In railroad industry, the Ramsey car-transfer apparatus (Ramsey transfer) was a device to replace

bogie A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...

s on

railroad car A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...

s to permit transfer of a train between railroad lines with different

gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...

. The Ramsey transfer existed in a number of variations covered by several different patents. It was typically used to transfer cars between

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

and

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

(usually in width)

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

Invention

It was invented and patented in 1876 by Robert Henry Ramsey as a simple and rapid device for removing trucks at repairing shops, and for transferring car-bodies between rail roads of different gauges.Mid-Continent Railway Museum
Ramsey's Car Truck Shifting Apparatus.
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Operation

Two parallel tracks of were set approximately apart. Between these two tracks, the standard and narrow gauge tracks descended into a pit, one from each end of the pit, overlapping in the center and having a common center line. Beams resting on trucks riding on the gauge tracks were inserted under the car to have its trucks changed. The car was then pushed over pit, resting on the beams. This allowed the old trucks to slip off the center pins. The old trucks were pulled out of the pit and new trucks were pushed in from the opposite side. As the car passed over the opposite side of the pit, the new trucks were guided to fit on the center pins. The car now continued on its way, its load undisturbed.

Speed

It was claimed that the entire procedure could be performed in less than eight minutes. However in 1851, this would have referred to wagons without

continuous brakes A railway brake is a type of brake used on the cars of railway trains to enable deceleration, control acceleration (downhill) or to keep them immobile when parked. While the basic principle is similar to that on road vehicle usage, operational f ...

. More time would have been taken to deal with post 1880 wagons with continuous brakes.

Users

Ramsey's Car Transfer Apparatus used at Phoenicia in 1882 (01)

The

Ligonier Valley Railroad The Ligonier Valley Railroad connected the communities of Latrobe and Ligonier, Pennsylvania, approximately apart, between 1877 and 1952. For much of its length, the railroad ran parallel to Loyalhanna Creek in a scenic mountain gorge. In addi ...

was the first to use the method in 1878 in

Latrobe, Pennsylvania Latrobe is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States and part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The city population was 8,338 as of the 2010 census (9,265 in 1990). It is located near Pennsylvania's scenic Chestnut Rid ...

. It was also used in the same year by the

Rochester and State Line Railroad The Rochester and State Line Railroad was a 19th-century railroad company in New York state. Background In the middle of the 19th century, Rochester, New York's need for transportationMonroe and Livingston Counties were, at the time, the nation's ...

at its

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritag ...

junction with the

Atlantic and Great Western Railroad The Atlantic and Great Western Railroad began as three separate railroads: the Erie and New York City Railroad based in Jamestown, New York; the Meadville Railroad based in Meadville, Pennsylvania (renamed A&GW in April 1858); and the Franklin and ...

, a gauge line. It was also adopted by the

Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, w ...

; Wilmington, Columbia and Augusta Railroad; W. C. Virginia Midland & Gt. S. Railroad;

; Pittsylvania icR. R.; Pittsburg Southern Railroad; Dayton, Covington & Toledo Railroad; Dayton & Southeastern R. R.; Memphis & Little Rock R. R. and many others. The

East Broad Top Railroad The East Broad Top Railroad (EBT) is a narrow gauge historic and heritage railroad headquartered in Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania. Operating from 1871 to 1956, it is one of the nation's oldest and best-preserved narrow-gauge railroads ...

, a coal rail road in Pennsylvania used it in its Mount Union Yard up to the closure in 1956.

Patents

* , 30 May 1876, ''Car Truck Shifting Apparatus'' * , 28 May 1878, Reissue of 178,079 * , 21 May 1878, ''Car Transfer Apparatus'' * , 2 September 1884, ''Car and Freight Transfer Apparatus'' * , 2 September 1884, ''Car and Freight Transfer Apparatus''

References