Interesting lever device for a person to move a boxcar

[peteski]

Ignore the title snapshot.  Start at 38 second mark.

[Chris333]

Look up the grain elevator video, that is what the guy uses to move the boxcar in it.

[MK]

[Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the earth.]

[Chris333]

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It's at 8:30ish in the video, but I recommend watching the whole thing.

[Missaberoad]

We still have customers that use those to move cars...

[dem34]

Boxcar Bars are overrated.  All my homies summon their inner hulk.

Joking aside, great visual aid as to why Center beams string line so easily.

[wazzou]

We called them wheel jacks.  I described the use of them in a RW Coal Trestle thread, I think.
The railroad did a pretty good job of spotting Coal Hoppers at my family’s trestle on the last bay and we’d use one to move the car to the next bay when the previous one was empty.

[sd45elect2000]

On the Milwaukee road they called them Polish locomotives.

[Maletrain]

All of this manual car moving is really a testament to the low rolling friction qualities of railroads.  With its cylinder cocks open, 3 men could push a 628,700 lb B&O EM-1 2-8-8-4 on level track.

Now, stopping a heavy, free rolling piece of equipment is another matter.  Best to use brakes, rather than get in front of it and try to "catch" it.

I was surprised to see the guy using the wheel jack in a position between the trucks of that car in the grain elevator film.  A slip in that position could get a fella cut in half, once the car got some momentum.  Where's OSHA? 

I was also interested in the grain elevator functioning, including that it would ship a little less than a car every other day, on average.  I guess that was peaking around harvest times.

Thanks for posting the film, Chris333.

[RockGp40]

On my shortline, we do roll-bys pretty regularly. Bleed the car, drag it aways without air in it, position it, set brake. Put locomotive on siding. Release brake and push if needed after the switch is relined for the move. Easy peasy.

[peteski]

On the Milwaukee road they called them Polish locomotives.

ROTFLMAO!!
That made my day!   And no, I'm not offended. 

[sd45elect2000]

We used them in the shop to position locomotive trucks properly under the engine before we lowered the engine onto the trucks.

[Hawghead]

What was really amazing is those weren't even roller bearing trucks.  You could see the covers on the bearing boxes.

Scott

[C855B]

We called them wheel jacks. ...

I saw one used at a grain elevator 50 years ago and that's what the guy called it.

[Englewood]

We use locomotives to move cars. 😉
There's a few places in the yard where one person can push a car. I've seen it done before, but I can never remember where they're at.