Skip to main content

                                 what vehicles are on your railroad...

 

 

 

 

                               passenger and mail service...

 

 

 

 

 

                                           odd vehicles on rails...

 

 

 

 

                                                  work vehicles on rails...

 

 

 

 

 

                                         inspection vehicles...

 

 

 

 

 

                                           Military vehicles...

 

 

 

Attachments

Images (32)
  • mceclip0
  • mceclip0
  • mceclip0
  • mceclip0
  • mceclip1
  • mceclip2
  • mceclip3
  • mceclip4
  • mceclip5
  • mceclip6
  • mceclip0
  • mceclip1
  • mceclip2
  • mceclip0
  • mceclip1
  • mceclip2
  • mceclip3
  • mceclip4
  • mceclip0
  • mceclip1
  • mceclip2
  • mceclip3
  • mceclip4
  • mceclip5
  • mceclip6
  • mceclip7
  • mceclip8
  • mceclip9
  • mceclip10
  • mceclip11
  • mceclip12
  • mceclip13
Last edited by briansilvermustang
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Lots of nice pictures ...how about some stories about the use of the real thing?


  "My first experience with track motorcars was in 1913 when I got into the
Maintenance-of-way Department.  They were just beginning to displace the
handcar and three-wheel or velocipede, and they were not very reliable.  The
car was known as a 2-J. The body of the car was carried above one rail by two
wheels and there were two wheels which ran on the other rail and were
attached to the car by wooden struts.  These cars were easily derailed and
they were "iffy" when it came to whether or not they would run.

  I was not involved in a serious accident with one in more than 100,000
miles of traveling on them.  I ascribe this, however, more to good luck than
to anything else.  For example, I was on a morning trip east of La Junta and
had stopped just west of Caddoa to talk with the section foreman.  There was
no place to set the car off so I left it sitting on the track.  After we had
talked a few minutes, he said,"How late is Number 4?"

  Surprised by the question, I looked at my watch and said,"He's on time, as
far as I know. I haven't got anything on him." Then I looked at my watch
again, saw the second hand wasn't moving, and raced for the track.  I jerked
the car off the track, and a few minutes later Number 4 tore by going about
seventy-five miles an hour.  My watch had stopped after I had left La Junta.

  Another time I had put my motorcar on the main track at Vaughn about 7AM
and started west.  When I got just past the coal chute I saw switchmen out on
the main track giving me violent stop signals.  I suddenly realized that I
had completely forgotten about the morning passenger train, which was overdue
and could be expected to come around the blind curve up ahead at any moment
at about 60 miles per hour.  I managed to get the car in the clear just
before the train arrived.  After it had passed the switchmen came over and
helped me get the car back on the track.  If they hadn't stopped me I would
have met the train on the blind curve and the company would have been out
three hundred dollars for a motorcar and whatever a division engineer was
worth at the time."

  While trains constituted the chief hazard to motorcar operation, there were
many other unpleasant things that could happen.

   "One time the general foreman of bridges and buildings at La Junta was
making a motorcar trip over the Arkansas Valley Branch. A short distance
north of Swink, he came upon a row of sugar beets thirty or forty feet apart
which some boys had placed in the rail.  The track being straight, he saw the
beets in plenty of time.  He slowed down, eased up to the first three or
four, and pushed them off the rail with his rail sweep.  Concluding there was
no use wasting time in this manner he opened the throttle and approached the
last beet at about twenty miles per hour.  The next thing he knew, he was
lying alongside the track wondering what had hit him.  The boys had stuck a
spike in an open joint behind the last beet!"

.....

   "For a long time after they came into general use, track motorcars consisted
simply of a frame, wheels, and engine.  There was a rail on both the front
and read end of the car to keep the occupant from sliding off, but nothing to
protect him from the weather.  This wasn't so bad during the summer, except
when it rained, but a motorcar trip in freezing weather was something of an
ordeal.  The best thing to do in such a situation was to put on all the warm
clothes you had, then get into a pair of coveralls.  This might not keep you
warm, but you wouldn't freeze.

  Eventually someone surreptitiously placed a canvas windshield on the front
of his car, and although frowned on and prohibited at first, the practice
grew and gradually came to be accepted, so all cars were equipped with this
life-saver at the factory.  Nowadays some of them even have side curtains and
a top, but in my opinion, this is going too far.  Sometimes, in the interest
of self-preservation, you might have to unload unexpectedly; under such
conditions, it would be a lot better if you didn't have anything between you
and open country."

  From "From Cab to Caboose-Fifty Years of Railroading" ā€“ Noble

Add Reply

Post

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×