Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 313, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1918 — LASSO CAR WHEELS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LASSO CAR WHEELS

Unloaded by “Man-Power” Methods That Are Old. TAKES SKILL TO STOP THEM Whil* Traveling at High Speed They Are Lassoed as Cowboy Stops a Steer—Some Possibility of Broken Legs. After a railroad car wheel has been in service for a considerable time the tread, or part that bears on the rail, becomes uneven with wear and the w'heel must then be sent to a wheel lathe, where the tread* is planed down to an even surface. The actual work of replanlng the wheels is usually a smaller job than that pf getting them to and from the lathe, as each pair of, wheels, mounted on their axle, weighs in the neighborhood of two tons, writes J. E. Murphy in Popular Mechanics. In an industrial district of Chicago, that is‘busy day and night with the hum of labor-saving equipment, is a wheel-lathe plant where the work of unloading and loading the car wheels Is done by “man-power" methods that are as old as railroading itself. Stopped by Lassoing. With the carload of wheels set on the track alongside the wheel yard, a skid having a rail for each wheel is placed against the end of the car s 6 that it forms a steep incline down to the track. Each pair of wheels is then worked with steel bars to the end of the Car and over the top of the Incline. By the time they reach the

track the wheels are traveling at high speed, and it takes skill and strength to stop them. This is done by the same method that a cowboy uses in catching a steer or pony—by lassoing. Two men,' one on each side of the track, stand ready with wire loops, and as the wheels dash past thenr each throws .his loop over the end of the axle and then runs and pulls back until the. wheels are stopped, this being accomplished usually within a feet. Occasionally, only one of the loops holds. In that case the wheels are derailed, with the possibility of broken legs and other injuries for anyone that happens to be In the way. Another Primitive Method. The work of loading is done by an equally primitive method. In this work a steel bar having a fork that fits over the end of the axle, and known as a “wheel stick,” is used. Starting 200 feet from the car, with two men to each “wheel stick,” the wheels are pushed along the track with Increasing speed until, as they reach the incline, they have the momentum for mounting to the car floor, tn spite of tfceir primitive .nature these methods are likely to be used for many years, as they are the most economical yet devised for a plant where the number of wheels handled is too small to justify the use of a depressed track or the installation of air-hoist equipment.

Unloading by Man Power.