Railroad vises

[D Ravizza]

Hi,

I thought you fellow vise enthusiasts would enjoy this photo. It shows some large vises in use at the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad shops.

They look like Hollands vises to me. Not sure.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/16295

Dan

 

[BearCuda]

That's a very cool photo

 

[General Geoff]

Agreed, VERY cool photo. Thanks for sharing.

 

[bl00]

Great pic. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Farmall450]

Awesome.

Now that's a lot of American Iron!
I wouldn't want to stand under that train though!

 

[wrenchguy]

make sure u view fullsize, looks like hollands 18?

 

[SweetD]

New desktop background - thanks!

 

[bluebolt]

Cool pic! I see 4 of those big vises.

 

[thebeekeeper1]

I see John Wayne's helmet there too. Wow!

 

[ChevyEFI]

I could do without the vises for a while if I could have the crane.

 

[Lump]

Wow, it's amazing to think that they were still making that many new steam-powered locomotive engines in 1943...and during WWII!

Cool!

 

[EDGAR]

Five vises in the photo, actually.

As per the comments under the photo, this was a repair shop, not a manufacturing plant. The dates given for the engines (third picture) were:

#1823 Built in 1903, scrapped in 1949.

#3733 Built in 1921, scrapped in 1955.

#1696 Built in 1912 or 1913, scrapped in 1954.

If they were willing to scrap the engines, I guess they had no problems with eventually scrapping the vises too. Or maybe one, or two, of the shop employees took one home when the shop was closed and these are still in someone's barn in Albuquerque, NM...

 

[bluebolt]

Five vises in the photo, actually.

I see the 5th one now it looks even bigger than than the others!

 

[bigcaddy]

Five vises in the photo, actually.

As per the comments under the photo, this was a repair shop, not a manufacturing plant. The dates given for the engines (third picture) were:

#1823 Built in 1903, scrapped in 1949.

#3733 Built in 1921, scrapped in 1955.

#1696 Built in 1912 or 1913, scrapped in 1954.

If they were willing to scrap the engines, I guess they had no problems with eventually scrapping the vises too. Or maybe one, or two, of the shop employees took one home when the shop was closed and these are still in someone's barn in Albuquerque, NM...

If they were once in Albuquerque, I'm positive that Catalyze ended up with all of them

 

[oldldh]

Big steel requires BIG IRON CLAMPERS!!!

 

[t4runner]

Great photo.

 

[north]

Awesome photo. Thanks for sharing.

 

[bobcatdan]

Five vises in the photo, actually.

As per the comments under the photo, this was a repair shop, not a manufacturing plant. The dates given for the engines (third picture) were:

#1823 Built in 1903, scrapped in 1949.

#3733 Built in 1921, scrapped in 1955.

#1696 Built in 1912 or 1913, scrapped in 1954.

If they were willing to scrap the engines, I guess they had no problems with eventually scrapping the vises too. Or maybe one, or two, of the shop employees took one home when the shop was closed and these are still in someone's barn in Albuquerque, NM...

If the shop is in use yet, I bet the vises are still there. A buddy works in a loco shop and says half the stuff there is a 100 years old. They still have a working roundhouse.

 

[GreenNV]

The picture reminds me of my days in the steel mill during my college years. They had a 500+ ton gantry crane that rode on railroad tracks in the center of the plant. It carried a 250 ton ladle of molten steel and poured it into molds for transport. They put scrape steel into the ladle and shot pure oxygen in to melt the steel; it only took 20 minutes. When Lady Bird Johnson headed the beatify America campaign, many of the junk yards were closed and their cars headed for the scrap heap.

I was both fascinated and terrified to be working with equipment of that size. I was a ladle digger who jack hammered the fire brick that lined the ladles. After a number of “heats”, the firebrick needed to be replaced. The ladle had a swivel pin that had to be removed. I would guide the gantry crane hook to the position to lift the ladle for dumping the brick. My hand got caught between the hook and the ladle and nearly pulled my arm off. I had gloves on and was able to slide my hand out of the caught glove.

I don’t remember any vices in the section of the plant where I worked. However, the plant was over a mile long. They could have had them where they did heavy machinery repair.

 

[drivesitfar]

Nice picture. looks like all the vises have straight handles. i'm guessing that the stands might weigh as much or more than the vises.

biggest vise I've heard or read about is this 695 pound "Pittsburgh". the Railroads used that vise and it had a swivel feature. here's a picture of it and the guys using it. anybody seen one in person or own one they might post an actual picture of?

 

[Thedroid]

I work at a cement plant in the area, and we have a few big Reed 4c's from that shop, and also a 500lb Kohlswa anvil that were bought at auction years ago when the Albuquerque railroad shop closed.

 

[D Ravizza]

Glad you guys enjoyed the photo. I sure wish I had room in my shop for a bridge crane like that.

Here is some more info on what I believe is the same shop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe_Railway_Shops_(Albuquerque)

Never seen a Pittsburgh railroad vise. That would be something to see.

Dan

 

[sasquatch12]

Interesting posts, Great vices for sure.

 

[gregthor]

Thanks for posting these. I vote they are Hollands 18's I beleive GJ member Demoman has several of these.
Greg