Hey, my PRR and NYC, etc. railroad collection of tools and laterns and stuff just recently got a new addition. And I dont really know what it is…It is a metel weight, that is made of this kinda of non-metalic metal that my grandpa said is probably this kind of metal that starts with a B. It about a foot or so long and it is pretty heavy and on top it says P.R.R. Dandelion. What is it? Thanks PS:I will soon be putting my whole collection on line. Mike
I did a search for “P.R.R. Dandelion” and found several hits. Most were for cloth stitching patterns. One was for a “PRR Dandelion Lead Ingot” at an auction site. I don’t know what the word dandelion has to do with it, but if it is heavy, maybe it is made of lead.
Thanks, I figured it was probably lead cause, the color, and the weight. Well, thanks for the reply, does anyone know what it was used for? Mike
Wild stab in the dark, here-lead weight for a track scale test car?
This is the part that has me scratching my head. What is a non-metallic metal? Go back to your grandpop and ask him for the “b” word and let us know what he said.
Can you also post a picture?
Beryllium? Bakelite? Both of those are far too expenisive to be used as weights, although bakelite is not a metal – it is an early form of plastic.
BTW – if just acquired this for your collection, how did you know how much to pay for it if you don’t know what it is?
B is for Babbit - A bronze and copper alloy (I think) used to make bearings before roller bearings. If you saw the movie The Train with Burt Lancaster (great movie by the way) about a French train of art being stolen by the Nazis in one scene he is dressing a babbit bearing for use on the locomotive that the French engineer sabotaged.
By the way, there is no such thing as a “Nonmetallic” metal. Someone has probably butchered a “Nonmagnetic” metal into nonmetallic. Kind of like someone saying That’s a nice Nondog dog you got there.
Well, here is what I found
From:
Materials Handbook
An Encyclopedia for Purchasing Agents, Engineers, Executives, and
Foremen
George S Brady
5th ed 5th impression
McGraw-Hill Book Company, New york and London, 1944
Copyright 1929, 1931, 1937, 1940, 1944
Dandelion metal, for locomotive crosshead linings, is given in
Pennsylvania Railroad specifications as 72% lead, 18% antimony, and
10% tin. See Babbitt metal.
and under Babbitt metal, the same source says:
The original name for tin-antimony-copper white alloys used for
machinery bearings, but the term now applies to almost any white
bearing alloy with either tin or lead base.
Mike
Very true I wasnt useing my head there, but it is nonmagnetic. That is what happens when you rush… Mike
Is bismuth considered a metal? It is used in shotshells as an alternative to lead shot, where lead is prohibited. I think (but am not sure) that bismuth is a powdery material that must be compressed with a binder material to form the shot. Corrections from anyone with actual knowledge welcome.
Unless my mind is playing tricks, babbit was also used after roller bearings were available. IIRC, my 1976 Plymouth Duster had steel-backed babbit bearings as the main crankshaft bearings in its Slant Six.
Babbit is the correct answer. Growing up in a steel town and close to a small PRR yard, we would collect scrap metal to earn money. We knew the different kinds of metals and the going price. I am talking about kids from nine years to 11-12 yrs.
We would check out the gondolas in the yard for scrap metal. No, we did not take anything that wasn’t scrap nor did we enter any box cars. If we collected more than we could carry we would bury it along the track embackment and later the engineer of the shifter would rides up to the local station with the scrap.
We knew the railroad cop and he knew us and there were no problems. One day my buddie and I went to get some scrap we burried and digging in the wrong place we found some, what we thought were heavy bars of babbit. It was new and shinny, stolen items. We left it there and just then the railroad detective came and we told him and showed him where it was. He then told us it was railroad equipment.
Last time I was there, the yard was almost empty of railroad cars and no tresspassing signs were up. Found out that the ones that followed us started breaking into box cars and stealing. Shame, it paid your way to the movies and other things many a time.