Alternative to Costly RR Shunting Fees: The Plymouth WDT Industrial Switcher

[Missaberoad]

Ryan:  I have used a "wheel jack" to move a boxcar.  As a teenager, several of us got a demonstration by the Pasco depot agent of how to use one, and we each got to try it.  They had an old MOW boxcar on one of the freight platform tracks at the depot, and we took turns moving it back and forth, as well as being allowed to set and release the hand brake.  No, we were NOT allowed to work the brake and move the car at the same time!  The agent worked the brake while we moved the car, and we worked the brake while the car was stationary.

Today, of course, we probably wouldn't be allowed to touch the car, much less move it, although since it was next to the passenger platform, anyone could get close to it.

An amazing experience for sure, but you're right in your assumption that it likely wouldn't happen today...

We even have very strict rules now dictating where and when a car can move under its own momentum, never mind having members of the public involved Lol the government would have a field day!!

[nkalanaga]

Ron:  I would imagine that anything capable of moving a car has been used somewhere.  I saw a picture once, from California, probably in the late 1800s, of a boxcar being pulled by a horse.  The driver sat on the top end of the car, next to the vertical shaft handbrake, with conventional reins to the horse.  Link and pin coupler, of course, and the harness was fastened to the coupler.  I wouldn't be surprised if they had a custom made link, so it could be connected as easily as hitching the horse to a wagon.

[johnb]

Out here in AZ, the local grain tower has a real nice  GE 44 tonner

[jmlaboda]

Ryan:  I have used a "wheel jack" to move a boxcar.

Ditto... moved loaded coal hoppers for unloading using the same.  Was easy if it was positioned correctly to start since the slight grade would help but if you had to move a car against the grade you could sometimes have to jump up onto the jack in an effort to make the car move and then catch your footing on the ties before you fell... doing the latter no fun at all.

[nkalanaga]

Our car was on (apparently) flat track, AND had old friction bearing trucks, which had been sitting for some time, so wouldn't keep rolling in either direction.  That's probably part of the reason they let us use it - it couldn't get away from us!

[wazzou]

My Uncles used to own a heating coal business where they received 70T and then later 100T cars from Utah and Wyoming that were dumped from the 2 or 3 bays of the car overhead into a single outlet between the rails. 
The coal was poured from above into trucks that made trips to either dump under cover at storage on site or back and forth to the retail location.
We more often than not had to use wheel jacks to move the car to the next hopper outlet after emptying the previous one.

[nkalanaga]

That was probably the most common use for wheel jacks.  Moving a car any distance would be a real chore, and would likely justify using some form of motive power.  But for a few feet, especially on an elevated track, it would often be faster to do it by hand.

[Missaberoad]

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8:30 to see one in action...

apparently we used to have them in the yard to do gravity switches, but they did away with them...

[nkalanaga]

Glad to see they put that one on YouTube.  CBC online had it once, but it wouldn't play for me, because of "copyright restrictions" - US viewers weren't allowed to see it!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Can't find any dimensions online.   Anybody out there have one in their neighborhood?

That's not THAT far from you. It's in Natrona. That photo was taken approximately here: https://goo.gl/maps/FGsLfTc3d7v