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Tanks,Handbrakes and the Hannibal Connecting RR.

To: <BRHSlist@egroups.com>
Subject: Tanks,Handbrakes and the Hannibal Connecting RR.
From: "John & Carmen Jacobs" <jjacobs@n...>
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 23:27:30 -0500
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Reply-to: "John & Carmen Jacobs" <jjacobs@n...>
When it comes to handbrakes, the worst kind has to be the old wheel/latch type 
from years ago. After spending 13 years switching these in an agri-chemical 
plant at South River, MO. I had enough and bid to another job (Behind a desk 
with a computer--somewhere where I could read RR magazines and not run over 
anybody while I was daydreaming of F units and blackbirds!). If you had a tank 
car with this type of brake and you tried spotting it at a platform for 
unloading you sometimes had to wait for the sloshing (There's that lack of 
baffles again) to stop or you would never be able to get the wheel-chocks to 
stay put. When we would weigh inbound cars our scale track was kind of in a 
bowl of sort's. If you didn't shove them hard enough they would slosh back onto 
the scales, then again if you shoved them too hard the would roll down through 
the plant and hopefully not tag someone or something at a crossing.

Our suppliers sometimes marked bill of ladings "Shell Full" but most often the 
weight of the material was more than the shell capacity of the car. It was no 
fun trying to stop at a crossing when a truck pulls out in front of you with 3 
or 4 loaded tank cars trying to shove you through (An our shop people wondered 
why the train line air brake handles were so loose and the disk brake pads on 
the trackmobile itself were worn out in no time). Lord what I would have given 
for a heavier unit to switch with (Sant never brought me that SW1 I asked for!).

As for the Hannibal Connecting RR , I saw a picture in Hannibal years ago that 
showed what looked like a Whitcomb center-cab diesel in black with a white HC 
emblem on the cab side. A few years back a retired firefighter in Hannibal, 
Becker Spaun was selling HO 40-ft boxcars with the HC logo on them. Real nice 
little cars, I believe they were modeled after a HC 40-ft car that serves as a 
storage shed at a scrapyard in Hannibal.

Sincerely,

John C. Jacobs


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