Working rail roads and their tracks.

[MossRoad]

Roundhouses and turntables have became a thing of the past. Turntables were high maintenance but necessary in their day when steam was king. Wye tracks are hardly any maintenance comparatively and when power needs to be turned only the lead unit needs to face the direction of travel. There are very few turntables left anymore. Cool photos from when it was a booming place up through now where it's just rubble.

Surprisingly, there are still quite a few active turntables. I stopped looking about 9 years ago, but as a hobby, I used to sit around and night and follow RR tracks around the country on Google Earth and document the location of current and former RR roundhouses, turntables, transfer tables, etc... I had many hundreds. When I retire I'll make the file into a usable PDF and post it.

Here's a google earth shot of Chicago. It only took me a few minutes to find 5 active turntables and three active roundhouses.

 

[GrandpaSmurf825]

The one that's just above I-55 in Chicago is the one I was referencing as still being there. The other one is now gone. No roundhouse in conjunction with it though and the only reason they have that is because real estate is at such a premium they don't want to commit any to a wye track. They did just complete a large intermodal expansion in the yard there however.

 

[BravoXray]

Roundhouses and turntables have became a thing of the past. Turntables were high maintenance but necessary in their day when steam was king. Wye tracks are hardly any maintenance comparatively and when power needs to be turned only the lead unit needs to face the direction of travel. There are very few turntables left anymore. Cool photos from when it was a booming place up through now where it's just rubble.

The demise of roundhouses was a result of the drastically reduced amount of maintenance that diesel locomotives required after their introduction compared to their steam powered counterparts.

 

[ArlyA]

The demise of roundhouses was a result of the drastically reduced amount of maintenance that diesel locomotives required after their introduction compared to their steam powered counterparts.

Man you got that right.

 

[RayIN]

Question; I have an old I.C.C. lantern, is it of any value or just a curio?

 

[MossRoad]

Question; I have an old I.C.C. lantern, is it of any value or just a curio?

If you like it, it has value. That's the way I look at my bottle opener collection. I collect because I like them.

Here's one for $250.

NEAT VINTAGE ICRR ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD LANTERN SIGNAL LIGHT | eBay

IT HAS THE GLOBE WHICH IS ETCHED ICRR WHICH IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION AND THE REFLECTOR MOUNTED BEHIND THE GLOBE.THE TOP OF THE HANDLE IS ALSO MARKED ICRR. IT SHOWS RUST AS SEEN IN THE PHOTOS BUT THAT ADDS CHARACTER.

www.ebay.com

Various others...

https://www.etsy.com/market/illinois_central_railroad_lantern?ref=lp_queries_internal_bottom-21

Another at $250

Handlan Illinois Central Railroad Lantern – ICRR – Red Globe – 14.5” Tall | eBay

• Red globe for signaling use.

www.ebay.com

 

[WinterDeere]

If you like it, it has value. That's the way I look at my bottle opener collection. I collect because I like them.

I don’t collect bottle openers, but I did pick up an interesting one in Barcelona recently. Anyone who’s been there knows the tradition of the “pooping man”.

 

[ArlyA]

Who needs a switch engine. Just fire up the farmers helper…

. Mill in Burnett Wisconsin.

 

[Hay Dude]

I used to laugh at people using jerry-rigs like that sometimes, too. After owning my own business for 30 years and learning that skipping lunch saves money and gains an hour of extra work time every day, I realized it may be the sign of someone struggling to survive.
People who don’t own a small proprietorship, farm, business never realize what it’s like to really struggle to make it.
IMO, using a tractor for that purpose looks very sensible compared to a locomotive just to move one or two cars around a RR yard.

 

[LouNY]

It was real common several years ago around sugar beet processing plants and many granaries.

 

[eolesen]

When you think about it, a Trackmobile is just a skidsteer.... and my FEL does a lot of what the skidsteer can do...

 

[bcp]

Bruce

 

[caver]

I worked as a temp one time and they had a coupler hooked to the counterweight of a large wheeled loader to move cars.

 

[ArlyA]

I worked as a temp one time and they had a coupler hooked to the counterweight of a large wheeled loader to move cars.

A repair yard I worked at we pushed and pulled cars with a payloader all the time.

 

[MossRoad]

Who needs a switch engine. Just fire up the farmers helper…

. Mill in Burnett Wisconsin.View attachment 4545032

It's Peachy Bros. Elevator. They have a car mover on the other side...

 

[MossRoad]

When I was loading Army and Postal vehicles onto rail cars, we had to move the cars by hand after the loco dropped them on the siding to get them close enough to each other for the bridge plates to span the gap between cars. Then we'd set the brakes.

The tool was similar to this....

 

[BravoXray]

I noticed that it looks like the drawbar is a tube and a drive shaft that connects the lead truck to the tractor PTO. The wheels on that truck have chain sprockets and could be driven by the PTO for more traction.

 

[bcp]

Here's one with side rods.

Bruce

 

[bcp]

And a modern car mover:

Railcar Coupler Attachment with Emergency Air Brake Assist For Wheel Loaders

SAS Railcar Coupler provides secure attachment between railcar and wheel loader, allowing railcars to be moved safely & easily. Optional emergency air brake

sasforks.com

Bruce

 

[GrandpaSmurf825]

And a modern car mover:

https://sasforks.com/product/railca...Wheel,Videos, documentation & reviews below.[

I'm curious what part of that they were able to get a patent for unless it's the side shift part of the design, Everything else is nothing new. There have been variations of all sorts on Speedswings and end loaders for years that have done the very same thing. The only difference is most of them hinged upon sitting on the track. However they also raised and lowered the coupler and used it as a traction aid by applying down force on the rail wheels. They often had oversized or auxiliary air compressors to handle the added air requirements. I've also saw small elevators moving cars with just a tractor and nothing more.