Pettibone Speed Swing

[T_e_r_r_y]

The first picture shows the tool box,where a grease gun and small hand tools were kept. On the drivers side there should be a large tool box with indented steps to assist in climbing into the cab. Passenger side were the diesel and hydraulic tanks
There looks to be part of a pulling block, sitting on the front lip of the tool box. This part went over the ball of the rail and a wedge with a serrated edge was inserted and
hammered like holy hill. When pulling anywhere from 400' to 1660' of ribbon rail (continous welded rail), there is a lot of stress and the more you pull the tighter the wedge gets.
The small toter boom in the picture was for small loads. The only other attachments I myself have seen were a small material bucket, the large snow bucket with raised portions to fit over each rail at the same time and lay flat to the ties and a lattice boom about 20-25' long.
The system rail gang that is in Utah, has 1 speed swing and a john deere mountain swing. Both have foam filled tires-don't want flats,miles from a crossing.
The front one throws out the old rail and the second one threads in the new.
They are tough machines.

T.J.
On May 8 will be 39 years. 27 on the old ChicagoNorthWestern and the rest for the UP.

 

[Cub 7274]

Terry congratulations on your longevity with the RR I only lasted 35.7 yrs with CN
It was a lot of fun when I hired on in 76 and a good place to work

 

[green and red man]

The first picture shows the tool box,where a grease gun and small hand tools were kept. On the drivers side there should be a large tool box with indented steps to assist in climbing into the cab. Passenger side were the diesel and hydraulic tanks
There looks to be part of a pulling block, sitting on the front lip of the tool box. This part went over the ball of the rail and a wedge with a serrated edge was inserted and
hammered like holy hill. When pulling anywhere from 400' to 1660' of ribbon rail (continous welded rail), there is a lot of stress and the more you pull the tighter the wedge gets.
The small toter boom in the picture was for small loads. The only other attachments I myself have seen were a small material bucket, the large snow bucket with raised portions to fit over each rail at the same time and lay flat to the ties and a lattice boom about 20-25' long.
The system rail gang that is in Utah, has 1 speed swing and a john deere mountain swing. Both have foam filled tires-don't want flats,miles from a crossing.
The front one throws out the old rail and the second one threads in the new.
They are tough machines.

T.J.
On May 8 will be 39 years. 27 on the old ChicagoNorthWestern and the rest for the UP.

Thanks so much for that helpful information. It's really neat that you recognized the piece laying on the front. With the amount of experience you have, I'm sure you can tell some interesting stories about your work experiences and observations.
The idea of having foam filled tires makes perfect sense. Sure don't need a flat tire to slow things up.

Thanks for your welcomed and much appreciated input.

Have a Great Day

 

[green and red man]

Terry congratulations on your longevity with the RR I only lasted 35.7 yrs with CN
It was a lot of fun when I hired on in 76 and a good place to work

You and Terry sure worked a heck of a long time on the RR's. Talk about experience. WOW!! I could learn a lot from you guys. Of course, I realize that just reading sentences or hearing words is vastly different from learning hands on. Either way, I'm appreciative to learn what I can in any form.

Thanks

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Would like to have seen that myself. It's possible that I saw them while spending time along the rails as a kid, but wouldn't have known what they were for. Do you recall ever seeing very many of the other attachments? I'd like to know what some of the other attachments were besides the regular bucket and forks. Think I saw a pic somewhere of a SS that had some type of snow blower on it, but I could be mistaken.

Red,
The only attachments we used were a hook and a roller type device that let the pettibone roll down the rail without having the pick the rail multiple times to move it into place. IIRC, it was a clam type device that they could take the lifting pressure off of it and roll it off to the side to release it. The could also set it down on top to grab the rail away from the end if need be. I was very impressed at how stable and VERY strong these machines were. I'm not sure of the forces it takes to move heavy weight rail from off the side of the bed up onto the ties, but the guys usually made a couple passes to "walk" the rail close to where they wanted it. Picture a new stick of ribbon about a couple hundred feet long laying down off the side of the rail road bed. They would bring it half to 2/3 of the way to the ties in one pass, then go back and bring it a step closer or finally place it. I know how hard it is to move a small piece of rail, so moving a whole stick that long is extremely impressive, and doing it accurately without damaging anything is just mind boggling.

 

[green and red man]

Red,
The only attachments we used were a hook and a roller type device that let the pettibone roll down the rail without having the pick the rail multiple times to move it into place. IIRC, it was a clam type device that they could take the lifting pressure off of it and roll it off to the side to release it. The could also set it down on top to grab the rail away from the end if need be. I was very impressed at how stable and VERY strong these machines were. I'm not sure of the forces it takes to move heavy weight rail from off the side of the bed up onto the ties, but the guys usually made a couple passes to "walk" the rail close to where they wanted it. Picture a new stick of ribbon about a couple hundred feet long laying down off the side of the rail road bed. They would bring it half to 2/3 of the way to the ties in one pass, then go back and bring it a step closer or finally place it. I know how hard it is to move a small piece of rail, so moving a whole stick that long is extremely impressive, and doing it accurately without damaging anything is just mind boggling.

Thank you sir. Yeah, those Pettibones do look like tough critters for sure. Just picturing things as you described does paint a picture of a machine and operator that have to be in sync. I can imagine bystanders/workers on foot needing to stand back while the machine does its thing, because one never knows when something might go wrong. Either machine operator error or a mechanical failure could sure get some folks hurt in a hurry. Growing up, I didn't fully realize just how dangerous working around trains and tracks can be.
Kind of worries me when I see people climbing on train cars or crossing in between the cars after a train has to stop to let another one pass in the opposite direction. Wouldn't take much of a lurch to knock someone off the train car and onto the tracks, when the locomotive throttles back up and gets going. Seen some close calls before like that.