Railway tools

[nickk]

anyone know what this is ,saw it last year at a preserved railway in Martel,France.A charming preserved line a few miles along a stunning part of the dordogne valley,with beautiful station and workshops with some modernish traction + a fabulous yard crane(wish list).

 

[Mr Roo]

Big screw thread makes me think it’s probably a “portable” (hahahaha) vice for clamping tracks together while they bolted in the fishplates?

 

[nickk]

Why the concave jaws then.iirc,threads were about 30mm.
Course,this is what you do on holiday,lol,work doesn’t stop when it’s a passion.

 

[Parm]

Does it clamp to or sit on the track?

Could it be a "thing" to chock train wheels?

Just a wild guess

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Looks like a giant sash clamp, unsure what the radius is for tho

 

[colnerov]

Hi, It looks like it's for clamping a wheel of a load possibly for transport.

Colin

 

[Beeezer]

Does it clamp to or sit on the track?

Could it be a "thing" to chock train wheels?

Just a wild guess



I’m we you on that one.

 

[pedrobedro]

It's a clamp for illegally parked trains

 

[outofthefire]

It could be part of a jig for building carriages, so you can accurately locate the wheels and axles as your start point. I used to deliver milk to the carriage works in York and there were loads of wheels and axles waiting to be used, but I was always there early and never managed to get in side the workshop

 

[Milkybars]

This is rail on top of a wagon. I suspect it's clamps for moving wheel sets on the wagon

 

[Seadog]

Well spotted.

 

[voipio]

Looks like the crane has a manually adjustable counterweight.

 

[nickk]

Looks like the crane has a manually adjustable counterweight.

Yes,I thought so,runs along the lattice girders.

 

[outofthefire]

This is rail on top of a wagon. I suspect it's clamps for moving wheel sets on the wagon

When I was building wagons we stored things in old bodies and wagons it's got a lot of adjustment for a chock i'd still say it's off a jig.

 

[Agroshield]

The thread on the 'clamp' is shorter than the distance between the holes in its base. In that respect, it cannot work like a sash clamp or Acrow prop.

 

[Farside]

I've seen similar used as stop ends on rails, in lieu of a proper buffer set. They didn't have the adjustable bits, though.

 

[Barking Mat]

Could it be an extractor? Removing connecting rods?

The crane has different weight rating, depending if the verins that's a hydraulic rams for me in french.

But it looks pre hydraulics. Using verins doubles it lifting capacity.

 

[Barking Mat]

What's under the jib on the right? What's the black swan necked thing with a wheel?

 

[Barking Mat]

Verins are the screw down legs you can see in black I guess, under the white crane.

 

[4String.]

Talking of old railway tools, I acquired these gorgeous old rail chairs a few weeks back:




The first two are dated 1978, and the rail would have been held to them by Pandrol e-clips, but I love those heavy duty spring spikes and chair screws that held the chairs to the sleepers. The second two are dated 1924 and 1936 and were for bullhead rail rather than conventional flat bottomed rail, which was held in by sprung steel "W" clips. There's a pair of modern cast steel chairs just out of shot, but they're too modern to grace this thread. The only reason I acquired them is that they have "Lee" cast on them, which is my OH's maiden name.

I was hoping to find a chair dated 1932, in memory of my Dad who was born on 23.9.32, but was out of luck. He was Station Master in my home village in the early 1950's, his Dad was Station Master before him, and prior to him it was the actor Donald Pleasance's Dad. The station fell to Dr Beechings axe, but the memories still exist for me.