Transfer Cab ???

[NW Mailing List]

Rick

A poling car and transfer cab would be two different things.

The discussion was on NW6, a poling car. So I will address that. If anyone else has insight or corrections, I’d be glad to hear them.

A poling car, generally speaking was a rider car for local shifting, like in a shop area. They were short to fit close spaces, and not take room while switching, smaller than a caboose, and cheaper.

The term poling refers to the process of moving a car on an adjacent track when you might not be able to get to it with the locomotive, i.e. when a car is spotted for loading/unloading, and others on the same track are in the process of load/unload and the car needs to be moved down to another spot without disturbing the other cars.

The pole was a wooden pole, normally hung under the tender, if you study photos you will see them.

http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=39058

Poling was a dangerous practice, and I think eventually outlawed by the railroads.

You can see the pole hanging under the tank in this image

http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=85452


Regarding a transfer caboose, and I am far from an expert here, because we never had any on the original N&W to my knowledge. But after merger with the NKP and Wabash, there were transfer cabs added to the roster. As I understand it, the transfer cabs were used in big city terminals when they needed a basic simple rider car with some shelter on a transfer run from one yard to another railroad yard.

While somewhat similar in design to the poling car, the transfer or rider cabs were a bit less spartan

http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=2936

http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=125365

Best
Ken Miller

> On Oct 25, 2018, at 8:23 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> I will admit my ignorance on this subject.  Can somebody please explain to me the purpose of a poling car and transfer cab?
> Many thanks.
> Rick Huddle
> Delaware, OH
> From: NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> on behalf of NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2018 12:48 PM
> To: NW Mailing List
> Subject: Re: Transfer Cab ???
>  
> On 10/23/2018 10:21 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> 
> > That was considered a poling car on the roster
> Thank you Ken.
> 
> Jimmy
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