What is this, what does it do?

[MidlandMike]

SD70Dude

My guess would be transfer caboose, most likely homebuilt. 

Here's another one of their oddities:

http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=30567

 

The link shows old wood caboose #55.  It says that it was replaced by a new #55 which was a steel caboose of PC/PRR origin.  Notice that the cut down steel caboose in MiningMan's photo is #55.  The hand rails on the cut down portion look like that of a transfer caboose.  I would guess they would not have lasted long in boom car service.

[Overmod]

SD70Dude

Here's another one of their oddities:

This perhaps a little easier to 'explicate' -- if Essex Terminal, in the late Fifties, offered the same outsourced maintenance-of-way services they do now, this looks an awful lot like a dorm car.  That it is only a couple of numbers away from the half-caboose does get me thinking the latter is more special-duty than a shoving platform.

I have yet another interesting piece of Essex Terminal equipment. 

[SD70Dude]

My guess would be transfer caboose, most likely homebuilt. 

Here's another one of their oddities:

http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=30567

[M636C]

Miningman

Found the perfect companion for the New York Central whatzzit #H-24

Anybody know what this is?

 

It looks like a companion vehicle for a small crane or similar item which has a projecting jib (or conveyor oe whatever).

Peter

[Miningman]

Found the perfect companion for the New York Central whatzzit #H-24

Anybody know what this is?

[Overmod]

Miningman

You bet Firelock... TGI....W!

Well, if Wednesday is Sundae at Carvel, why can't it be Wansday at Kalmbach?

 

Hmmm ... I see a tradition coming on.  A bit like String Lining but for matters Mc.

[Miningman]

You bet Firelock... TGI....W!

As Overmod has stated H-24 is much later in the numbering sequence so it would be perhaps safe to assume it's a younger unit than H1-H8 in terms of the way it was used. 

We will get to the bottom of this. We figured out Bowie Racetrack and that weird device by the Lackawanna stack. ( maybe it was Lehigh Valley)

[Firelock76]

SD70Dude

Hmmm, now where could you have gotten a gem like that from...

 

Looks like the 'Wheel is still out there, and still turning!  Hee, hee, hee!

God bless 'im!

[wjstix]

Canada Southern was it's own division - technically the Canadian Southern division of the Michigan Central, which was part of the New York Central System. So Windsor / Detroit would be a division point, which would normally in steam days mean a crew/locomotive change anyway. CS engine takes train to Windsor, electric motor takes it under the river to Detroit, MC engine takes the train on towards Chicago.

Since the eastern electric lines had plenty of passenger motors (with steam generators), using heater cars to heat the cars between Windsor and Detroit would make sense, since those were basically freight / switcher electrics (i.e. no steam generator IIRC).

[Miningman]

HAL 9000 on board the Discovery deep below in a secret location in Long Island. 

[SD70Dude]

Hmmm, now where could you have gotten a gem like that from...

[Miningman]

Something to read until H-24 is solved. Might give some clues.

....something until H-24 mystery is solved  https://books.google.com/books?id=vp8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA821

 

 

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Based on photos in "When the Steam Roads Electrified", trains were pulled through the Detroit River Tunnel without the steam locomotives.

As an aside, R2's looked pretty good with pantographs and in orange paint.

[Overmod]

daveklepper

For when trains were pulled without the steam locomotive attached?

Were trains ever pulled through the tunnel with the locomotive attached, but the fire banked down (to where it might not produce sufficient steam for full train heating?)

And does it have to be 'either/or' with respect to switch heating at those times the car wouldn't be in passenger service?  I can't see the sense in having hostling controls on an open-platform car used for passenger-train heat - someone enlighten me.

I do think the idea of Detroit service is reasonable.  Wasn't the use of R-motors in Detroit service comparatively late, which would make the construction of heater cars for that service, if sequentially numbered in an H-series, have a number as high as 24?

Otherwise this raises the question for NYC specialists, what were cars H-9 through H-23?  No pictures on the Web I can find yet.  There might be some highly interesting comments there.

[Miningman]

Is Dave right? Makes perfect sense. In that kind of service it does not matter much what it looks like or match any consist. 

[rcdrye]

The pipe connections underneath are for passenger cars.  Since it's coupled to an R-2, a design known to be used with heater cars, it's most likely a heater car for passenger trains.  If the R-2 is 338 (could be 332) it was in a group geared for passenger train use, even though none of the R-2s had boilers. Some of the hump trailers (slugs) had hostler controls that look a lot like the weird structure on H-24's front deck.  The PCL controls used with the DES-2 class tripower units would would have worked with an R-2.

[daveklepper]

CASO expert:   Steam generator associated with the Detroit Tunnel electrification?

For when trains were pulled without the steam locomotive attaached?

[Miningman]

All in good fun. Just playing along with rcdrye BUT it is easy to mess up here and there when it comes to the Net. Sometimes you think the computer must know what your thinking or mean, which of course is ridiculous.  I am super duper careful with the good taxpayers of Saskatchewans computer at work, not so much with my own at home or with my iPad. I like wearing my housecoat or vintage smoking jacket a-la Heff at home but I sure has heck don't wear that to the college. Same kind of thing. Whatever.

I like your theory as a switch ice melter but it would be swell to get some definitive documentation or eyewitness account. 

[Overmod]

Miningman

Yeah I know if I searched 'hump trailers' at the school I would get a visit by IT in about 5 minutes, followed by our CEO shortly after.

Your trouble is that you don't understand search engine syntax.  Obviously you type in the word 'railroad', followed by "hump trailer" in double quotes, and get 2410 answers to your question in 0.44 seconds, the very first ones of which give you exactly what you need.*

Including this illustration of an actual hump trailer:

The thread from which this came covers their use; it pretty much rules out H-24 from being used either as augmented (repetitive independent) braking for the associated power (valuable both for electric and steam) or for typical slug purposes with electrics.  But then again, he didn't say it WAS a trailer, only that it had controls to allow its coupled engine to be operated as if it were.  In my opinion that strongly supports its use as a steam source for yard track de-icing: the fine control to get it over parts of the switch needing steam, and the need for careful inspection of the result without having to use some sort of signals to a remote engineer pushing you.

*That is, to answer the question posed in the previous posts.  Not any ah, carefully unrequested other things that the original search might, ah, have assisted with answers for...

[Miningman]

Yeah I know if I searched 'hump trailers' at the school I would get a visit by IT in about 5 minutes, followed by our CEO shortly after. 

So we are still not sure what's it's exact usage was, only what it does, we think. It might be used on mail and express trains or work trains more likely, but with that configuration I don't think it was behind any passenger trains... maybe on the Rock Island but not the Central. 

[rcdrye]

Getting back to our heater car H-24 - it has equipment on the end that suggests it has hostler controls similar to those found on NYC hump trailers (searching for hump trailers on internet search engines gets - umm - interesting results).  Steam pipes visible underneath, NYC name is on what are clearly water tanks on the side.  Probably retired before 1954, so not in the diagram book.  The engine it's coupled to is an R-2.

[Jones1945]

Overmod

 

 

erikem

... utterly complete lunatics

 

 

Perhaps the finest of all sigs belongs to a frequent poster on RyPN who assembled an animgif of all the "GG1 variants" changing at lunatic speed. 

(I copied this and ran it through an animgif editor to slow down the cyclic rate to something more enjoyable to the migraine-susceptible; it's more entertaining to play it that way to enjoy the rabid creativity)

 

---> Slowed down a bit <---

[Overmod]

erikem

... utterly complete lunatics

Perhaps the finest of all sigs belongs to a frequent poster on RyPN who assembled an animgif of all the "GG1 variants" changing at lunatic speed. 

(I copied this and ran it through an animgif editor to slow down the cyclic rate to something more enjoyable to the migraine-susceptible; it's more entertaining to play it that way to enjoy the rabid creativity)

[erikem]

Overmod

And it refers to one of the great treasures of the Internet, Sam Berliner III's far-flung empire of interesting pages.  Start here: http://sbiii.com/rr.html

My first reaction on seeing the Berlinerwerke webpages was that the people responsible for the site were utterly complete lunatics - i.e. my kind of folks...

[Miningman]

Yeah but ... H-24 doesn't resemble the others.

http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/images/nyc-diesel-1954.pdf

The drawings of the H1-H8 are nothing like H-24. 

This is a pretty comprehensive list .. I cannot seem to find H-24. 

Perhaps it is listed and recorded as rolling stock. This would make Overmods theory more correct. Someone out there knows this thing!

[rcdrye]

Fixed it on the original post.  Works now.

[Overmod]

Jones1945

I note that many webpage created by devoted railfans around Year 2000 or during the geocities/html era doesn't work anymore

Aaaaaah -- you have a treat in store.  All that was wrong with the link is that it contained the 'typo' of having the http:// twice.  And it refers to one of the great treasures of the Internet, Sam Berliner III's far-flung empire of interesting pages.  Start here: http://sbiii.com/rr.html

The specific boxcab link (one among many!) repeated here for convenience is http://sbiii.com/boxcabny.html

 

[Jones1945]

Miningman

Was hoping rcdrye would weigh in. Thanks for the info and clarification on its use. Unfortunately your link does not work. Can you re-post? 

I note that many webpage created by devoted railfans around Year 2000 or during the geocities/html era doesn't work anymore, I wish one day someone or some organization will backup them systematically , beside the Internet Wayback Machine. 

[MidlandMike]

rcdrye

Apparently eight of them existed, H-1 to H-8, for use behind R-class motors, which did not have heaters, mostly for mail/express trains on the West Side line.  Built at Harmon, bodies bear strong resemblance to the main part of contemporary Baldwin-Westinghouse steeple cabs (right down to the three window config), but may have been purpose-built. See

http://http://sbiii.com/boxcabny.html for more details.

At least one of his photos shows fuel/water connections, and steam lines.

 

In Middleton's When the Steam Railroads Electrified there is a photo of R-2s hauling a mail train on the West Side line.  He also noted that 6 R-2s were transferred to the Detroit River Tunnel in later years, hence the OP photo of the R-2 that is coupled to the heater car on CASO.