Re: [CBQ] Re: Dope Wagon

["John D. Mitchell, Jr." <cbqrr47@yahoo.com>]

For all of you younger guys, please be advised that "dope" was oil soaked waste 
used to pack journal boxes on cars and locomotives that used solid bearings. 
Are there no car knockers on the list? I know some of you oldtime trainman know 
this answer too. No, roller bearings have not been around forever. You packed 
the dope in the box with a tool called a "dope iron" and pulled it out with a 
"dope hook".

--- On Fri, 3/6/09, Douglas Harding <dharding@nethtc.net> wrote:

From: Douglas Harding <dharding@nethtc.net>
Subject: [CBQ] Re: Dope Wagon
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, March 6, 2009, 3:59 PM






Bob, I have no clue what the NYC called a Dope Wagon. But apparently Dope was a 
term used for soft drinks or carbonated beverages,
down south. A Dope Wagon contained soft drinks, ice, sandwiches, etc. and 
roamed the mills or mill yards, very similar to a lunch
wagon or lunch cart.

Here is one description: "I do remember seeing the dope wagon being pushed 
across "the square" and downhill to the mill. Did you
ever see the fire hose carts pulled behind a pickup truck? The dope wagon was 
very similar; had two automobile wheels, a bed maybe
4 feet wide and 5 or 6 feet long, with side boards maybe 6 or 8 inches high. 
Part of it was lined with tin filled with soft drinks
and ice. The wagon had two boards extending out one end much like the old 
fashioned mule wagons, with a round cross bar for a
handle to push and guide it. It was pretty well balanced on the two wheels and 
axle so one man could handle it."

There was even a National Dope Company in Birmingham, Ala. 1909-1911. I saw one 
suggestion the term might be a dig at Coke.

Now of course the NYC may have used it to move hot tar or some other form of 
sealant around the coach yard to seal roofs, etc.

Doug Harding
www.iowacentralrr. org

















      

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