One rare, and generally neglected, type of railway equipment is the car pusher. Often used on docks, these cars ran on their own (generally narrow gauge) tracks between tracks of ore cars and manipulated them in a fashion somewhat similar to poling. As far as I know, some are still in service in Cleveland.

Only one that I know of has been preserved. It is a Pennsylvania Railroad car pusher at the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum in Bellevue, Ohio. It is a 3'6" gauge electric unit from the Sandusky docks. It drew power from a third rail centered between the running rails.

Does anyone know of any other car pushers that have been preserved anywhere?

Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg has one as well as the Railroad Museum outside of Erie, Pa in the town of Northeast Pa.

v-scarpitti@worldnet.att.net

Please tell us who built it and when?

Tom Gears

Steam Railroading Message Board

> Please tell us who built it and when?

The car pusher in the photo, the one preserved at Mad River & NKP, was built in 1920 by the Atlas Car Company of Cleveland, Ohio. A very obscure company, to be sure.

How would one go about finding out more about those car pushers at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and the museum in Northeast, PA?

I believe the one at the RRMPA is older, Kurt Bell who frequently posts at this site should be able to help or check the museum's web site.

I do not know how to contact the Lake Shore RR Mudeum in Northeast, PA. (Northeast is the name of the town)

v-scarpitti@worldnet.att.net

According to my best information on file, the ore dock shunt at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania was built in June 1912 by Baldwin for the Pennsylvania Railroad's Whiskey Island, Ohio ore loading facility. It was numbered as No. 3, and as an electric unit which drew its power source from a third rail running on 600 volt a.c., it shifted the ore cars from the giant "Hulett" loaders for many years. The unit acquired by the Lake Shore Railroad Historical Museum was No. 7 and first ran in the employ of the PRR in Erie Pa., before being transferred to Whiskey Island. No. 7 is a later model, having been built (I think) in c.1930s era by Westinghouse. RRMPA's No. 3 was recently repainted and currently resides behind the Restoration Shop. It was acquired by the Museum in the spring of 2000 from the Cleveland Port Authority through the auspices of Eric Hirsamaki.

> I believe the one at the RRMPA is older,
> Kurt Bell who frequently posts at this site
> should be able to help or check the museum's
> web site.

> I do not know how to contact the Lake Shore
> RR Mudeum in Northeast, PA. (Northeast is
> the name of the town)


http://rrmuseumpa.org

These Dockside Car Pushers seem very interesting. Does anyone else know of any other roads that owned them, and how powerful were these units (Approximately how many cars?) ?

Photo & Link: The photo below is another view of the Pennsylvania Railway Dockside Car Pusher (#2) . The link is to the Mad River & NKP Museum's website.

Aaron B.

http://www.onebellevue.com/madriver/

norfolk_western_611@hotmail.com

I am interested in finding out more about "Atlas Car" who build these little locomotives. Does anyone know the lowdown on Atlas?

Tom

Steam Railroading Message Board

> I am interested in finding out more about
> "Atlas Car" who build these little
> locomotives. Does anyone know the lowdown on
> Atlas?

> Tom

Atlas Car was located in Cleveland and mainly produced specialty cars for the steel industry, including blast furnace transfer and scale cars. The Mahoning Valley Railroad Heritage Association has an Atlas transfer car from Sharon Steel. Atlas is still in business manufacturing specialty cars.

Tod Engine Foundation
rickrailrd@aol.com

THANKS everyone for all the information! Kurt, do you know whether the car pushers at RRMofPA and Lake Shore RR Museum are 42" gauge, like the one at Mad River?

BTW, I think that Atlas built a few small diesel switchers. Same company?

I believe both shunts at RRMPA and Lake Shore RHS are 36" ga.

> THANKS everyone for all the information!
> Kurt, do you know whether the car pushers at
> RRMofPA and Lake Shore RR Museum are
> 42" gauge, like the one at Mad River?

> BTW, I think that Atlas built a few small
> diesel switchers. Same company?


http://rrmuseumpa.org

For information on the car pushers that were used on Cleveland's Whiskey Island Ore Dock, we have a a page on our website devoted to them. There were four in Cleveland. Two were the most needed at any given time, operating on two 3' 6.5' gauge tracks between the four standard gauge tracks for the trains of ore cars. One, No. 3, was given to the Pennsylvania Railway Museum in Strasburg, PA, who in turn gave it to the Steel Heritage Museum in Youngstown. No. 7 (not from Cleveland) is on display in North East, PA.

Our page is http://www.citizensvision.org/friends-hm/shunt_engines/shunt_engines.htm

Built by Baldwin/Westinghouse, they were powered by 250 volts DC, from third and fourth rails between the outer rails, protected by a running board (The Huletts were also powered by the same 250 volt DC source, at first from an on-site power plant, later by converters from utility power). You will find detailed specifications for what were originally called "Poling Locomotives" in the 1917 Electric Journal article linked to our page.

As of today (November 2018) three shunt engines, Nos. 1, 2, and 4, are stored on the back of the Whiskey Island Ore Dock, in the open. No restoration has been done to them to date.

Steve Merkel
merkel51@sbcglobal.net
http://www.citizensvision.org

Can you provide the coordinates of their location?

I remember being told at the Mad River and NKP Museum, that the folks from the Sandusky ore docks would, on occasion, come down to Bellvue, to get a repair part from the Atlas car mover on display there, for the still in-service car movers up at Sandusky.

G.F.P.

Here's #3 at the Steel Heritage Museum in Youngstown on November 9, 2018: