Rail bending device (photo) · AditNow Community

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Ty Gwyn
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

14 years ago

The Rail bending device you mention,is called a Jimcrow
In South Wales Coalmines.

Photograph:

🔗Marden-Firestone-Quarry-Sandstone-Quarry-User-Album-Image-41891[linkphoto]Marden-Firestone-Quarry-Sandstone-Quarry-User-Album-Image-41891[/linkphoto][/link]

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oildrum
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

Also know as "Jim crow" in North Staffs 🙂

'where's the shearer?'[center]

Peter Burgess
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

Known as "nicked" in Surrey on account of it not being there any more. 😠

simonrail
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

Jim Crow in the North as well, although the picture is of one for narrow gauge track. We have a larger version for use on standard gauge rail, but then up here we are Real Men ... 😎

Yes, I'll have it - what is it?

Ty Gwyn
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

14 years ago

We`ve got one of the Bigger versions,for Jimmin heavy gauge rails,60lbs`ers,2ft 6in to 3ft across,
You Northeners must have big B---s ,its a Heavy ******,

The one in the photo ,looks like the Medium-Normally used Jimcrow,as we`ve got a pair of the Small ones,just over 1ft across,but the frame seems more rounded.

JohnnearCfon
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

Many years ago I was offered a "Jim Crow" by the then managing director of Maen Offeren Slate Quarry. The term is widely used.

Regrettably, I declined his offer.

JohnnearCfon
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

The one that remained underground at Maen Offeren (on Floor 😎 until a couple of years ago has vanished too. It was of a slightly unusual design (as I mentioned on here previously). I am still keeping my eyes open!

sinker
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

"Ty Gwyn" wrote:
We`ve got one of the Bigger versions,for Jimmin heavy gauge rails,60lbs`ers,2ft 6in to 3ft across,
You Northeners must have big B---s ,its a Heavy ******,

:lol: In Bangor we just put the rail over our knee and bend it.... :lol: :lol: ....and we eat 3 Weetabix for breakfast....and then we eat the spoon! :lol:

Yma O Hyd....

Ty Gwyn
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

14 years ago

"sinker" wrote:

"Ty Gwyn" wrote:
We`ve got one of the Bigger versions,for Jimmin heavy gauge rails,60lbs`ers,2ft 6in to 3ft across,
You Northeners must have big B---s ,its a Heavy ******,

:lol: In Bangor we just put the rail over our knee and bend it.... :lol: :lol: ....and we eat 3 Weetabix for breakfast....and then we eat the spoon! :lol:

We`d best give you a shout when we start on the heavy gauge rails then,maybe you could make some rings for us?

scooptram
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#10

yep its a jim crow in cornwall aswell

sinker
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#11

We`d best give you a shout when we start on the heavy gauge rails then,maybe you could make some rings for us?

.....you DO NOT want to know how we make those...... 😮

Yma O Hyd....

Roy Morton
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#12

Yup! A Jim Crow without a doubt; this is a crappy picture of mine below. This one is about 2 feet across and I used it recently to pull out a dent in the top rail of a trailer..worked a treat!

🔗Personal-Album-342-Image-62815[linkphoto]Personal-Album-342-Image-62815[/linkphoto][/link]

They were also called Jim Crows when I was a B.R. apprentice at Horwich in Lancashire, way back in nineteen hundred and frozen to death. There were some so big that apprentices would run away in terror, much as they did from the double handled 56lb sledge hammer nicknamed 'Monday' :lol:

"You Chinese think of everything!"
"But I''m not Chinese!"
"Then you must have forgotten something!"

Morlock
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#13

"Roy Morton" wrote:
There were some so big that apprentices would run away in terror, much as they did from the double handled 56lb sledge hammer nicknamed 'Monday' :lol:

Because no one could lift it on Tuesday. 😉 :lol: :lol:

Roy Morton
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#14

You got that one right !!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

"You Chinese think of everything!"
"But I''m not Chinese!"
"Then you must have forgotten something!"

Morlock
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#15

What the Fitter/Turner I started with in 1964 told me when I enquired. 😉

sinker
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#16

They were also called Jim Crows when I was a B.R. apprentice at Horwich in Lancashire, way back in nineteen hundred and frozen to death. There were some so big that apprentices would run away in terror, much as they did from the double handled 56lb sledge hammer nicknamed 'Monday' :lol:

Haha yes!

We used to use the Jim Crow for bending 4" steel pipes and ducts when they needed a gentle "kink" to get round a tight spot. We used to ram the pipe with wet sand or a timber mandrel to help stop it deforming when bent! 😮
Actually amazes me the things that we used to do regularly....if you asked a young pipelayer to that these days he'd probably tell you "not in my job description....!"
Hey this should be a whole new thread....old farts talking about "the good old days" ::)

Yma O Hyd....

simonrail
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#17

Hey this should be a whole new thread....old farts talking about "the good old days"

"

I strongly object to insulting descriptions like this - I am not old!
:sneaky:

Yes, I'll have it - what is it?

Roy Morton
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#18

Sinker wrote - Hey this should be a whole new thread....old farts talking about "the good old days"

Simonrail wrote - I strongly object to insulting descriptions like this - I am not old!

I wrote - I seem to be farting more the older I get !! 😞 😮 :lol: at the current rate of progress I should be classified extremely hazardous by 2020. 😮

"You Chinese think of everything!"
"But I''m not Chinese!"
"Then you must have forgotten something!"

derrickman
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#19

don't have a jim crow, but I have seen pipeliners bending a 12" pipe ( in Libya in the 1970s ) by wedging one end under a dozer chassis, putting a timber block against the track as a stop, a pipestrop round the open end and pull away with a second dozer.

Works better than you might think, but on the whole I was happy that the resulting bend would be installed miles from anywhere..

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.

Graigfawr
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#20

"Ty Gwyn" wrote:
We`ve got one of the Bigger versions,for Jimmin heavy gauge rails,60lbs`ers,2ft 6in to 3ft across,
You Northeners must have big B---s ,its a Heavy ******,

The one in the photo ,looks like the Medium-Normally used Jimcrow,as we`ve got a pair of the Small ones,just over 1ft across,but the frame seems more rounded.

When my grandfather started underground in a small level around 1910 he was sent on typical fool's errands that used to be played on apprentices in industry and on collier boys in coal mines. He was sent a mile or so to the local steelworks to borrow a Jim Crow. On arriving he realised he had been duped but persuaded a shunting engine driver to put it on the footplate and to trundle up to the colliery sidings where he duly pushed it off. He returned undergroundd and announced that he had carried the Jim Crow as far as the sidings but that he needed a hand to carry it the last part of the distance. He never explained how he's got the Jim Crow to the colliery and attempts to dupe him with fool's errands were makedly less commonplace thereafter.