poling

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tatans

VSM: Does anyone know where you can get any information on the model of the pole car, no one seems to have ever seen one .

I found it after googling "pole car" here:

http://www.victorianweb.org/cv/models/apg/nonrevenue/9.html

hope it helps

[Anonymous]

In steam locomotive pictures you will frequently see the push pole slung alongside the tender just under the tank. They are usually round poles, slightly tapered at both ends and bound by metal bands every few feet (if the poles were built by the railroad for that purpose)

Also, many pictures of diesels will show the push pockets into the 70's, 80's or even later. After that period they started eliminating them during rebuilds.

[nobullchitbids]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ValleyX

QUOTE: Originally posted by nobullchitbids



Poling with a pole commonly would be done to spot a car on a siding with a facing-point turnout. This maneuver often would be tried in addition to such other unfavored stunts as flying switches, and of course when the car would hang up, poling would have to be used to clear the turnout.

I would question UNFAVORED. Unfavored leads one to believe that it wasn't an approved-of practice, nothing could be farther from the truth, it was a common practice, nothing prohibited, and made for good railroading at that time. The fact that cars occcasionally didn't go quite far enough and clear up brought the other practice in, poling, which also wasn't looked on unfavorably, or there wouldn't have been a holder on the locomotive for a pole.

How unfavored the practice was I gather differed from railroad to railroad. Since I was not alive back then, I only can report what I have read, upon the authority of who wrote it. Droege, then operating superintendent of the New Haven, called both practices [poling and flying switches] dangerous and to be avoided. But Valley X is right: Some locomotives had hooks or other attachments to facilitate carrying a pole (PFM's model of the NKP Berkshire is so equipped).

[nobullchitbids]

I saw brass models of poling cars for sale some time ago at The Caboose in Wolcott, CT. I believe the e-mail is [e-mail] (tell them Robert Crim sent you); owner is Armand Mazzetti. They might be able to track down a model (Overland?) for those interested.

P.S. Freight Terminals and Trains I believe was written by Droege.

[ValleyX]

QUOTE: Originally posted by nobullchitbids



Poling with a pole commonly would be done to spot a car on a siding with a facing-point turnout. This maneuver often would be tried in addition to such other unfavored stunts as flying switches, and of course when the car would hang up, poling would have to be used to clear the turnout.

I would question UNFAVORED. Unfavored leads one to believe that it wasn't an approved-of practice, nothing could be farther from the truth, it was a common practice, nothing prohibited, and made for good railroading at that time. The fact that cars occcasionally didn't go quite far enough and clear up brought the other practice in, poling, which also wasn't looked on unfavorably, or there wouldn't have been a holder on the locomotive for a pole.

[nobullchitbids]

The previous posters pretty much have it right, except that poling needs to be separated into the two different operations -- using a pole, and using a poling car. The latter was relatively safe; the former quite dangerous, since the poles easily broke under pressure.

Poling with a poling car was used in yards to allow switchers on one track to spot cars on adjacent tracks; the poling car was pretty much as described.

Poling with a pole commonly would be done to spot a car on a siding with a facing-point turnout. This maneuver often would be tried in addition to such other unfavored stunts as flying switches, and of course when the car would hang up, poling would have to be used to clear the turnout.

The practice, with photos of a poling car, is described in Freight Terminals and Trains, for anyone who can locate a copy of that book.

[tatans]

VSM: Does anyone know where you can get any information on the model of the pole car, no one seems to have ever seen one .

[edbenton]

Poling for me is like having to drag a trailer out of a hole since teh yard jockey with the hydraulic fifth wheel dropped them to close together that you can not get back to crank up the dolly legs. There were times I had to pull a trailer out fully loaded witht eh legs down and pray I did not break a leg off.

[rrandb]

GE built an engine for the Toledo Ore Company they called a "side arm pusher" which "poled" ore cars through a continous unloader from a parallel 2 foot guage track. I assume this was so more cars could be added to the track without traping the engine on the dump track. The engine had no couplers.[2c] As always ENJOY

[Anonymous]

There was a variation on the pinch bar that we used when I worked in a chemical plant in the middle 1970's to the mid-1980's. It was called a pole jack, or at least that's what we called it. Of course, we also had some other names for them, but repeating those would get me in trouble with Bergie. The "business end" was basically a three piece assembly. there was a steel saddle with a pair of square knives that rested on top of the rail. The knives would "bite" into the rail to keep the thing from slipping. Pivoted to the saddle was lever with a pivoted shoe that pushed against the wheel near the point where the wheel and railhead touched. The "stupid end" consisted of a large, heavy wooden handle, about six feet long that attached to the steel lever that pivoted on the saddle. They worked pretty well on empty cars when we needed to move them just a bit to spot for loading, but moving a load was work! They did the same thing as a pinch bar, but provided a bit more mechanical advantage. It did take two men to move a car if there was any deviation from perfectly level that would cause the car to want to roll backward.

[Anonymous]

In O. Winston Links book "The Last Steam Trains in America", there is a series of photos of a trainman "poling the gon", using a pole to shove a gondola.

Erik

[John Bakeer]

I poled a punt once on the river Cam at Cambridge forty years ago.
John B.

[samfp1943]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

Pinch bar


Poling cars

Really NIce Photos, and that model is terrific![^][^][^] THanks for sharing.
Sam

[tatans]

Never heard of ,or saw a photo of a pole car,super photos, also of the pinchbar, who makes the model of the pole car?? You learn something new every day.

[espeefoamer]

I have used a pinch bar several times.When i worked in a rail served warehouse ,sometimes the railroad wouldn't get the boxcar lined up against the loading door.In this case,we had to move the car with a pinchbar.Usually took two guys to do the job.

[vsmith]

Pinch bar


Poling cars

[Gasman63]

I once watched and L & N Switch crew try to move a car that fouled a switch trapping the engine. They wedged a piece of utility pole between the step of the switcher (SW 7) and the car. When they moved, they tore the step off the engine.

Bob

[cefinkjr]

Believe it or not, there were yards that were designed from the start as "poling yards". The switch engine and a poling car used a "poling track" parallel to the ladder track. This was supposedly more efficient. No wonder so few railroaders lived to retirement with all of their original equipment.

Chuck

[Tim Burton]

Here is a picture of the seating mount for the "pole".




And here is another image as a Poling mount:

http://www.nelsonslocomotive.com/Photos/MarkMihalyi/MarkMihalyi.htm

[gmstm]

re. Pinch bar
I worked for the Southern Railway in the Carolinas in summer/fall of 1962. I was in the MOW dept. It was a real angle bar railroad back then. I used a pinch bar to move hopper car out of the way so we could patch a broken rail.
gmstm

[Anonymous]

Poling like many operations requires close attention and awareness of the potential safety hazard involved. When used only as a last resort by knowledgeable people it can be performed safely.
It was common on interurban freight operations and most steeple cabs carried poles often on brackets on each side of the locomotive frame.

[samfp1943]

QUOTE: Originally posted by samfp1943

QUOTE: Originally posted by Old Timer

Poling was just like a lot of things around the railroad - it was only dangerous in the hands of people who didn't take care in doing it, and who used unsafe poles.

I've seen it done many times by people who knew what they were doing, and there weren't any problems.

Old Timer

At one time I remember seeing a photo of a poling car, it was a shorty flat car with a pole on either side, one end was fixed to the car and the other would swing out to contact the poling pocket on the car to be pushed [at one time most cars had a poling point on each corner of the car for this practice] The pushing end was supported by a rod or brace from the pivot point on a verticle support on the side of the car. I cannot remember the details, but I would suspect that that type of car would be located in a large yard or certainly to switch crews in urban areas that had to do a lot of car pushing. It was certainly not an unusual practice, when most rail cars would have a poling pocket made onto the car. Many steam switch engines, and early diesels had poling bars hung on the tender frame or on the walkway of the diesel. At least until the practice was outlawed b the Operational Rules of the RR's.
Sam

THe poling car that I was describing resembled a transfer caboose, similar to some of the ones the MoPac and UP had. Only the one I remembered seeing was a very rustic version as the "cabin" resembled a hand built shack on the car.
Sam

[Anonymous]

I remember doing a poling once and once only as we would have been "poled" by the trainmaster had he known about it lol thats what we got for running late and finding a car that absolutely had to be picked up!! Oh well thats history now and we survived that and some other stupid tricks

[samfp1943]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Old Timer

Poling was just like a lot of things around the railroad - it was only dangerous in the hands of people who didn't take care in doing it, and who used unsafe poles.

I've seen it done many times by people who knew what they were doing, and there weren't any problems.

Old Timer

At one time I remember seeing a photo of a poling car, it was a shorty flat car with a pole on either side, one end was fixed to the car and the other would swing out to contact the poling pocket on the car to be pushed [at one time most cars had a poling point on each corner of the car for this practice] The pushing end was supported by a rod or brace from the pivot point on a verticle support on the side of the car. I cannot remember the details, but I would suspect that that type of car would be located in a large yard or certainly to switch crews in urban areas that had to do a lot of car pushing. It was certainly not an unusual practice, when most rail cars would have a poling pocket made onto the car. Many steam switch engines, and early diesels had poling bars hung on the tender frame or on the walkway of the diesel. At least until the practice was outlawed b the Operational Rules of the RR's.
Sam

[tatans]

rr65: for a photo of a pinch bar try: www.gwsr.com go to Quick Links then Search, type in Pinch Bar, there it is.

[FJ and G]

I believe poling is used on speeders that have run out of gas. Sort of like gondoleering in Venice.[:D]

[tatans]

Pinchbar is a long handled rig with a wedge shaped shoe that slides under the wheel of a car and you push down and move the car slowly,---does anyone have a photo??? I'll try for a picture.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz

QUOTE: Originally posted by Old Timer
I've seen it done many times by people who knew what they were doing, and there weren't any problems.
Old Timer

True, but I always thought it was a rather nerve-wracking operation. Extreme care had to be used.

I didn't notice anyone involved being particularly nervous. Careful, yes. Nervous, no.

Old Timer

[eolafan]

The last time I actually saw railroaders "poling" a car was in Shawano, WI back in the mid 1970's on the old SOO Line.