[CBQ] Re: Height above railhead for a railroad car floor

[Richard Kistler <rckistler@windstream.net>]

At times the use of refrigerator cars to ship other than frozen
commodities was indeed a problem. In the summer of 1957 while employed
as a clerk on the Wymore (NE) Division clerk's extra board, I was sent
to Nebraska City to fill a vacancy for the freight house foreman who
always took his vacation during the hottest time of the summer,
unloading merchandise out of a box car in the Missouri River humidity
could take the starch out of you in a hurry. After unloading a box car I
ask the agent what the refrigerator car was doing in the freight house
spur. He advised it had paint for the Missouri River bridge. Soon the
section gang showed up to help unload the paint, when we opened the door
we discovered the paint was in steel barrels, total weight of nearly 500
lbs each. We carefully placed the steel plates inside and outside of the
car to the freight house dock. It was not a good situation, a steep
climb up out of the car and then an even steeper drop to the dock which
didn't look very wide when you were trying to stop that much weight. By
using tapered blocks from old ties to save from smashing out feet,we 
successfully completed the task, but we all agreed we would like to have
found the person that decided to ship barrels of paint in a refrigerator
car with a raised door sill.   - Richard Kistler


------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    CBQ-digest@yahoogroups.com 
    CBQ-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/