Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Carloads of all kinds of material were set off at the local yard for distribution by the switcher to industries with individual sidings; the reverse was done with outbound goods. Each yard also contained a team track. The box flat or gondola car containing a company’s shipment was placed there so the crew could unload it into its horse-drawn wagon-hence the “team” reference. By the mid-1920s the wagon had been replaced with a truck but the expression lingered on. All those decades of service allowed for many types of cars from the Civil War era’s 25-foot wooden flatcar and the c. 1900 wooden kerosene-lamp-equipped caboose to the 1960s 89-foot auto rack car. Likewise for the rail diesel car (RDC); all were necessary members of the B&M’s car fleet required to serve Northern New England’s industry and people. From the earliest years all railroad cars were built entirely of wood. Even major components of truck frames-the structure under each end of a car holding a set of two or possibly three axles-were built of hardwoods such as oak or chestnut and held together by iron fittings. The use of iron and steel was limited because of their relatively high cost in the mid- and late 19th century. Longer and heavier cars by the early 1900s brought the introduction of all-steel trucks and freight cars built on steel underframes. Horrific accidents worsened by the crushing telescoping and burning of wooden passenger cars led to the requirement that all wooden cars be rebuilt with steel underframes and brought the introduction of all-steel cars about 1905. (LL)