Steam & Excursion > Steam service area detail query

Greetings! I'm seeking some information about a couple of items in this photo. It's the service pit area in Central Camp, the woods headquarters for the Sugar Pine Lumber Company out of Fresno, California, circa 1923 or thereabouts. 

On the deck near the central equipment rack there are two short, cylindrical items with somethat larger heads and apparently, feet with ribbed top surfaces. At first glance they look like smokejacks, but clearly they're portable pieces of equipment. Do these look like hydraulic or mechanical jacks of some kind? Or - any other thoughts would be most welcome.

I apreciate your help and consideration.

Jeff Johnston
trainvideosandparts.com

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Jeff_Johnston Wrote:
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> Greetings! I'm seeking some information about a
> couple of items in this photo. It's the service
> pit area in Central Camp, the woods headquarters
> for the Sugar Pine Lumber Company out of Fresno,
> California, circa 1923 or thereabouts. 
>
> On the deck near the central equipment rack there
> are two short, cylindrical items with somethat
> larger heads and apparently, feet with ribbed top
> surfaces. At first glance they look like
> smokejacks, but clearly they're portable pieces of
> equipment. Do these look like hydraulic or
> mechanical jacks of some kind?


yes. But maybe compressed air powered?


Or - any other
> thoughts would be most welcome.
>
> I apreciate your help and consideration.
>
> Jeff Johnston
> trainvideosandparts.com

Possibly portable kerosene heaters similar to (but not the same as) this?
Bill Pyper
Lacey, WA
 

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wjpyper Wrote:
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> Possibly portable kerosene heaters similar to (but
> not the same as) this?
> Bill Pyper
> Lacey, WA

OK, but why would they want any heaters out of doors, in Fresno, California?  

Well for those cold and foggy days of Winter and the one day in twenty years when it snows? Looks to have too small an air to lift much
on air alone, could be an air over hydraulic unit. Note the jacking ram with hand hold which is laying on the deck between the two units,
The air might have also been used for car maintenance and as such an air only unit would be suitable for most maintenance work.

Out 

Looks like a locomotive jack to me. One heavy beast to move around. Fold-down handles are visible on the sides. Probably has a ratchet mechanical drive on the side facing away from the photographer.
- Doug Debs

Central Camp is at 6,000 feet elevation in the Sierra east of Fresno, so a heater would come in handy inside a shop.

I'm going with the engine jack suggestions. 

Thank you all for your comments! Martin Hansen also sent along a link to an ebay sale for similar mechanical screw jacks, which seems a likely explanation for what these are. Now I need to find nthem in HO scale, or, get out the lathe and some stock.

Jeff Johnston

YES, very heavy, mechanical/screw jacks of approximately 50-ton capacity. 
The one closest to the camera looks to be a smaller capacity device...
but the manual operation is the same.

They are most commonly used in the vicinity of heavy car repairs and rebuild programs

 When jacking locos they're typically used in pairs.  Most all rolling stock is 
designed with 'jacking-pads'. ....these are areas engineered to withstand the forces 
of lifting LOADED rolling stock, or locomotives ( loaded or unloaded)

The jacks themselves are massive in weight and most easily rolled where needed.
The base is generally set up on low hard-wood  cribbing supports.  Gear rations are 
like 50:1 .. ..meaning like 50- turns of the gear-crank to get 1" of vertical travel.

They are man-killers to use and most modern equivalents are power driven..
Air motors are the preferred driving mechanism...  The harder you use air-driven 
tools, the 'colder' they get...the rapidly expanding exhausted air, can acquire frost
at the exhaust ports.

I once was coached into jacking the front of the tender to Hart's ex-CP, 4-6-0. 
By myself... using track-jacks. Unlike screw jacks, lever-jacks are purely 
'lever-devices'....you instead a long, stout, jacking-pole into the jack's ratchet 
socket and struggled mightily to make one 'click' of the jack ratchet.

The 972's tender was mostly empty of coal, and drained of water.
Hart's Mechanical Consultant was Ben Kantner, retired Reading Company "Master Boilermaker", 
and the past President of the Master Boilermakers Association, for the year of 1947..

One Saturday morning in 1966, while a volunteer on Hart's excursions, Kantner pulled me aside,
and asked me if I'd help him with a 'project'...I was thrilled and pleased...Kantner was stern 
and gruff.  I was in awe of him..and he had a 'kind side', that he kept hidden

When he explained our task, I was  pleased to agree.  He said 'we' were
going to jack-up the tender.  The tem of 'we' was me and Ben.
Skinny-me was to be the muscle, Ben was the Brains.

He was great to work for, I struggled , lifted, bounced on the lever..my two feet on the jack
and out-stretched arms -- over my head ..yanking in the jack handles. 
Earlier, the Reading Mechanics that Ben hired, had separated the engine & tender...
The tender was  sitting on it's own turntable lead.
We alternated sides of the tender's front and gradually we got the the tender well up in the air...
With Ben's encouragement and cheering me-on, little by little we got it in the air...

The objective was to add centerplate shims by raising the tender body, and lubricant 'disks'
to the truck's center pin  'bowl'.
Once  we had the tender's front in the air, Ben had me build cribbing under the tender's frame,
for safety and support ...  

it was as great a struggle to lower the jacks....since I was to use the pole to raise the jack
shaft slightly, and the ( lowering) pawl would open, allowing the me to ease off of the weight,
and then lower the jack's shaft by one-latch-at-a-time....
We alternated the stepping-down process to gently lower the tender,  back onto
the truck'scenter plate...
Then,  I had to re-stack tge cribbing blocks and return the ratchet jacks to the shop... 

Later, that year, after an excursion over the WM ( Hagerstown) hauled by CP 1286,
it was the end if a long day...we were waiting fir a Pennsy crew and switcher
to haul the train from the WM's  Yard, west if York, Pa, over to the home rails of
the Ma &Pa...Ben had been up all day, was bone p-tired and the volunteer fireman
had gone home, after a long day, Ben was concerned about who to get to ride
over the PRR to Market street, and the M&P yard in York..  Hart volunteered me!  

Kantner was visibly relieved.... He agreed that it was a GOOD IDEA, and off he went
to get a good, well deserved rest.
Ben's encouragement changed my life, forever...

In the Fall of '66, some guys came to York to discuss leasing two of Hart's 
CP engines.  That's when Ross introduced himself... and NEW chapter was begun.. 

​W.

to Be proofed, yet...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/20 16:51 by wcamp1472.

Jeff_Johnston Wrote:
                                         Jeff when looking for a model of these items it may pay to look what is available in the UK as I think these type of jacks were on some of the UK locomotives,

Malcolm
New Zealand
-------------------------------------------------------
> Central Camp is at 6,000 feet elevation in the
> Sierra east of Fresno, so a heater would come in
> handy inside a shop.
>
> I'm going with the engine jack suggestions. 
>
> Thank you all for your comments! Martin Hansen
> also sent along a link to an ebay sale for similar
> mechanical screw jacks, which seems a likely
> explanation for what these are. Now I need to find
> nthem in HO scale, or, get out the lathe and some
> stock.
>
> Jeff Johnston

Just a note on common usage..

For Martin: How would these jacks be used at a loco service area.....in a lumber-centered operation?

If I were modelling such a scene, i would be hard pressed to think of a " justifying purpose"
for a loco service area to find a use for such high capacity jacks, in daily, or even less frequent service.

They were much more often used in  'heavy'  (extensive rebuilding efforts) car repairs, rip tracks, etc,
or even new car construction..

Also, these are physically, REALLY heavy...they would often be used in pairs, either side of, &
opposite to each other, next to the rolling stock...
So, unless there are a couple on the other side of the pit, its unusual that two, 50-ton jacks would be
used on one side of the track & on one  piece of rolling stock.

IMHO..

W.


Also note: The trees surrounded by a planked-over deck, at the top of the frame...LOL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/20 20:15 by wcamp1472.

Regarding common usage on a logging operation, these companies also used large, heavy steam locomotives, and of necessity, they performed much or all of their heavy work in their own shops. It was miles away to the nearest major locomotive facility on the nearest mainline, so it made sense that they'd need to perform repairs and heavy maintenance themselves in their facilities at their headquarters. The company went to the effort and expense of building a large machine shop, visible in the background in this Robert Parker photo, plus the two concrete inspection and shop tracks that are the subject of this discussion. They had planned another full enginehouse there, over the pits, but never finished that beyond the service area and its flooring. This photo is fairly early in the operation, probably around 1923, when the second track to the machine shop and the second service pit track have not yet been installed.

As for two jacks on one side of the track ... it's probable that's just where they have them stored. No big mystery to that.

The planked-over area around the tree next to the shop was what they're likely call a deck and could be used for personnel lounging, overflow equipment storage or the like.

Jeff Johnston

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Thank you for the photo of the machine shop and larger view of tge area...
Looks like a nice, functional facility.
Excellent information...

Thanks.

W.

The question about the "deck" is pretty much on target with this company. The SPLCo spent tons of money on overhead, things you don't need to run a logging company, which helps explain why the company never turned a penny of profit during its relatively short lifespan. A deck for employees would not be out of line, there in Central Camp they had large dormitories for the crews plus maid service, individual houses (not portable cabins) for the management and foremen, a pool hall, barber shop, boxing ring, steam heat to all the buildings, on and on. Mahogany paneling in the head office in Pinedale, company cars for executives, all those things that added overhead to an operation that cut and shipped a lot of lumber but never earned any money.

It's been a fun company to follow as a modeling subject, though! As they say, live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse.

Jeff Johnston
trainvideosandparts.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/20 16:25 by Jeff_Johnston.