Nostalgia & History > The way it was.

Did you ever work on these?  Pretty much a lost art today, but was the standard for over a century.

-LD

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Here's  the companion tool for servicing it.  Who used it, and what did he do with it?

-LD

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From looking at this picture, just curious, I think I read that Richard Jensen removed the brass from the tender trucks behind GTW 5629 so it would've been difficult to move. How much work is/was it to remove the brass as it's shown above? Was removing the brass any common way to disable an axle/truck/car? How hard is it to put the brass back once it's removed?

New773 Wrote:
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> How much work
> is/was it to remove the brass as it's shown above?
> Was removing the brass any common way to disable
> an axle/truck/car? How hard is it to put the brass
> back once it's removed?

It's less than a 5 minute job to swap out a worn brass, once you've hauled a jack to site, and the only damage is to the brass.  If the end of the axle (that's the real "journal") isn't damaged.  If the journal is damaged you're lookin at several hours, probably in a back shop with a crane, 'cause you'd have to replace the entire wheel/axle assembly.  Though that can be done with an empty car "in the field" with a heavy duty truck mounted crane.

-LD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/25 14:27 by LarryDoyle.

          Jack it up, replace the brass, if the end of the isn't messed up

Larry, although never a "railroader" as such, I'm familiar with smelling a "hot box" of a passing train (especially one that got flagged down by my local depot agent) while in my presence.  While familiar with these components, I've watch repairman  repair and replace the "brass" (bearing w/ layer of lead imbedded), packing/wadding, and journal oil, all after jacking up the car end to allow handling of the truck journals.  As for the "packing tool" shown, I've walked along with a Missouri Pacific carman in the evening at Horace, KS (1963) opening journal cover and checking the journal oil and such.  Back at his supply building, in the back room was the 30 gallon barrels of cotton remanants packing, similar barrels of journal oil, and 2" x .5" x 9" sticks of black material (anti-hotbox), however, this latter material, I never saw when or how it was used.   Also, what I recall, the depot agent, track crewmen, and all trackside personnel were always visually on guard for a passing train, keeping alert for the sight of a smoking journal "hotbox" and with an alert nose for hinting of such, although it was not yet apparent of smoking.  Oh, for the "good ole' days" of "hotboxes", but not really!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/25 14:34 by rrman6.

Back in that era, if a car was left in a remote area, you had better check if it still had its brass before you moved it.

Hell Yeah !!

The hook tool was used by the car toad.  He used it to lift the lid and check to see if there was oil in the cellar.  If oil was needed, he put some in with his oil can.  No, I wasn't a car toad.  But I saw a "car toad" working once and asked my Dad what he was doing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/25 14:46 by jdw3460.

ts1457 Wrote:
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> Back in that era, if a car was left in a remote
> area, you had better check if it still had its
> brass before you moved it.

Maybe such if in an uncivilized city area, but back in my era in Western Kansas, I've never known or heard of such happening. They must have been very determined to use a heavy-duty jack and cribbing to carefully jack the journal box from the journal, only for this chunk of brass.  So crazy, if such hoodlums performed this!

Was a carman 1977-79, the hook was used to open the box lid and check the oil pad. By the time I came along only pads were used. Changing an axle was usually done on the shop track. Raise the car off the truck, roll the truck from under the car, and use a type of A frame to raise the side frames off the bearings/wedges. Move the side frames from the axle ends. Replace what’s needed and put it all back together. Was one of the most greasy dirtiest jobs never liked it.
CR

Posted from iPhone

Yes, the hook was used lift open the journal box lid.

Then, the " car knocker" slid the tip of the hook along both edges of the interface of the axle and  its brass bearing.  He could thus feel tiny scratches of either, indicating need for immediate repair.

He also carried a ball peen hammer with which he tapped each wheel tread.  It should "ring".  A "flat" thud indicated a wheel crack failure.  Thus his unofficial slang job title "car knocker".

-LD

jdw3460 Wrote:
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> The hook tool was used by the car toad. 
> 
Employees officially called "carmen" or "inspectors", that is, employees involved in maintaining cars in a yard, were referred to by others outside the craft as "toads" or "cartoads" because the spent most of their working time in a hunched froglike position working on the underside workings of freightcars.

-LD
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/25 21:24 by LarryDoyle.

rrman6 Wrote:
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> Maybe such if in an uncivilized city area, but
> back in my era in Western Kansas, I've never known
> or heard of such happening. They must have been
> very determined to use a heavy-duty jack and
> cribbing to carefully jack the journal box from
> the journal, only for this chunk of brass.  So
> crazy, if such hoodlums performed this!

Not in the cities, but more like in the hollers and other isolated areas.

Find such a car and it is at least eight chunks of brass.

In the Topeka Shops when I worked there in the 70's, we still overhauled lots of plain bearing trucks. After a day or so in the lye vats, they'd pull them out, rinse them off. Magnaflux them, weld up any worn areas and cracks, anneal them in a big furnace, and if they didn't already have them, they welded lugs to the inside the boxes for brass or babbit journal stops. Springy steel knife shaped blades were inserted through the lugs and held the stops in place. To pull them out, just stick the tip of your bar in the slot in the end of the "knife" and pry it out. Later they designed another type that had stops for both sides of a box on a single heavy u- shaped hinged wire that went into the bottom of the box, under the pad holding the stops up against the walls of the box. You slipped it, pulled the hinged part, outward toward the top of the cellar where the lower part of the lid closes and that locked it in place. Anyway, journal stops kept the journal centered in the box during switching impacts, which knocked out lots of the rear seals, allowing oil to run out the rear of the box. They were brass or babbit so contact with the journal didn't scratch or damage it. Another way the journal could move in the box was when the car was empty, and the brakes went into emergency. The force of the brake shoe on the wheel could suddenly shove the journal maybe an inch toward the outside of the box without stops.

Posted from Android

The hook tool had another use, too, by a different craft.  I hired out as a switchman in 1978 on the Santa Fe in Richmond CA.  At that time we had a daylight herder (switchman) responsible for, among other things, bleeding the air brakes off of all inbound trains and cuts of cars.  Some cars were equipped with the newer faster bleed valve; give it a quick pull and the car bleeds itself and the herder walks to the next car.  Most cars it seemed had the older valve which meant holding the valve open until ALL the air was bled off.  This could take awhile and the whole time the herder is bent over reaching under the car. The journal box lid tool was perfect for reaching under the car and holding the bleed valve open.  Much easier on the herder's back.  There were two or three of these hook tools hanging in the switchman's shanty awating the herder's next task.  

Jeff Pell
Lodi CA

When I hired out on the Q in 1967 I got the lowest job in the yard - "bleeder",  I wasn't  even given a journal hook, so had to bend down to pull  the bleed valve handle under each car.

-LD

And, here's what the bleed valve lever looks like, sticking out from under the center of each car on both sides.

-LD

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LarryDoyle Wrote:
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> And, here's what the bleed valve lever looks like,
> sticking out from under the center of each car on
> both sides.
>
> -LD

AND,  IN THE SNOWWWWW!!

LarryDoyle Wrote:
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> When I hired out on the Q in 1967 I got the lowest
> job in the yard - "bleeder",  I wasn't  even
> given a journal hook, so had to bend down to
> pull  the bleed valve handle under each car.
>
> -LD

That's because you had the youngest and healthiest back. The rest had been ruined already!