All-

The N&W boxcar looks like it has a door that closes to the inside of the car…I don’t recall seeing that arrangement before.

It is also interesting to see how many early cars had what we would call “Plug” doors where the door cammed into the opening with a locking bar.

Charlie Vlk

I’d add the Mesta Machine Low Shear.  They rode on freight cars, after all  J

What a great 3-d-printed product (hint, hint).

Elden Gatwood

Claus,

The 11/28 you see on the flat car is the month and day. The year is to the right in a larger stencil, 03. This was common practice from 1900 to the early Teens.

The flat car seems to have a NEW stencil just below the isometric chalk drawing. That drawing obscures a DET 11.03 stencil.

Eric Hansmann

Murfreesboro, TN

Nelson;

Every RR may have done it differently, but when they started encountering problems with loads interfering with brake staffs/wheels, some RRs came up with the idea of removable, or in some cases, pivoting brake assemblies (think USRA gon).  Obviously in the case of temporarily removable brake staffs, you couldn’t set the brakes, so you had to couple to other cars, in a string, to have brakes.  The pivoting brake was designed to be used pivoted, although in practice this may have been problematic (the take up spool was 90 degrees off).

Retracting brake shaft/wheel assemblies were another way.  The idea was to drop the staff and wheel down out of the way of an interfering load.  There was a spring loaded button in the cases I know of, that you pressed to release the staff from its high position.  The staff had to be somewhat shorter to not drop into the roadbed or rail (crossovers).

If, for instance, you had a flat with a load that interfered with the brake staff/wheel, you dropped it for the duration.  Otherwise, maybe just during loading/unloading.  LOTS of brake staffs were bent during loading, or by shifted loads.

Sometimes forgetful crew left the wheel down, and those folks setting the brake had to lift it up to do so.

The attached shots of PRR F49 show it in high and lowered positions.  Note how close the staff is to roadbed in the last photo

Elden Gatwood

I don’t recall seeing prototype or model photos of loaded or empty flat cars with the brake staffs in the retracted position during operation. What was prototype practice for retractable hand brakes? Were they lowered only during loading and unloading?

Nelson Moyer

This illustrates the entry of the Monongahela Railway into the Waynesburg yard of the former W&W narrow gauge. The Mon came in from the east while the W&W right of way entered from the west end of town.

Some of the narrow gauge facilities were still standing at the time of this February 1930 image. Here’s the turntable and roundhouse.

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A200907.1930.05051

A third rail was laid on the long siding that served a dozen different businesses.

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A200907.1930.05059

While this photo is labeled Cattle Pens, the Pennsy flat car is a narrow gauge car used as an idler for switching. It has been fitted with standard and narrow gauge couplers.

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A200907.1930.05039

Eric Hansmann

Murfreesboro, TN

That is one of many images on the Historic Pittsburgh site showing repair work after the 33^rd Street Sewer Explosion of 1913. The bridge and ground level tracks are all B&O, formerly the Pittsburgh Junction Railway here. There are many vintage freight cars in these photos.

This 1910 Hopkins Plat Map shows the location adjacent to the Allegheny River with a Carnegie Steel facility.

https://arcg.is/1bCGP50

The bridge approach was above 33^rd Street here.

Eric Hansmann

Murfreesboro, TN