Literally, I mean. I thought you guys would be interested in this drawing of men turning a T-model Ford around to go the other way…
This is from a book on the logging industry in what is now the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in the southeastern U.S. in the early 1900’s. They placed a jack under the center of the car, jacked it up and very gingerly turned it around to go the other way. I hope they had a long handle for the jack for I wouldn’t have wanted to be the one under there working it.
Jarrell
Gee, those things seem to be all over. One of the roads that ran in the area I’m modelling, the CP&StL (a forerunner of the C&IM), was a shoestring road. To try and keep their post office mail contract and to cut their expenses, the CP&StL took a model A delivery van, gave it flanged wheels, and added a turntable-like jack-like thing to the bottom of the car, to turn it at the ends of the line. There’s a couple of Paul Stringham photos of this contraption in the C&IM history, taken about 1938. Needless to say, the road went bankrupt by 1941, and was mostly melted down into tank parts.
So the 0-5-0 that magicaly appears is not to far off.
and people wonder why we live longer now . at the least this sort of thing must have been the cause of many lost feet and hands . i’ll bet they didn’t know enough to come in out of the rain either [:)]
Ray, I guess they did what they had to! 
Jarrell
Hmmmmm… I’m not so sure about that. Back then, especially in the southern areas of the U.S., they ate a diet that would kill the average person today in about 90 days. Yet they seemed to thrive on it and evidently because they worked so hard. But, you’re right in that a lot of people died due to accident. In this book, the author mentions that a young man was killed when the handle of a very large jack suddenly flew up, struck him in the jaw and broke his neck.
Sometimes I think that if OSHA or MSHA (U.S. agencies that regulate safety in the work place) had been around at the turn of the 20th century we’d still all be riding behind steam engines and only on the extreme east coast. Hey… that might not be so bad… ")
Jarrell
cheese3,
I looked at your web site pictures and your painted backdrop looked very professional.
Nice work ! Your new layout is progressing nicely. Hope to see more pics later.
Ray ---- Great Northern fan.
That’s not a jack, its a turntable. Its designed to do that.
It is common for large pieces of Maintenance equipment to have turntables under them so they could be reversed or rotated 90 deg so they could be rolled off the track at a motorcar set out (railroad ties anchored at gauge that would allow a motor car to be rolled on them and moved away from the tracks). Many motor car set out tracks at gang headquarters had a little shed that housed the motorcar.
Dave H.
Thanks Ray, I hope to get back to work on it soon. I think the Honey do list is about caught up for now.
Jarrell
Hmmm… Dave, according to Ronald Schmidt and William Hooks, authors of “Whistle Over The Mountains”, an historical field guide to the Little River Lumber Company, it is a jack.
Below the picture in the book:
“An early inspection car being turned for the trip back to town. There was usually no way to reverse direction of locomotives or cars except in Tremont, Elkmont, Townsend or Walland. Because it was not safe of comfortable to drive vehicles like these in reverse, they were turned manually, balanced precariously on a jack and using several hands to balance as well as turn the car”
I saw the photo that this drawing was made from and it looks like a jack. I personally was not there so I have to take their word for it.
Jarrell
Man this forum is great!!!
I’ve always wondered how they got those strange little cars on the tracks.
thanks for clearing up another railroad mystery for me.
bill
I’m confused [:(]