Re: Fire Tools

Posted by Dave Eggleston on Mar 20, 2024; 5:31pm
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Fire-Tools-tp19512p19522.html

Mike, thanks for this very interesting and helpful info on the tools and their use. These are easily missed unless looking closely and with awareness.

The problems forced by the mountain running must date back to 1877 but as someone interested in the South Park and DL&G periods I don't recall seeing much evidence of these tools in the first 15-20 years of the line. You got me wondering enough to take another look and on the first pass so far I'm not finding much. Occasionally hooks for hanging a rake on the coal bunker extension boards (and often empty), a tool resting on the coal pile, one poking up from the area between the coal bunker extension boards and the tender flare sheet. None over the coal bunker opening so far. Masons seem mostly bereft of visible tools. Late '80s and early '90s Brooks photos rarely show tools or hooks but we see tool boxes hanging under the cab on one or both sides. As we enter the Trumbull DL&G era tools become more visible. Even the early C&S seems varied in what we see. If anything, the photos suggest lack or inconsistency that couldn't have been the reality.

Is it just my eyesight (and knowledge) missing things or was there an aesthetic view in the 1880s-early 1890s to hide these tools? Was the standard on tender engines to place them mostly hidden between the tender flare sheet and the coal bunker side boards? Where to hide a longer tool on the Masons...I plan to take a closer look for hangers below the floor boards.

I also wonder if burning Baldwin coal led to different, fewer, or more issues for the engines between 1882 and 1910?

I won't be looking at a loco photo the same from now on. Thanks for this great post.