Wanted to say thanks for the overwhelming response to my initial query.

And, since that thread is getting lower and lower on the list, I thot I'd start a new one where everyone could see it.

The picture below is of a car I saw near the former LTV Mill and the B&O roundhouse in Cleveland. Sorry I couldn't get a better shot.

Anybody know what it is?

Flimsies

hkading@rypn.org

Surviving World Steam Locomotives
james1@pernet.net

Not particularly unusual in design or appearance, but it certainly had a unique function: Nevada Consolidated Copper Co. "Safety Powder Car".

July 1964, East Ely, Nevada; Harlow Beene photograph, David Sellers collection, used with permission.




kalbrandt@rypn.org

http://www.todengine.org
jrowlands@neo.rr.com

Hume,

It is a charging larry (or lorry depending upon your mill, or one of many other nicknames). Often these were broad gauge electrics, but you could find them in many variations. A cool one rebuilt with an EMD switcher cab rots away in gary, Ind and a whole string of electrics await fate in Bethlehem, PA.

Blast furnaces of the older "bottle" style had skips on the back to hoist the raw materials up to the furnace. The process is called charging, thus the nickname. In many mills, you will see an elevated charging track on which these cars would bring in ore.

Bethlehem had a dual-gauge trestle with the larries bringin ore and standard hoppers bringing the coke. They were bottom discharged into pits from with the skip hoist would be filled.

I had the pleasure of observing these beasts close-up before the end of the Beth mill. Wow!!!!! I thought standing inside a furnace being tapped was outrageous, but being down in the dumping pits was awesome.

Anyway, that's what it is.

Rob

trains@robertjohndavis.com