Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-11-15
UOupling-Pina

As the umbrella is the property OF
! the community in general, so IS the
! coupling pin the property Of ralIrOaGs
( in common. There Is one difference,
: however. While few people who
! possess umbrellas buy them, each rail-
road has 10 supply its quota Of irOnPins-
/ A promiscuous pile Of musty coupling
oins living against q shed under the
/ bridge which spans the network Of
tracks at W est Albany attracted tbs at
tentiOn of a Journal reporter. Some
we're short, others long; some were
round, others fiat, Shoulders were
wrought on some, others had tops
fattened out. A few had eyes on top,
and others again had a short handle
formed OF a thinner band Of metal No
two 81 the pins were exactly alike.
Looking about the tracks, the reporter
] nbticed that at short intervals were
/ scattered other pins. EDO you pretend
/ TO keep the cOupling-pins Of The differ
/ ent roads Gpart?'' was asked OF brake
man who stood near by. ''NO; why do
] you askp Just for curiosity, heyP
/ 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 a round pin Then
| again we can not use the fiat pins in q
round hole you know che makes
of the various roads, don't yOu?"
Queried the reporter. ''We become
acquainted from seeing them so often"
was the reply. ''SOme roads, - COR
tinued the brakeman, shave their pins
stamped with their initials, bat 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 fit the
bumper, A few roads have their pins
fastened with a chain, but it won't save
the pin. The chain gets broken and
away it goes. If l remember Alright the
Central tried this plan. It would not
work satisfactory, and nine times out
of ten the brakeman would uss 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 1t 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 I would not be afraid to bet
that there are some here now. We
often get the pins from the Canadian
roads, as well as those from Southern
roads. The other day I saw pin
which was marked in way indicating
that il belonged to the Denver and Rio
Grande. Ii a person will give the mat
ter thought it viii not seem strange.
Say a train comes in here from a 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. 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 in{the same way--I'm of, here
comes work for me, s" and jumping on
section of moving cars being made up
into train. the brakeman was gone
albany Journal.