Railroad Forums 

  • Front End Detail for Locos and Freight Cars

  • Discussion relating to the NH and its subsidiaries (NYW&B, Union Freight Railroad, Connecticut Company, steamship lines, etc.). up until its 1969 inclusion into the Penn Central merger. This forum is also for the discussion of efforts to preserve former New Haven equipment, artifacts and its history. You may also wish to visit www.nhrhta.org for more information.
Discussion relating to the NH and its subsidiaries (NYW&B, Union Freight Railroad, Connecticut Company, steamship lines, etc.). up until its 1969 inclusion into the Penn Central merger. This forum is also for the discussion of efforts to preserve former New Haven equipment, artifacts and its history. You may also wish to visit www.nhrhta.org for more information.
 #1333065  by chnhrr
 
What were these cupped details or indentations shown on the pictured New Haven locomotives and freight cars used for? I’ve also seen them on the locos of other railroads, including the NYC. Where these details used for shop maintenance purposes?
 #1333097  by NorthWest
 
They are poling pockets. Poles were used to push cars on adjacent tracks, which made switching more efficient. Unfortunately, these poles had a tendency to break spectacularly and injure the crew member manning the pole. They were therefore banned.
 #1333476  by Statkowski
 
Extensively? We're talking turn of last century stuff here. The switch from 36-foot wooden cars to 40-foot steel cars made the practice all that much more hazardous, and it was probably used only as a last resort. The use of such went the way of the dinosaurs, not unlike Flying Switches and Dutch Drops. The last locomotives built with poling pockets were circa 1965.
 #1339293  by Ridgefielder
 
My impression is that the practice was more widely used in switching industries rather than in yards. It's on the customer sidings & team tracks where you'd be more likely to encounter situations where it was difficult to run the locomotive around the consist.