Anyone Else Fascinated By Old Locomotives?

[Rruuff Day]

Interesting Eric that you mention guns because there is a connection.

The structure is called a "shot tower" and used to create perfectly round shotgun pellets. The following is the Wikipedia story about this one located in Iowa. An interesting read.

There is a similar tower in Corning, New York and they used that one for drawing long thin glass tubes for thermometers and other instruments.

Shot Tower (Dubuque) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

So class that is all for today. Make sure your homework is done for tomorrow and you may resume drinking now.

I read the wiki link but still am puzzled.... Where did they melt the lead and how the heck did they get it up to the top to pour it I wonder...

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Eric, this seems like a logical explanation. Interesting process. Let us know what you think?

Shot Tower - How Lead Shot is Made - Mechanical Engineering

History is littered with innovative ideas and processes which we often take for granted today but were groundbreaking in their day. Something as simple as

www.engineeringclicks.com

 

[Rruuff Day]

Eric, this seems like a logical explanation. Interesting process. Let us know what you think?

Shot Tower - How Lead Shot is Made - Mechanical Engineering

History is littered with innovative ideas and processes which we often take for granted today but were groundbreaking in their day. Something as simple as

www.engineeringclicks.com

Well that answers the question of how they melted it but it would still be very labour intensive to get the lead up there to start with. A gallon pail of lead pieces would weigh about 95 pounds. Be a tough climb up a ladder carrying that...

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Eric, I found this video on the old U Tube. It still does not explain how the lead gets to the top but does explain some of the rest of it. As we know lead is not heavy it is all the plastic in the battery cases that makes them heavy.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Can you hear it? Sounds like a steam whistle way off in the distance...

 

[Rruuff Day]

Eric, I found this video on the old U Tube. It still does not explain how the lead gets to the top but does explain some of the rest of it. As we know lead is not heavy it is all the plastic in the battery cases that makes them heavy.

Had a look and found a bit of history. The first tower in the US was built in 1808 in Philadelphia and it refers to staircases in the early years which were replaced by steam powered elevators in subsequent years. A hundredweight of lead weighed 112 pounds in England or 100 pounds in the US. Still damn heavy to be carrying one up 280 feet or so or stairs.

The tallest, strangest building in early 20th-century New Orleans somehow evades collective memory

For 20 years around the turn of the 20th century, an eerie, medieval-looking turret loomed over the gritty late-Victorian cityscape of downtown New Orleans. Despite its renown, the Old Shot

www.nola.com

 

[Black 03 Z06]

You would not want to be low man on the seniority list. Damn you would be in shape or dead very quickly.

That is a very interesting story Eric, thanks for digging it up.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Heavy work at the rail side...

 

[Rruuff Day]

Heavy work at the rail side...

View attachment 39216

couple more bucket fulls closer to the ballast and he's going to have those cars laying on his lap....

 

[Rruuff Day]

I enjoy this thread immensely even though I know very little about locomotives. The history though fascinates me, so I hope the OP doesn't mind but I stumbled upon some old railroad pics in a Ken Burns documentary from the southern US... Might drop one or two in here occasionally...

This is in the 1920's near a community called Poor Valley, near Bristol, Virginia

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Post away Eric. Great shot. Poor Valley aptly named?

 

[Rruuff Day]

Post away Eric. Great shot. Poor Valley aptly named?

Yes it was. No politically correct stuff in those days. Over the hill was Rich Valley. No lie...

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Lethbridge, Alberta...engineering marvel

 

[Pep]

The Rochefort Trestle bridge SE of Mayerthorpe in Alberta. Not as high or as long as Lethbridge's bridge but still impressive. This is the one that burnt due to arson in 2016 and CN rebuilt it in 20 days as this is the major line from Edmonton to the Peace Country.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

What a great couple of pictures Randy.

 

[Rruuff Day]

 

[Black 03 Z06]

These pictures are from Washago, Ontario on the CN Main Line. The line runs to the east of Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching then turns north and west heading for Vancouver and all points between. At one time there was a second line running down the west side of Lake Simcoe through the town of Barrie, it is long gone. Some of the structure from the steam era is still standing. This coaling tower is at the spot where the line split.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

A few more pics of the coaling tower at Washago, Ontario.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Mentioned in the story about the Shot Tower that Corning Glass in Corning New York has a similar tower for making glass tubing. These are some pictures of the structure known locally as Little Joe.

 

[Rruuff Day]

A few more pics of the coaling tower at Washago, Ontario.

View attachment 39372View attachment 39374View attachment 39373View attachment 39371View attachment 39370

great pictures Murray.