# Train wheel for a mooring??



## iwm (Mar 6, 2007)

I am in the process of upgrading my moorings to accommodate a larger boat. The plan would be to add an additional "anchor" to my existing mushroom. My mooring guy offered a choice between a traditional steel 400 lb mushroom or a 550 lb train wheel with 12' of 1.5 navy chain. train wheel is $175 less.
any thoughts or experience with train wheels as moorings? I've always had mushrooms before and never had problems (so far!!!). bottom is medium sand if it matters

thanks

Van


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## Boasun (Feb 10, 2007)

If you can dive down and bury that wheel, this will increase its holding power. Or attach tandom anchors in line of the normal lay of the vessel.

550 lbs would hold better then the 400 lb'r. Give it a try and write up a paper on it for Sailnet.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

Just curious... what size is the existing anchor? What size boat are you trying to accommodate?


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## T34C (Sep 14, 2006)

The moorings in our harbor were done with train wheels many years ago. They seem to work just fine. They do occationally get drug a little during the winter when the ice builds up.


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## iwm (Mar 6, 2007)

thanks for the quick replies

current moorings 300lb mushroom. boat is 35 ft, 15,500 lb displacement Niagara 35. location = bristol, ri

Van


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

If you can bury the train wheel, it should be plenty for a boat that size, especially when combined with a 300 lb. mushroom.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

This is a good idea. Where can you get a train wheel at and does it have a shaft on it? Im needing to set a mooring for a 25' 5000lbs boat and this would work perfect.


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## erps (Aug 2, 2006)

A train wheel would be an excellent "bouncer block" to your existing anchor. I was looking for something like that when I beefed up my mooring and the best I could come up with was the "fifth wheel" hitch off a semi truck. It's probably only 200 lbs. My kids are using that mooring now for their boat. I checked the fittings on it last fall and it has pretty much buried itself in the mud by itself.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

Call Amtrak or Conrail.  I'm sure they can point you in the right direction.


SVDistantStar said:


> This is a good idea. Where can you get a train wheel at and does it have a shaft on it? Im needing to set a mooring for a 25' 5000lbs boat and this would work perfect.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

No worries, just make sure it can't roll away......


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

Van, I know a YC that has been using train wheels for over a decade with no complaints--but they have a gooey mud bottom that eats them up very quickly. I'd expect that in a harder bottom, or sand, the mushroom will self-bury faster because of its shape. But as the guys said--if you can make sure it is buried to a proper depth, that's not a problem.

If there are any rail yards around you, ask. They might auction them off in bulk as scrap, or they might sell them to anyone who comes around. The policy will vary with the RR operator.


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

The concept of a Mushroom is that with wind and tide shifts, moving the shank around the bell, it screws it's self into the bottom. A train wheel DOES NOT DO THIS!

My mushroom has a funnel cone in the mud into which you can reach your arm at full length and just barley reach the shackle! It is SET!

There is a reason many municipalities have banned granite, train wheels, engine block etc. in favor of Helix, Mushroom and Pyramid style moorings.

That being said the minimum guidelines for Mushroom moorings is roughly a pound per foot so a 300lb mooring is a bit light for a Niagra 35. If you were to use a train wheel I'd quadruple the weight of the mushroom at least!

I also have a granite mooring, as my storm mooring, in a very, very soft silty bottom and it weighs 6900 lbs and is about 8-10 feet in diameter and perhaps 9-10 inches thick. It took seven years for it to disapear into the mud so I needed that weight!!

Navy/Coast Guard bottom chain is a must!!

P.S. My boat is 36 feet and I run a 500lb..
*
My Bottom Chain and Shackle For a 36 Footer!*


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## BarryL (Aug 21, 2003)

Hello,

I have no information on train wheels. My only comment is to make sure whatever mooring you use is heavy enough to hold your boat. I have a 500 lb mooring for my 11,500 lb O'day 35. The guy behind me had a 350 lb mooring for his Bene 35' boat. The day after a big fall storm, his boat dragged down onto mine. The boats didn't touch, but he couldn't use his mooring for the test of the season.

Barry


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

*It pays to check the town regs..*

Bellow are just some of the mooring requirements for Bristol Rhode Island.

Also mooring workers/installers must BE approved by the town and renew every year by October 31st!! If your "guy" is suggesting a train wheel perhaps he's not approved? The regs clearly say mushrooms are the approved mooring unless SPECIAL permission is obtained..

From what I see your "guy" is recommending two things that go against the town ordinance.

1) Mushrooms are the preferred mooring not train wheels!

2) Bottom and top chains must each make up 50% of the total scope! There is NO WAY 12 feet of Navy Chain is half of 2 1/2 X the depth at high tide unless the depth at HIGH tide is 9.6 feet and your boat is sitting on the bottom at low water....

Moorings are NOT something to take lightly especially with a beautiful boat like a Mark Ellis designed Niagra! I'm going to shoot from the hip here and suggest you start interviewing new mooring guys!!

From Town of Bristol Rhode Island Web Site:
*
*_*Sec. 8-63. Mooring tackle specifications.*
(a) Moorings and mooring tackle shall meet the minimum standards set forth in all applicable regulations and the following:

(1) The minimum length of the pennant should be 2 1/2 times the distance from the bow chock to the water plus the distance from the bow chock to the mooring cleat or post. The maximum length shall not exceed three-fourths the length of the boat.

(2) All pennant lines running through a chock or any other object
where chafing may occur should have adequate chafeguards.

(3) The total scope of the chain should be 2 1/2 times the depth of the
water at high tide. The bottom and top chain should each consist of approximately 50 percent of the scope.

(4) All shackles, swivels, and other hardware used in the mooring hookup should be proportional in size to the chain used.

(5) All shackles should be properly seized._*

(6) Only mushroom anchors, or equivalent, will be acceptable on permanent moorings unless otherwise authorized by the harbormaster.

(f) Increase in boat size. Mooring permit holders who plan to put a larger boat on their mooring must file an application form with the harbormaster to receive his authorization. Failure to comply with this regulation can result in forfeiture of the mooring permit.

*_(c) All moorings shall be inspected once every two years, and the results of such inspection shall be reported to the harbormaster by September 1. Mooring
inspections shall be performed by a qualified inspector. The inspection shall be made by either raising the mooring or by underwater inspection. Such
inspection shall determine compliance with the mooring and mooring tackle standards of the mooring and dock regulations of this article. Any mooring or component of a mooring reported not in compliance with the mooring and dock regulations shall be replaced within 30 days of such notice. Any mooring
washed ashore during a storm shall be inspected by the harbormaster or his designee before it is reset. All costs of any mooring inspection required under the provisions of this article shall be the responsibility of the mooring owner._*
*


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## erps (Aug 2, 2006)

> The concept of a Mushroom is that with wind and tide shifts, moving the shank around the bell, it screws it's self into the bottom. A train wheel DOES NOT DO THIS!


I think he was going to use the train wheel in conjunction with the mushroom anchor. Wonder if the guy who wrote that ordinance is a mushroom anchor salesman?


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

erps said:


> I think he was going to use the train wheel in conjunction with the mushroom anchor. Wonder if the guy who wrote that ordinance is a mushroom anchor salesman?


To add another anchor to a mushroom prevents the anchor from doing it's designed purpose and screwing itself into the bottom.

As the boat circles around a mushroom, and the shank spins, what happens when it comes into contact with the chain leading to the train wheel???? How does it continue to spin itself into the bottom when it becomes entangled in the chain leading to the second "band aid" mooring?

Band aids are not a good idea in any mooring situation!! Size the mushroom appropriately to begin with and there won't be need for band aids especially poorly executed ones...

_Disclaimer:
I sat on our town harbor committee and was heavily involved in the research leading to our submitted guidelines for moorings and was the main contact for dealing with the Army Corp of Engineers, USCG, talking with numerous other harbor masters, and gathering mooring failure data from municipalities and insurance companies. Suffice it to say cement moorings, engine blocks, train wheels and round granite boulders have substantially higher failure/drag rates than do Mushrooms, Helix or Pyramid moorings. I could write pages on mooring safety & mooring horror stories but I won't boor you..._


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

Helix is a nice concept. Just a bit pricey, once you add the authorized distributor to the authorized diver/installer, unless you can find something else suitable. I know utility companies use them to anchor guy wires, but couldn't locate any specifics about metals and sizes for comparables.


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

hellosailor said:


> Helix is a nice concept. Just a bit pricey, once you add the authorized distributor to the authorized diver/installer, unless you can find something else suitable. I know utility companies use them to anchor guy wires, but couldn't locate any specifics about metals and sizes for comparables.


Unless you live in an area with a certified installer they are a no go. The evidence is overwhelming that they are by far the best available system but you can't actually get one in most areas unless you have DEEP pockets.

The problem with them is that many municipalities are currently going through mooring re-location and harbor re-organization with the aid of GPS mapping and it's very, very costly to re-locate a Helix system....

Mushrooms and Dor-Mors are the next best alternative then flat large diameter granite (Frisbee shaped)...


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## brak (Jan 5, 2007)

Wouldn't it be possible to put a train wheel on the mushroom anchor shank? That way it will still rotate and bury itself, and the wheel will simply provide additional weight?


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## erps (Aug 2, 2006)

Halekai,

I appreciate your experience and background on the matter. However, there is more than one way to skin a cat. If he has an existing mushroom anchor, it should already be buried. If it's not, then mushroom anchors don't work as well as you say.

In our neck of the woods, moorings are typically self installed and mushroom anchors just aren't used that much. Yet somehow, we get by.


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## iwm (Mar 6, 2007)

Thanks to all for replies

Maine Sail, I appreciate your concern and passion (and our Niagara is a beautiful boat), but I think I haven’t provided sufficient details. Our mooring guy is THE guy for Bristol harbor - probably does 75% of the mooring work. Of course, I’d have to check with the harbormaster, but I’m sure his suggestions would pass inspection. The 10’ of chain is merely the bottom chain that would attach the train wheel to the existing 300lb mushroom. There would be additional heavier chain leading to lighter chain to the buoy. 
However, having watched neighbor’s boat drag ashore with the engine block mooring attached, I was (am) skeptical about the train wheel and was initially leaning toward the mushroom option. But somewhat paradoxically after reading Maine Sails argument for the mushroom, I find myself thinking that for this particular use, the train wheel might be better. My thinking goes like this. Given that the existing mushroom is well dug in, but is a little light for the new boat, the second anchor (mushroom or wheel) will function like a tandem anchor or kellet. In this case, due to its extra weight, (and the potential difficulty of getting the new mushroom to dig in) the train wheel may function better in this secondary role than the mushroom. 
Does this make sense? I guess the other option would be to just get one larger mushroom and ditch the existing mooring.
Thanks again for advice

Van


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## artbyjody (Jan 4, 2008)

Am I right to assume that a train wheel mooring is actually an old train wheel attached to chain - and sunk? Doing an internet search yielded just that.... but that one just seemed so non-obviously obvious to be....

Just curious... state of WA also doesn't approve use of such....


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## sailingfool (Apr 17, 2000)

I never heard of the use of a train wheel, seems like something only appropriate for a very sheltered area.

Note that holding power doesn't come from weight of the mooring...the equivelent of a 300 pound mushroom I believe is a 5000 pound granite block. The holding power of the mushroom comes from the resistence of the ground into which it has buried itself, versus the right angle pull of the shank. A wheel without a solid shank that provides a form similar to a mushroom, would be not any better than a rock of comparable weight and diameter...
Get a mushroom, unless there are elliptical/screw anchors available in your area, they have several times the holding power of mushrooms..


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## sailingfool (Apr 17, 2000)

iwm said:


> ...Given that the existing mushroom is well dug in, but is a little light for the new boat, the second anchor (mushroom or wheel) will function like a tandem anchor or kellet. In this case, due to its extra weight,..


Van

What your suggestion doesn't recognize is that the holding power of the mushroom comes more from its size (diameter size, not heaviness). Your 35 would pick the wheel off the ground in say 40 knots of wind and after that, the wheel would play no role in what happens next.


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## billyruffn (Sep 21, 2004)

I think the compostion of the bottom is the key determinant in choosing a type of mooring. You said it was 'medium sand"....If the wheel will work it's way into the sand it might be great. If it will just sit on the surface, it might not be so great.

Mushrooms at least offer some resistance to being dragged sideways. A train wheel might not. The idea of attaching an anchor or two to the trainwheel (with 10-15 ft of heavy chain), and running the top chain from the train wheel to the surface might overcome the problems of a train wheel possibly dragging in a blow.


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## billyruffn (Sep 21, 2004)

Here's another idea. A variation on my mooring might work for you... My mooring in Provincetown (sand bottom) is a pair of 100# danforths with 85ft of 1" naval chain between them. (I got a deal on the anchors at the consignment shop at East Passage Marina, not far from you. They usually have large anchors in the shop). The anchors are oriented with the strongest of the two (one is a danforth hi-tensil) set to hold against the prevailing wind. The other anchor is set 180 deg. from this one with the heavy chain running between them. The 45' top chain is attached in the middle of the bottom bridle, giving me almost 90' of scope in 25 ft of water. Once the danforths are set it almost takes a crane to get them out. 

You could do something like this with another mushroom. Might be better than the train wheel, and it would more easily retrieved.


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

To save $175.00 ???? Don't see the point myself, sounds like false economy.


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

erps said:


> Halekai,
> If it's not, then mushroom anchors don't work as well as you say.
> In our neck of the woods, moorings are typically self installed and mushroom anchors just aren't used that much. Yet somehow, we get by.


Ray,

It's not what I said it's what many, many harbor masters & insurance companies told us from up and down the East Coast, but mostly New England, based on their data on mooring drags and un-sets. While moorings do drag, in numbers that would surprise, the bigger concern is always chafe and proper pendants. The data we gathered in our research showed that for every mooring that dragged two chafed through....

We also discovered many municipalities, down south, that don't even have mooring regulations which we thought weird considering the Hurricane risk they are exposed to. A couple of cinder blocks on a 40 footer and your fine??? Hope I never moor in those municipalities...

In the North East we get what are called Nor' Easters that can carry substantial winds and seas perhaps this is why many of our towns take it seriously.

IWM,
If you rigged the train wheel like a kellet it could add some benefit but I read it as a "tandem" set up which would be a bad way to set it up..


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## erps (Aug 2, 2006)

> What your suggestion doesn't recognize is that the holding power of the mushroom comes more from its size (diameter size, not heaviness). Your 35 would pick the wheel off the ground in say 40 knots of wind and after that, the wheel would play no role in what happens next.


That has not been my experience using a lighter fifth wheel for a bouncer block to keep our previous 34 boat off the beach. The bouncer block is in the same place I left it in 2003 and half way buried now. Should storm conditions get bad enough to lift and slide the bouncer block, I would expect a light sideways pull on the main anchor block. I didn't reinvent the wheel so to speak. I modeled my system after the one that Washington State uses for their state park buoys, which (IIRC) consists of a 2000 lb concrete block attached to a 500 lb bouncer block and then up to the buoy. Concrete isn't near as dense as iron.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Ok, ive decided its time to set a new mooring in a new place. I just checked on my boats in this little windstorm we're having and something gave on my mooring. It has drug and caught on someone elses mooring, no other boat though. 

Ive been talking with a friend of mine that has had alot of luck useing mushroom anchors. Now ive got a nice quite little creek with a pluff mud bottom that im moving my boats to. Ive got 2 boats to moor and don't want them sharing a mooring again. One boat is a Bayfield 25, disp 3500#. The other boat is a Pearson 36, disp 13,500#. Would a 100# mushroom on the Bayfield and a 200# on the Pearson work out ok. The creek is fairly sheltered and the bottom is all pluff mud. The first mooring to go in will be the Bayfield's and then the Pearson's. 

My current mooring of the last year has been 2 22# danfoth anchors set with 60' of 3/8 chain between them and 70' of 5/16 chain from the middle up. This has held pretty well, but all this wind has been coming from the side and not up the river, that was the flaw in my mooring. Add in the extra weight and windage of 2 boats, and it was bound to drag.


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## 2Gringos (Jan 4, 2008)

Some of you guys amaze me. A train wheel makes an excellent anchor if it's properly configured. In fact, it IS a mushroom anchor. I have deployed and retrieved literally hundreds of them around the world. In my former career, we used them to secure taut-line oceanographic moorings. One job alone for Woodside Petroleum in NW Australia, we pulled and reset twenty moorings a month....for a year.

With a half a million bucks worth of oceanographic equipment and data and ship-time on each mooring, you can rest assured that if we could have bought a better anchor for the job we would have done so. Price was not a factor.

If you leave a surface float of sufficient strength on the mooring where there is ice movement, yeah, it will drag it. Ask LILCO of Long Island, or the USCG. Two other customers of mine. I got to go out with a sidescan sonar and map the anchor scour marks to see how many of LILCO's power cables across LI Sound got moved by ice-dragged USCG buoys...

What you do is get the train wheel with several feet of the axle still attached. We used to buy them from scrap yards, and get them cut that way. Then you get a good strong bale welded as a hoop across the cut end of the anchor. It looks, generally, like this:


Pulling laterally on the bale makes the edge of the wheel dig in, and you better believe it will set. I dove on many, many of them. Sometimes I had to go down to attach instrumentation after they were deployed, and we would weld brackets to the axle for that sometimes. Also, sometimes our subsurface floatation would get carried away and I would have to dive to get a line on the wheel to retrieve the mooring. So I have seen plenty of them sitting on the bottom. They set.

Of course, if you insist, your welder could probably make you a little West Marine or other yachty logo on the wheel if it would make you feel better about paying more.

By the way, with a couple feet of the solid steel axle still attached, the anchors come in at something more like 650-700 lbs , depending on the length.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

2Gringos-

I don't think these guys are talking about using the train wheel with an axle or by itself.


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

*SV Distant..*

Whew that's a SCARY configuration for TWO boats!!!! You have been VERY, VERY lucky. Again, this type of set up is WHY municipalities have set up minimum requirements..
*
Suggested Minimum's 

For the Bayfield*
Steel Mushroom = 250 Lbs.
Cast Iron Mushroom = 250 Lbs.
Pyramid (Dor-Mor) = 300 Lbs. (they don't make a 250)

*For The Pearson:
*Steel Mushroom = 400 Lbs.
Cast Iron Mushroom = 400 Lbs.
Pyramid (Dor-Mor) =400 Lbs.

Here are the MINIMUM guidelines for mushroom and pyramid anchors:
Hamilton Marine Mooring Sizing Guide









And a photo of what a typical mooring configuration should look like:


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

2Gringos said:


> Some of you guys amaze me. A train wheel makes an excellent anchor if it's properly configured. In fact, it IS a mushroom anchor. I have deployed and retrieved literally hundreds of them around the world. In my former career, we used them to secure taut-line oceanographic moorings. One job alone for Woodside Petroleum in NW Australia, we pulled and reset twenty moorings a month....for a year.
> 
> With a half a million bucks worth of oceanographic equipment and data and ship-time on each mooring, you can rest assured that if we could have bought a better anchor for the job we would have done so. Price was not a factor.
> 
> ...


That set up would work fine but with the cost of scrap steel in the US, trucking both to a welder, paying for the labor to weld the bale and then trucking it to your mooring guy you'd probabl pay equal or more than what a properly sized cast iron mushroom would cost any way. Cast iron mushrooms sell for .99 Lb. up here and I can buy them for about .77 Lb. with my commercial discount and my local chandlery delivers..

Unfortunately, I don't believe he was talking about a "train wheel mushroom" just a "train wheel" and there's a big difference....


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## 2Gringos (Jan 4, 2008)

What does scrap iron cost per pound these days? We had the scrap yard weld it, and it was not a very complicated job.

But my main point was meant to be that a properly made RR wheel anchor works just fine, and it's cheap. And you can put one on a sheet of plywood in the back of a pickup truck to transport it.


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

2Gringos said:


> But my main point was meant to be that a properly made RR wheel anchor works just fine, and it's cheap.


No doubt but the key term is *properly made*.

The only thing I would change is I would not want an axle any less than about four feet total length as you need that leverage & weight to tip the mooring on it's side to get the wheel to begin screwing it to the mud and setting. The weight of a longer axle, the added leverage, and bottom chain at a longer fulcrum effect, would help to keep it tipped and dug in.


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## TrueBlue (Oct 11, 2004)

I'm curious to know if a mushroom ( or trainwheel ) mooring anchor, once "tipped" on it's side, has the ability to rotate with shifting tides and currents. If not, would the rode's forces against the shank ( or axle ) change from tension to compression?


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

TrueBlue said:


> I'm curious to know if a mushroom ( or trainwheel ) mooring anchor, once "tipped" on it's side, has the ability to rotate with shifting tides and currents. If not, would the rode's forces against the shank ( or axle ) change from tension to compression?


Yes, that's the whole idea. As the boat moves around the mooring to say 2:00 and the wind picks up to say 12-14 the mooring digs in and begins to penetrate the bottom.

The next day the wind comes up and your now pulling from 6:00. When the wind gets strong enough to move the bottom chain (usually 5-14 knots depending on the weight of the bottom chain) it will, with the leverage of the long shank (another reason why mushrooms have long shanks), twist the "bell" and shank to point to the 6:00 orientation all the while, and with every shift and strong enough winds, the bell or "fluke", if you will, of the mushroom is "screwing" itself into the bottom until it disappears. Some bottoms it won't screw as deeply into and that is why many locals have recommendations for mooring type. If you have a mud or sand bottom mushrooms will bury but it does take some time to bury fully..

As I stated above my mooring is inspected every two years. The diver, at this point, can barely reach the shackle in the giant funnel cone made by the chain. My mushroom is vertical now and the top of the shank where the shackle connects is roughly 30" bellow the oceans floor. As my boat spins the chain now makes a funnel cone in the bottom. Try sinking your foot, up to your knee, then pulling your boot out of clam flat mud. That is the kind of suction and force you get, only multiplied vastly, when a mushroom is set.

Both a mushroom, and a properly made train wheel with long enough shank, would perform virtually the same though the sharp edge of the mushroom might allow it to fully set faster than the thick cross section of a trains wheel.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

Halekai-
"it's very, very costly to re-locate a Helix system...." Unless you get a dozen young pagan hardhat divers and convince them it is a Maypole ceremony.[g]

I like your idea of what sufficient chain is. I suspect you don't lose much sleep over worries about tackle failing.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

One problem I see with the train wheel and axle is that welds are often far more prone to corrosion than are the two parts joined by the weld. What do you think would happen to the boat if the weld holding the axle to the wheel came apart??? A one-piece DorMor or Mushroom isn't going to have that problem.


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## erps (Aug 2, 2006)

> One problem I see with the train wheel and axle is that welds are often far more prone to corrosion than are the two parts joined by the weld. What do you think would happen to the boat if the weld holding the axle to the wheel came apart???


Probably the same thing if the welds in the chain came apart.


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## petegingras (Mar 29, 2007)

Ray


> I think he was going to use the train wheel in conjunction with the mushroom anchor. Wonder if the guy who wrote that ordinance is a mushroom anchor salesman?


surley you jest? In Rouges Island, it's probable the guys whole family is in the mushroom anchor business. Bristol, Rhode Island, dark history...prominent in the slave triangle, very sad.


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## jonlgauthier (Apr 27, 2000)

I'm pretty sure Constitution Marina in Charlestown (across from Boston) still uses them. A few years back, right where the new hotel next door stands, there used to be at least 50 or 60 train wheel/axle moorings, waiting to be used.

The marina is just a stone's throw from the Boston Commuter Rail service yard.

These were huge - we're talking ~36" diameter wheels, and the axles were probably 3" in diameter. IF the bails were properly welded, these things weren't going anywhere.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

One major difference, the chain links are usually hot dip galvanized, and the welds are protected from the corrosive effects of the sea water by the galvanization. That is not the case for a weld between a train wheel and an axle installed into the wheel to be used as an anchor stock.


erps said:


> Probably the same thing if the welds in the chain came apart.


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

iwm said:


> thanks for the quick replies
> 
> current moorings 300lb mushroom. boat is 35 ft, 15,500 lb displacement Niagara 35. location = bristol, ri
> 
> Van


All of the National Yacht Club's mooring field moors are railcar wheels and chain, and they rarely go off station, despite exposure to southwesterly storm that a World War I-built and rather decrepit breakwall does little to shield.

They are dived on every year and examined for distortion in the links or shackles...I believe about 10% per season require attention. We have larger boats than Niagara 35s on some of them, and while I can recall a couple of boats chafing their mooring lines through, I can't recall an outright mooring failure.

For some reason the figure of 800 lbs. sticks in my mind. Maybe it's _two_ wheels, stacked, or maybe each wheel has extra concrete weighing it down.

We have a quite specialized barge a weld-shop owing club member made a few years back. This barge is able to haul the moors directly up with a small crane and they are serviced on its deck. But inspecting them is done every April by volunteer divers with better insulated scrotums than mine.


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## 2Gringos (Jan 4, 2008)

If someone was worried about the quality of their welder's work, it would be a simple enough matter to take a gas ax and blow a hole through the axle.

As for the weight, I remember single wheel/axle sections running weights around 700 lbs. Two wheels would be MUCH more than 800 lbs. But it would not be too difficult to put another hundred pounds of hardware on a 700 lb. anchor.

Maybe some European guage trains have different size wheels or something, but as I recall, the ones we bought in the US were pretty much all about the same configuration.


Some of the programs we worked on were one year studies, and we would haul the entire moorings out once a month to change batteries, remove data, and do maintenance on the oceanographic instrumentation. I don't ever remember having to repair a bale due to corrosion.


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