Huntsville gazette., 1884-09-06
COupling.Pins.

As the umbrella is the property IT
the community in general, SO is tie
coupling pin the property Of railroads
in common. There is one difference.
however. While few people who
possess umbrellas buy them, each rail
road has TO supply its quota OF iron pins.
A promiscuous pile Of musty coupling
pins lying against shed under the
bridge which spans the network of
tracks at West Albany attracted the at
tention of journal reporter Some
were short. others long; some were
round, others flat. Shoulders were
wrought on some, others had tops
fattened out A few had eyes on top,
and others again had short handle
formed of thinner band of metal. No
two Of the pins were exactly alike.
Looking about the tracks, the reporter
noticed that at short intervals were
scattered other pins. ''Do you pretend
to keep the coupling pins of tho differ
ent roads apartp" was asked of brake
man who stood near by. mo; why do
you ask? Just for curiosity, hey?I
There are any quantity of them, | can
tell you. We keep all kinds on hand.
There are so many different makes of
bumpers that we are compelled to have
all descriptions at hand. Some bump
ers have an oblong hole in them. In
these we can not use round pin. Then
again we can not use the flat pins in a
round hole.' "You know the makes
of the various roads, don't youP"
queried the reporter. "We. become
acquainted from seeing them so often, }"
was the reply. ''Some roads," con-
tinued the brakeman, ''have their pins
stamped with their initials, but it's no
use. We never look to see whether a
pin belongs to this road or that; but
take the first one we think will tit the
bumper. A few roads have their pins
fastened with chain, but it won save
the pin. The chain gets broken and
away it goes. If I remember Alright the
Central tried this plan. 1t would not
| work satisfactory, and nine times out
of ten the brakeman would use a loose
pin and allow that on the chain to dan
gle on the Journey. Some roads don't
put enough iron in their pins, for they
bend when they get on the forward
cars of long train. Of course it is not
always the fault of the pin, but some
times the defect is in the bumper. Not
| few pins travel a great distance?
Well, l should say they did. In the
West Albany yard 1 have seen pins
from Omaha, yes, and from California,
| too, and would not be afraid to bet
| that there are some here now. We
often get the pins from the Canadian
roads, as we'll as those from Southern
roads. The other day l saw pin
which was marked in a way Indicating
that it belonged to the Denver and Rio
Grande. Ii person will give the mat
| ter thought it will not seem strange.
| Say train comes in here from con-
Meeting road. 1t is broken up to have
the cars billed in different sections
| placed on different trains. The pins
are dropped on the ground. or put on
cars of other trains going further or in
another direction. They keep being
transferred SO that they stay from home
and never get back again. l would not
be afraid to wager that lots of pins
made in the Central shops have been
used by the road in the first instance on
an outgoing train and have never come
back again, but been worn out by other
roads. We use the pins of the different
roads insthe same way--Tm of, here
comes work for me-" and jumping on a
section of moving cars being made up
into train, the brakeman was gone
albany Journal.