not that easy!

What? You already did? TWO of them? But... But... But...

So why can't anyone else do this stuff?

Northern Ohio wy. Museum has done the tow truck bit with rapid transit cars. They claim that in the State of Ohio, state permits are not required if it's towed with the hook.