Re: It is a traversing jack

They are traversing jacks. The jacks are mounted on a base that can be moved with a horizontal jack screw. Look at the front of the base and you can see the end of the screw. You jack up the engine by both ends of the pilot beam, then using the traverser you move the engine over onto the rails. The horizontal bar is the operating bar for the screw jacks and is stuck between the two jacks to keep them from turning. The Jacks on this engine are rather fancy four column devices, but simpler single column screw jacks are very common on South American locomotives.

Take a look at the front of #68 that Thor posted last week. These are single column and you can see the traversing bases.

Michael Allen




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2008 04:12PM by trainrider47.