Two recent Shorpy offerings caught my eye...
http://www.shorpy.com/node/21078?size=_original#caption
and...
http://www.shorpy.com/node/21075?size=_original#caption
I have been at both of these locations—still in operation—but, of course, looking a little different.
Lots of great details to see, wooden brake beams, old box cars used for sheds, hand-laid cribbing from old ties, the fascinating Whirley cranes—and what's that Schlitz refrigerator car doing there?
Have fun! Ed
gmpullmanand what's that Schlitz refrigerator car doing there?
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
gmpullman and what's that Schlitz refrigerator car doing there? I don’t know about you Ed, but after a long hard days work in that environment I’d find that a nice cool beer would really hit the spot. Cheers the Beer Bear.
gmpullman and what's that Schlitz refrigerator car doing there?
I completely agree, Bear—but, spotting the car SO close that you could sniff the suds is patently inhumane!
regards, Ed
I noticed that the Schlitz "reefer" has no evidence of ice hatches. Is it actually a plug-door (insulated?) boxcar?
Tom
It would be interesting to know the class of the gon in the foreground of the second picture; I would have guessed it was a class GG hopper, but a look at PRR.railfan.net disabused me of that idea: the weight doesn'tmatch the drawing, and the side stakes are steel, not wood. It could be an upgrade, but I couldn't find a drawing on the site that matched it.
http://mprailway.blogspot.com
"The first transition era - wood to steel!"
ACY I noticed that the Schlitz "reefer" has no evidence of ice hatches. Is it actually a plug-door (insulated?) boxcar? Tom
That was one of the first things that caught my eye as well, Tom.
There's some information here as well as several other examples of "hatchless" refrigerator cars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_car
An interesting history lesson...
The one thing that immediately jumped out and bit me was the amount of coal smoke. Everything was steam powered - even that long conveyor at the top of the first photo.
A present-day air pollution activist would have had an absolute hissy-fit back then. Right now in Sin City people are fussing about the thin haze of smoke drifting over from California's wildfires...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
gmpullmanI completely agree, Bear—but, spotting the car SO close that you could sniff the suds is patently inhumane!
There is a PY&A class GG wooden hopper car in the collection of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, PA. It is said to be the oldest surviving freight car from the PRR or its subsidiaries, and probably served as the inspiration for the MR drawings.
Many years ago the PRR Historical & Technical Society's magazine, the Keystone, published a comprehensive article on the PRR's early wooden hoppers. I can't find my copy at the moment. If anybody can locate it, it might help identify the car in the photo.
ACYI can't find my copy at the moment. If anybody can locate it, it might help identify the car in the photo.
I may have the issue, Tom, but time will not allow me to search for it until later this evening.
Look at the interesting arrangement for the "car holdback" dogs on the ramp:
They appear to be sprung or counterweighted to engage the axle of the cars. Somewhat similar to the ratchet mechanism on so many roller-coaster hills. But what about going down? They would have to be disengaged, perhaps only one or two sets at a time?
Why so many box cars up on the coal wharf? Hauling grain in a box car, sure—but coal?
[edit]
I found the "Keystone" issue, V19 No. 1, and it shows a class GD wood gondola with a 28 foot length over end beams but the light weight only being 26,700 lbs where the car in the photo is 31,900 lbs.
Counting the side boards shows that the car in the foreground is probably a GN where the inside height was increased to 5'-3" giving a volume of 1550 cu. ft. and the light weight is rated at 31,600 lbs.
The spotting feature of the GN is the pressed steel side stakes which this car has, the car beyond having wood stakes. The all-steel hopper car was adopted in 1898, Lines East continued building wood class GNs until 1902.
Coal in box cars?
I dimly recall a Trains article describing a Rube Goldberg arrangement of conveyors used for loading box cars at a Colorado colliery. The product was high quality lump coal meant for retail sale - for cooking and potbelly stoves. Simply pouring it into an open-top would have damaged the lumps. Steam coal isn't as fussy.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - loading boxcars with bricquette coal in baskets)
At some mines coal was loaded into box cars.Great Photos!
Thank You.
It was common for beer cars to be insulated boxcars (actually the majority of beer today is shipped in insulated boxcars).
Note the construction details. There are grabirons only on the sides, the gons only have a vertical grab on the corners. There are no poling pockets on the cars but on the yard office, made from an old boxcar, there are poling pockets, sliding door and a roofwalk. On the boxcar there is a wooden cover over the roller track on the door. The reefer has a truss rod on the car ends.
Note the car of timbers to build the temporary retaining walls to hold the piles of ore/coal and the workers clearing off the tracks where there was a spill.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I sure like the pics you find Ed. ! So much detail, you could fill a large dock side switching layout !.
And the Schlitz car ! What made Milwaukee famous ! Is that frost around the doors?
It makes me thirsty for a cold one ! I think every working man carried a "pail" at the time, and judging by the work enviroment, it had to make the day, and lunch time, something to anticipate!.
Mike.
My You Tube
Bingo - GN looks right to me, I stopped searching down the list at GL, not wanting to waste my time on steel equipment.
I do have the diagrams for the GG, and I have seen the car in the RRMPA, which is unfortunately not in a particularly good state. If you ever have the urge to build one, Westerfield had a model that looked absolutely beautiful - very nice resin casting, much better than I could do for myself!
This discussion made me think - it's great that people have done so much to preserve the documentation that exists on wooden car fleets, but the reality is that the information we have must be only a tiny fraction of what must once have existed. I would bet a statistically significant percentage of the wood car kits that are available must have come from either drawings that were made by hobbyists from photos and prototype measurements, or from drawings that are descended in one way or another from industry publications that were preserved - the old "Car Builders' Dictionary," and things like that. I bet in most cases, the original drawings went into the stove long before anyone had a thought of preserving them.