Section Gang Shed (or Hand Car House, or Tool Shed) - Skillman NJ

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Some more scanning from my dad’s 620 Brownie images, include these two of the track gang car shed in Skillman. Anyone who can supply information about this structure, the car itself, or what it was used for, would be greatly appreciated.

First, the track gang car shed, with a gang car sitting outside.

http://knox.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1155344

One of the Reading’s Big Dutch Mikes pulls up to the gang car shed.

http://knox.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1155345

Thanks for looking. Corrections are always welcome.

Charles Freericks

2

Gang car?

3

Back in the early days, yes there were GANGS, "SECTION GANGS, they did then, what is done today by all the fancy machines.

4

…Have wondered how they…{the gangs}, kept up with their section of track. Almost all manual labor too. Also jointed rail. No laser beam’s to sight out across the rail either to mind the elevation.

5

Thanks for sharing these photos always look forward to them Larry

6

Isn’t it funny, but until I saw this question, the other (more obvious meaning of today) didn’t even occur to me.

7

Here’s something wild. I just learned that the handle on the semaphore base is a flagstop handle. It’s for passengers to pull down to alert a train that they want it to stop and pick them up.

8

I was going to pose that question, and it’s already been answered!

As to how section gangs kept jointed rail up to 60mph plus standards, I suspect that there is a certain amount of art there, in addition to the skill. I can look down a section of track and see that it’s not perfectly aligned, but I don’t have the skills to make the right adjustments. And that’s not to say that I’d “see” it as smooth as a seasoned track foreman.

One might wonder if train crews could sometimes tell when they were in “so-and-so’s” section of track by the ride…