This is art to me !! since age 10 I've drramed of this

[vicegrip]

On the way home, after a LONG week this aft,
I didn't know the Historical Sociaty had moved
things from Sturtavant
(Train station, Corliss stuff & a CABOOSE !!)
to the park by the river.
The rest of the stuff was locked but not the Caboose.
I had her all to my self.......
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[vicegrip]

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I outa put this one in an ammature pictaker contest. I LUV IT>
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Don,t know what this is for??
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[usmcpop]

Looks like some sort of drying rack under the hammer.

[Wyoming]

Pop, think of knuckles, as in railcar connections. Looks more like a knuckle rack. Keeps 'em from rolling around on the floor, easier to get to 'em and quieter when the slack runs in...or the draft out.


Phil, Come out before I retire and I'll show you the working end of the train...

[Roger]

Looks same as the caboose I investigated at age 12 while living near Great Northern train yard.

[Wyoming]

Phil,
If you have an 'in' with any of the smaller municipalities near you, have them contact any of the railroads for a 'free' tickwagen. They're high button shoe technology no longer much used, work trains and a few locals is about it. In theory they are a safer way to operate, but in practical application...not so much. Used to really have to toss the slack back at 'em before you could get either the conductor or rear brakeman off the 'black magnets'.

[vicegrip]

Pop, think of knuckles, as in railcar connections. Looks more like a knuckle rack. Keeps 'em from rolling around on the floor, easier to get to 'em and quieter when the slack runs in...or the draft out.


Phil, Come out before I retire and I'll show you the working end of the train...

There was at least one sign in the Caboose that said to always
be allert for "slack" motion or something like that.

I did have a switch engine at Bucyruss bring a masthead in on a flatcar.
The tracks came right inside the building. The fascinating thing was
the flatcar was one massive homogehous casting.
NOT welded or rivited together.
Once they backed out, the part on my table
had to be supported by jacks I put on the tracks.
vg

[Wyoming]

Phil, we used to run 3 mile long freighters back in the late '70s. With the auto-racks, and their cushioned drawbars, you could get thrown out of your seat and kiss the windshield coming over a hill as the slack came at ya'.

[usmcpop]

There's a caboose at the elementary school just up the street from me. I've never climber up to see if there was anything to be seen inside.

My Grandpa used to work for the railroad in Crestline, Ohio. It used to be some sort of hub or depot. Sadly, the roundhouse was abandoned and although some people tried to save it, most of it was bulldozed a few years ago.

[ToolBoxTavern]

Great piece of history.

[Blacksmith]

Truly amazing stuff, the golden age of railroads. Powerful steam locomotives and all the innovations that allowed them to move enormous amounts of freight, but not without a lot of hard work and danger. Probably couldn't have done it today - too hard and too many regulations.

[usmcpop]

Hard to imagine a 2-6-6-6 steam locomotive weighing over 750,000 lbs. with 7,498 hp.

[vicegrip]

I remember once in the 70's two or so crossings before
Oak Creek power-plant. a sudden lurch and I heard the chain
of sounds run along the lenght of the train.
============Stopping or starting ?? not sure anymore.
sounded like "part bang part clunk", bout 4-6 hits/second quite cool

[Blacksmith]

With an articualted boiler to go around the bends!

[mikecwik]

what a beautiful stove.