Observation Car Question

If it's what I'm thinking you're describing, the handles are for lifting the traps so you can use the steps.

 

Rusty

LOL! It may be a trap door where they put "special" hobos when they have no where else!

Mike Maurice

Would it possibly be a brake handle?

It was a handle near the middle of the railing. It was disabled on the Strasburg car, but still there. By the floor, there was a gear with a piece of metal which could be moved to lock it.

Did it look like the railing opened up like a trap door?

 

Hard to say what it is without a photo but maybe it is if there is another car coupled to the rear of the observation car it would allow you to move between the observation car and the car coupled to it.  

 

The air signalling system handle?

with a handle. a gear and a pawl (what the little piece of metal engaging the gear is called), it sounds like it could be the remnants of a manual brake.

I'm not sure if this is the correct observation car, but does this image show the item in question?

On open-platform observation cars, several things could be piped through the floor:

• A handle to pull in order to release the latch on the trap door, which should spring part way up and can be raised and latched to provide access to the rear steps.
• A branch pipe off of the train line to apply and release brakes during shoving movements where the obs is leading.  This would have a rotary valve on it.
• A branch pipe off of the brake pipe with a simple 90-degree ball valve to apply emergency brakes.
• A hand brake, which would have a large horizontal ratchet handle on it.
• A branch pipe off of the brake pipe with a small air whistle and an operating valve (spring-loaded button or - more commonly - small handle on a ball valve).

All of this was at the discretion of the owning railroad.  If the car was formerly a business car, it is more likely to be well-equipped with these devices and they could be located inside or out on the platform.  If it was a true observation car, less temptation is likely to be displayed out in the open.

Just going from memory, that vertical shaft with a "flop-over" handle on it, down on the floor, generally above were the rear coupler area is; could be the remote shut-off for the the rear steam line valve. In most cases, railroads preferred that the very last steam train line valve be cracked-open a bit, so as to maintain steam flow through that last car. That is why you see photos & movies of trains in the winter, having a wisp of steam trailing out the rear steam conduit.

Since Michael describes it as a lever, with a gear and pawl on the floor (and not a pipe or valve) then I'm reasonably certain it is the car's hand brake.

 

 

That looks like the car (though in a different paint scheme). The lever in question is the one coming up through the floor, behind the railing, next to the front railing support on the right.

Yeah, that's the hand brake.

Definitely the hand brake. The handle would hinge up, allow the hand brake chain to be tightened, then hang back down. As the chain tightened, the ratchet at the base would hold the chain in place. To loosen, you turn the chain slightly, then kicked the release on the ratchet near the floor. If they were overtightened, then they are a bear to release (been there, done that).

Thanks everyone!