March 1953 page 18

[image: A CLEARANCE CAR LIKE THIS ONE IS AN IMPORTANT ASSET TO BIG RAILROADS.]

CLEARANCE CAR
It's a quick and accurate way to measure important clearances

Will the shipment clear all obstruc-
tions along the route? This is the ques-
tion which always has to be considered
before an over-size or projecting ship-
ment starts to roll.

The answer is found in clearance
records compiled by the railway en-
gineers. The modern method of meas-
uring clearance is by means of the
clearance car pictured above. The car,
pushed by a locomotive, travels slowly
over a railway line, and by means of a
battery of adjustable "feelers," or
"cat's whiskers," it measures accurate-
ly the clearance of tunnels, overhead
bridges, truss bridges, retaining walls,
water columns, cut banks, and other
potential obstructions.

Only by thus obtaining an accurate
record to a fraction of an inch in clear-
ance above and alongside the railroad
can the transportation department tell
definitely whether any loaded car can
travel over the route to its destination,
or whether, because the load or its
projections cannot pass some point on
the way, it will have to be sent over
another route.

Sensitive feelers

The feelers of the clearance car are
adjusted just before the car is pushed

MARCH, 1953 19