Now that was cool! Tell me that the line had just a bit of a slope to it, for him to be able to move those boxcars areound by hand. He looked like superman at one point. With the cardboard door plugs(?), it looks like the grin only filled the boxcar up about half way. Was it then unloaded with a vacuum, or scoop shovels?
During the 60’s & 70’s there were covered hoppers that had restrictions on my carrier. They were considered Hi-Cube covered hoppers with (if memory is correct) 4570 cu.ft. capacity. The restriction applied to 6 degree and greater curves. The restriction was 'if a speed greater than 25 MPH could not be maintained, then the train speed had to be reduced to less than 10 MPH. The reason had nothing to do with loading or overload nature of the cars but everything to do with their wheel base and that wheel base’s compatibility with 39 foot jointed rail. Jointed rail had the susceptibility of the joints being hammered to be lower than the rest of the rail length. The lowness of the joints every 39 feet (staggered from side to side on each rail) would set up a rocking motion in the car - at speeds between 10 & 25 MPH that rocking would set up a harmonic that would increase the amplitude of each rock to the point that the cars would derail themselves. Car designs were subsequently changed and in most main and significant branch lines, jointed rail has been replaced by welded rail and the low joint rocking at 39 foot intervals is a thing of the past.
Your information is correct, Balt. But over loading or top heavy cars have the same problems exacerbated by stick rail, curves, uneven track, etc. I was a guest aboard a locomtotive one night going upgrade with overloaded cars at about 20-25 mph. I looked back and noted and commented how much the two cars behind the locomotive were swaying out of line andthe engineer immediately had the train down to 11 mph. What was most disturbing was that we were leading onto a 50 foot high bridge at that very moment.
Box cars were unloaded using a grain board. If a 2 man board was used it would have been about 3x7 ft with 2 pair of handles at the top hooked to a cable. When the board was pulled up into the grain the cable,when the tension was released it pulled the gran towards the door withe help of the men holding the board verticle. I used this method many times at a distillery in Ky unloading my grain trailer. I could have paid $3 to have it done but 6 loads a week at $3 made my trailer payment on my shiny new trailer!!!