Leo, you handle the question of why marking cars was discontinued and I'll
cover a little bit about sand cars.
Ken, the sand was in "bulk" form. The method of getting the sand into the
engines was the same basic method employed in getting coal into a handfired
locomotive - - - a shovel. I have assisted in this task at both Aurora RH and
Rock Falls engine house and can state, with certainty, that I do NOT miss that
piece of railroad history.
I the winter, if the sand was not COMPLETELY dry, there would be "lumps" of
frozen sand to deal with. In the summer we could have put Jenny Craig and
Weight Watchers out of business. Most sand houses had stoves in them to
maintain the sand in a dry state so it would flow to the rail when the Engineer
needed it. In some small terminals ingenious mechanical people devised
ingenious mechanical devises to help reduce the amount of physical labor
required to transfer the sand to the house and, eventually, to the locomotive.
Compressed air worked wonders in this labor saving effort. A locomotive would
supply the air and clever plumbing apparatuses would convey the sand to the
house or directly to the engine sand boxes. Sand house to engine conveyances
were also "custom designed" by the local mechanical forces.
Also "custom designed" by certain mechanical forces were ingenious methods of
"metering" the quantity of sand the Engineer could drop. Some of these
"devises" bore a remarkable resemblance to rocks and shop towels that had been
introduced into the sand box and, after time, found themselves in the traps
through which the sand must pass to reach the rail. One such "metering method"
so infuriated one particular Engineer (Jr. Pence) that he would demand that I
"fish" the offending object from the bottom of the box so he could run the
sanders ALL DAY in an attempt to empty the boxes and, in turn, infuriate the
Mechanical man (Moose Jaw). It worked!!!
Sanding 9153, the Depot Job engine, was a memorable event too. The little SW1's
had conventional sand box fillers on the cab but the front sand box was that
"tool box lookin' thing" on the front deck just below the cooling fan grille.
Sanding the front box was a "5 gallon bucket-at-a-time" thing since the sand
tower hoses didn't reach. Ahhh, the "good ol' days".
In time, most larger facilities were equipped with commercial sanding machinery
which greatly simplified the task.
Karl
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