Re: Hand-worked track trolleys

[Peter Homann <peter.homann@prr.org.au>]

The two names I've heard are Kalamazoo and Sheffield.  Both of these, I think,
are the names of the makers.
>From my somewhat limited knowledge, they are essentially the same: four wheels,
flat deck, two T-bar handles pivoting on a central rocking shaft, which is
operated by four persons.  The rocker drives a large gear, in turn rotating the
driven axle.  AFAIK the Sheffield variety has a machanism for disengaging the
drive when coasting (but you need to stop to re-engage it).  Both types have a
foot brake operated by one person standing on the pedal, which puts brake pads
against two wheels (on the same side).
Overall, this gearing means fairly slow acceleration, but a good top speed.
PRR has two (one ex-QR, one ex 4'8 1/2"), both operational on 3'6".

The unit converted from SG has a couple of chain gears on it to probably enable
four wheel drive.

Back at the end of the 3'6" from Marree to Alice Springs, a crew of people
pumped a Kalamazoo from Marree to Alice Springs in around 9 days.
>From memory, they averaged around 15-20mph while travelling (not counting the
night times spent drinking amber fluid provided by a sponsor!).

I've also heard a story, which sounds more like folklore than fact, but
anyway.  It goes along the lines that a fettling crew were in a hurry to get
somewhere (probably home) and attached a makeshift sail to their Kalamazoo.
That worked well while they were travelling in a straight line.  By the time
they reached a bend, they'd reached some speed only dreamed of by section car
owners of today, and went flying off into the desert to their untimely demise.

Fact or fiction?  You decide, but in the meantime it makes a good story!

PRR also has a trike, as previously described in this thread.
I'll try and get photos of all these posted on the PRR web site sometime...

Finally, I've seen a photo of what appeared to be a rotary drive hand-car.  It
had a handle on each side, and the operateor would rotate it through a full
turn, not a rocking motion as on Kalamazoo's and the like.  I'm guessing that
it had a chain drive from the rotary unit to the axle.

Hope this was interesting to someone...

Cheers.

Bob Merchant wrote:

> Pump Trolley is the term I have heard and used over the last 50 years or so
> for the type on which you and a mate stood facing each other and pumped up
> and down on horizontal handles attached to whatever.
>
> The three wheeled trikes where also common in NSW.
>
> The Sydney Tramway Museum had a trolley which had started life as a vertical
> pole type, the pole being attached to the wheels by a crank similar to a
> loco driving wheel.  They would have been hard work!
>
> Regards,
> Bob Merchant
> "B." <gunzel412@dingoblue.gunzel.net.au> wrote in message
> 39d9a2c4$0$12419$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au">news:39d9a2c4$0$12419$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au...
> | Roderick Smith <rodsmith@werple.net.au> wrote in message
> | 39D97FED.11AD3B0E@werple.net.au">news:39D97FED.11AD3B0E@werple.net.au...
> |
> | > Extracted from posts to a South African newsgroup,
> | > responding to requests for nomenclature (for a local
> | > dictionary).  What names applied in Australia and New
> | > Zealand?
> | >
> | > What's a handcar in SAThis will go into the dictionary);
> | > English and Afrikaans please.
> | > Handcar is a light railway vehicle propelled by cranks or
> | > levers, used by workers inspecting the track It is marked
> | > as being the North American term for this vehicle.  It
> | > sounded foreign to me (handcar).  What would we would call
> | > it here?
> | >
> | > The agreement was: Gandy Dancer (USA) referred to the track
> | > workers, not to the trolley.
> | > Gandy Manufacturing company made tools for use on
> | > railroads, especially track tools.  The track gang men who
> | > used them were referred to as "Gandy Dancers" for obvious
> | > reasons.
> |
> | > Pump Trolley / Pomptrollie were the correct terms as
> | > applied to railways in South Africa.
> |
> | > "Ganger's Trolley" was a flat trolley without the pump
> | > handles but with a screw-brake device which gangers used in
> | > addition to the pump trolley.
> | > Tese flat trolleys were far more common than the pump
> | > trolley.  They were propelled by pushing them!
> |
> | > I have ridden on a four-seat hand-propelled trolley of VR
> | > design: people sat on seats, in opposed pairs, and pushed
> | > the hand back & forth in front of them.
> |
> | > Did we ever have designs in which people stood?
> |
> | There was a design of a 4 wheel flat top trolley where a rod is
> | connected to the wheel similar to a steam loco, but this rod goes
> | up vertically, and is operated while standing on the flat top.
> | Refer pages 9 & 15 of "Railway to Walhalla - Pictorial History"
> | published by Walhalla Railway Museum, Erica.
> |
> | There was also a design of 3 wheeled 'tricycle' trolley where you
> | sat on a seat and operated a hand pump as you described above, but
> | it appears only one person operated the pump.  I have seen this on
> | both 5'3" and 2'6".
> |
> | --
> | B.
> |
> | Email - gunzel412 at dingoblue dot net dot au
> | ICQ#  - 82329734
> | Phone - long, long, short, long.
> |
> |

--
Peter Homann
Steam Fireman, Pichi Richi Railway
Administrator: http://www.prr.org.au