Lionel 50' DD Boxcar ~ Erie Lackawanna ~ Thumbtacks Rd# 7925

Description: We try to be Friendly to our international customers especially with our: UPS Standard to Canada, To see all of our listings. visit: Ika's Train Store The 50' long - 10' high steel boxcars came along in the 1930's, wood ones of a similar size had been built in the 1920's. Earliest reference to 50 foot double door boxcars was Santa Fe who built their first 50-foot, double-door "furniture" cars in 1898, the Santa Fe-E and the Santa Fe-F classes consisting of 100 cars each. Other classes of 50-foot, double-door cars followed in the first decades of the 20th century, but Santa Fe didn't have any 50-foot, single-door Bx-class boxcars until 1940, when the company shops started rebuilding worn out double-door Fe-U boxcars into single-door Bx-35's. While they may be small in comparison to cars and locomotives comprising a several-thousand ton train, none of the equipment could stay together if it was not for the coupler. This device has been modified and changed many times over the years since the industry's earliest days during the 1830s. As the century progressed a design known as the link-and-pin entered widespread use. While it was capable of keeping rolling stock together, but on the move it was extremely dangerous for crewmen. Eventually, the knuckle coupler was invented prior to 1900 that was far safer and more efficient than anything previously conceived Ultimately, the design was so practical that it became standard across the industry and is still in regular service today after more than a century after it was first developed.When the age of the railroad dawned in the United States during the 1820s the concept proved an exciting new technology that could move freight and passengers very efficiently in large numbers. However, as the first trains began rolling in places such as Baltimore, Charleston, and Boston a problem soon appeared. How does one effectively keep cars coupled together while in transit? As Jim Boyd states in his book, "The American Freight Train," a good coupler would need to withstand both tension (pulling) and compression (pushing) forces with the issue of slack being ever-present. A number of early, rudimentary inventions sprang up although all proved rather dangerous and not particularly efficient. The very first connections employed included simple hooks and chains.This idea might proved effective in some manner although it was not without flaws; first, to manually hook and unhook the cars required significant time and second, chains offered so much slack that once a train started to move the severe jarring was not only unpleasant for passengers but also, in some cases, damaged the freight as well. The first practical, yet extremely dangerous, coupler was known as the link-and-pin. By the Civil War they were in widespread use although there was not a universal design. The link-and-pin had some similarities to the modern knuckle-coupler, notably the use of a draft gear; a device, which housed the coupler and mounted into a car's underframe. It usually employed a spring system and friction plates which helped cushion and absorb the shocks of daily service.Practically, the link-and-pin worked on a simple principle; line up the looped, U-shaped ends of each coupler and place a pin within the end-pocket before the two came together. However, doing so meant workers were required to stand in between the cars, make sure the couplers lined correctly, and insert the pin manually. With equipment, even during the mid-19th century, weighing several tons and workers' hands and limbs being so close to the moving cars accidents were quite common; at worst fingers or limbs were lost while in other cases workers were crushed and killed. There were a myriad of different inventions conceived in an attempt to create a better, safer coupler. However, it was not until former Confederate Colonel Eli Hamilton Janney devised the ingenious knuckle-coupler did a useful alternative become available.During April of 1873 he received a patent for his design which worked like a pair of human hands grasping one another while a pin, situated inside the coupler, closed automatically via the force of the cars coming together, offering a firm connection. What became known as the knuckle coupler (sometimes referred to as the automatic coupler) eliminated the need for a worker situated in-between the cars while a lever placed to the side could disengage the pin, uncoupling the connection. While the inherent advantages and dramatic safety improvements Janney's design offered seemed apparent the industry was slow to adopt it. During a time before the Federal Railroad Administration, Interstate Commerce Commission/Surface Transportation Board, and other government oversight agencies railroads saw no need in spending the money to reequip their rolling stock when the link-and-pin system worked just fine.In 1877 the Pennsylvania Railroad was the first to try the knuckle coupler and immediately liked it; not only was it safer but cars could be coupled much faster than doing so manually. A little more than a decade later the Master Car Builder's Association convinced Janney to release his patents in 1888, allowing multiple manufactures to begin producing knuckle couplers. The association went on to adopt it as the universal "MCB Coupler" and a standard design soon followed. During March of 1893 legislation was passed, known as the Federal Safety Appliance Act, making it mandatory for all railroads to use knuckle couplers on any locomotive or car in regular service. The industry was given five years to update its equipment, thus permanently eliminating workers from this incredibly dangerous task. **American-Rails Note #1: I will combine shipping for multiple items. Please purchase the items but do *NOT* pay. I will review and calculate shipping as close as to what I have to pay. I will then forward an invoice with the adjusted shipping. If you do pay ahead of this recalculation I will refund the shipping difference as part of preparing the items for shipment. Note #2: I want you to be happy with your purchase and would appreciate you leaving positive feedback. In the event you are not, please contact me immediately before leaving feedback so we may resolve it. Thank you. Note #3: If not previously stated item(s) come from a smoke-free environment with cats. Note #4: This is a Grandma & Grandpa shop. We have a 4 business day shipping window (this means that if you pay for your order on a Friday it may not get shipping until the following Thursday). We do combine shipping especially when we are asked about it.If you want combined shipping, please purchase all your items in one order. If you purchase items in more than one order, send us a message so that we know about the additional items and box the orders together. (When items are bought in multiple orders, we do not always notice they were bought by the same person unless we are notified by the buyer.) We refund extra shipping charges when combined shipping is requested. If we ship items separately, we do not issue a shipping refund.For our International customers: YES!! we do combine shipping. The most economical way for you to buy multiple items from us is for you to send us a list of the items you want to buy. Do not purchase them as they are listed!! (This leads to higher than necessary fees & shipping.) Send us a complete list of all the items you want. Then we will cancel the listings for the items and turn them into a special listing just for you (We'll send you the listing named before making it active). It will have your full purchase with the correct shipping box size and weight. This saves you on the international fees & shipping.

Price: 16.08 USD

Location: London, Ohio

End Time: 2024-11-12T21:27:04.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD