Things About to Be Scrapped
Jun 11, 2022 14:32:14 #
We are having some exterior painting done on our house and yesterday one to the guys showed up with a pickup full of scrap metal. Most of the weight came from around 500 railroad spikes by my best guess. He said that most was from the railroad, but he wanted to show me a couple of things. From what I could see at first the ice tongs looked like the might be a switch handle. After I told him what they were he gave them to me. He then dug out the jack and focused on the aluminum housing. Again he had no idea about what he had and I had to explain that some setting up mobile homes could use them (he had 4). Here are some documentary type shots that probably rate fair to mostly cloudy.
Jun 11, 2022 20:16:19 #
Jun 12, 2022 01:55:59 #
OMG Ice tongs. I'm old enough (barely) to remember the Ice Man coming to our house
Jun 12, 2022 06:51:07 #
wjones8637 wrote:
We are having some exterior painting done on our h... (show quote)
Interesting. I've used the ice tongs. Pretty sturdy jack - at 15 ton capacity - but in what condition, and missing the top plate.
Loren - in Beautiful Baguio City
Jun 12, 2022 06:53:41 #
Curmudgeon wrote:
OMG Ice tongs. I'm old enough (barely) to remember the Ice Man coming to our house
I too remember the ice man. A huge man with leather chaps and a block of ice between the tongs.
Jun 12, 2022 06:56:34 #
wjones8637 wrote:
We are having some exterior painting done on our h... (show quote)
Nice images!!
However the tongs are not ice tongs, they were used in pairs to carry and place railroad ties!!
Ice thongs open wider and have shorter handles.
Jun 12, 2022 07:01:26 #
sheldon minsky
Loc: iron mountain michigan
[quote=junglejim1949]I too remember the ice man. A huge man with leather chaps and a block of ice between the tongs.[/q memories.
Jun 12, 2022 07:20:28 #
I have the cast iron version of that jack. Lugging it all day on the job will make a man out of you.
It was always called a railroad jack, though it was used to jack up real houses in the early 1950's. My father was a house mover then and those jacks were essential.
It was always called a railroad jack, though it was used to jack up real houses in the early 1950's. My father was a house mover then and those jacks were essential.
Jun 12, 2022 08:02:37 #
wjones8637 wrote:
We are having some exterior painting done on our h... (show quote)
As with many, it has been decades since I have used or seen in action the items shown. The tongs were probably used to put ice cubes into the drinks.
I think that there still are copies of the old films in which the moving of houses are part of the actions seen. The proverbial "crawl space" was for the purpose of being able to move houses from one location to another. I remember the "House for sale" signs. One bought the house and arranged for it to be moved.
A question of curiosity: Are fender jacks still used for any cars?
Jun 12, 2022 08:25:22 #
I remember ice tongs...going to the ice house in the 1970s to get 600 pound blocks to use on fishing trips. The ice man would drag the block off the loading dock into the bed of my pickup truck. There was a drop of about a foot, and BOOM when it hit the tailgate. It was a frightening operation. We'd bust it up with hatchets and put it in 200+ quart igloo coolers that we couldn't lift. LOL!
Jun 12, 2022 08:39:22 #
I have that same "Track Jack", when I was 20 + Yrs old I worked for Martin Marietta at a cement plant, and one summer worked with a crew of 4 lifting track and replacing or recribbing railroad ties. the following summer I ran a full-sized locomotive moving and loading cement tanks and then taking them out a mile to the main line to be picked up and taken to the cement depo. Fond memories of hard work.
Jun 12, 2022 09:09:26 #
rlv567 wrote:
Interesting. I've used the ice tongs. Pretty sturdy jack - at 15 ton capacity - but in what condition, and missing the top plate.
Loren - in Beautiful Baguio City
Loren - in Beautiful Baguio City
I'm not sure it ever had a top plate. When retracted the post barely clears the top of the housing and it does have a "foot" at the bottom.
Jun 12, 2022 09:12:41 #
Manglesphoto wrote:
Nice images!!
However the tongs are not ice tongs, they were used in pairs to carry and place railroad ties!!
Ice thongs open wider and have shorter handles.
However the tongs are not ice tongs, they were used in pairs to carry and place railroad ties!!
Ice thongs open wider and have shorter handles.
Thank you Frank, Since the painter said that most of the scrap was railroad things I wondered if they were used to move ties. Is this something that might still be used or is everything now too mechanized?
Jun 12, 2022 09:16:44 #
Jun 12, 2022 09:17:05 #
sourdough58 wrote:
I have that same "Track Jack", when I was 20 + Yrs old I worked for Martin Marietta at a cement plant, and one summer worked with a crew of 4 lifting track and replacing or recribbing railroad ties. the following summer I ran a full-sized locomotive moving and loading cement tanks and then taking them out a mile to the main line to be picked up and taken to the cement depo. Fond memories of hard work.
Thanks for the information, the low foot made me wonder about how it was used. Do you think crews could still be using this equipment.
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