Fore River RR #16, pictured below, was originally purchased by the Steelton & Highspire RR in Steelton, PA. The S&H RR served the Bethlehem Steel Co. plant and several of their locos had pilot mounted fixtures. Any clue what they were used for?
Thanks,
Matt
I was going to suggest that they are poleing pockets, but such fixtures were normally located on the corner of the locomotive frame rather than the pilot…
No real idea of that actual purpose of the appendages, they could be for a ‘poor mans’ rolling jack (in the order of jacks used to lift Formula racing cars during pit stops) as the bottom surface is rounded to accept some form of a shaft from underneath. The picture of the locomotive in it’s #16 picture clearly shows a ‘polling pocket’.
Wild guess. Rerail frogs for returning derailments to the rail. These were usually hung under the walk ways along the side of diesels or under the side of the tender on steam locos.
One end of the near one does look something like the end of frogs I have seen, but even when I enlarge it 4x I just do not see the near one as a frog, nor can I tell anything about the far one. They may be more useful than what the student brakeman brought back to the derailed car in the middle of the train after the conductor sent him to “get a couple of frogs.” After a long wait, he came back to the car saying, “I couldn’t find any frogs; will a couple of toads do?”
Johnny
Well since we’re relegated to wild guesses, mine is that they were used to push or pull small, low industrial flatcars in the mill; the flat vertical surfaces for pushing and the notches in the bottom to hook some kind of cross bar for pulling.
…I told you it was a wild guess…
Dave Phelps
That’s not a bad guess, considering a lot of mills also had narrow gauge cars in them as well. They do have a definite notch at the bottom. So you would think something had to get attached to them,
Except that they appear to be symmetrical about the coupler, and most narrow-gauge tracks in the mills share the use of one of the standard-gauge rails, so the NG car would be offset a little bit from the loco’s center-line.
On the other hand, there’s no ‘hard-and-fast’ rule about which rail is the shared rail, and they can and do shift from one side to the other. So the lcoo would have to be equipped for each side - and hence would be symmetrical.
One of my co-workers worked on the Bethlehem Steel plant’s common carrier Philadelphia Bethlehem & New England Railroad track gang during summer vacations back in his college days. I’ll print these out and ask him when he has a moment. Beyond that, I can think of a few other contacts who also worked for the PBNE and might know.
And Johnny - I know where you got that lame joke from ! [;)]
They look like re-rail frogs to me
Here is the clearest picture I could find:
I think we can rule out rerail frogs, since it appears they are solid steel welded to the frame. Echoing some of the other guesses, they are either unconventional jacking pads or attachment points for non-standard rolling stock. Hmmm…
All,
Thanks for the posts.
My question about the pilot fixtures originates from several photos in the book, New England Short Lines by Gary R. Carlson, Morning Sun Books.
The section on the Fore River RR contains several photos of the two center cab 70 ton locos. There is a half page photo of the pilot on page 44 but the author does not mention the fixtures. I contacted the publisher and hopefully he will forward my request to the author. The failure to mention them in the caption might be an oversight or he is not aware of their purpose.
Surfing the internet I learned that the Steelton & Highspire served the Philadelphia Steel Technologies (Bethlehem Steel) plant in Steelton, PA. There was a 3’ gauge railroad in the plant. Possibly the mounts had something to do with the narrow gauge railroad and/or the steel making process.
Thanks,
Matt
I also note that there is no ‘pilot’ below the couplers on these locos, just a big gaping hole.
Phil
If you will note the near side bracket for lack of a better term you will note a semicircular hole on the outside bottom edge on both engines. This indicates to me that they were for mounting something with a half piece on the bottom once in place. I would suggest possibly a rotary broom for routine cleaning of mill trackage or for sweeping snow. I doubt they were used to add a narrow gauge connection as the strength would be questionable. They could also possibly be used for mounting a crude snowplow when needed.
Okay, I’ll fess up and admit I’m not sure on this. What is a rerailing frog and how would it work to rerail the train? I thought they used wood blocks or something like that.
**
**Railroads use any number of things to coax wheels back on the rail in minor derailments. Wooden wedges and other pieces of wood blocking are a staple of the process. They also use steel rerailers
