The Carman's Helper: Second Edition, Revised (1920) * Railroad Car Construction and Railroading Handbook, Rail Car Maintenance, Repairs, Employment, Terminal Repairs, Wood and Steel Cars, Air Brake Repairs, Couplers and Connections, Illustrated Technical Manual, Early Railroad Engineering and Shop Practice

The Carman's Helper: Second Edition, Revised. Hugh K. Christie. Railway Educational Press, Inc., Chicago, 1920. Stated Second Edition, Revised; first edition copyright 1919 and second edition copyright 1920. Original blue cloth hardcover lettered in gilt; approximately 280 pages including index and supplementary matter; generously illustrated throughout with black-and-white railway photographs, technical drawings, and diagrams. No dust jacket. Good to better vintage condition. The original cloth binding shows light rubbing, scattered small marks, and wear at the corners, edges, and spine ends consistent with age and its intended use as a working technical manual. The gilt lettering remains visible, the binding is sound, and the pages appear complete, clean, and firmly readable. A comprehensive practical handbook for railroad carmen working during the transition from wooden rolling stock to early steel railway cars. Christie explains railroad-car inspection, maintenance, organization, supervision, shop efficiency, light and heavy repairs, freight-car shop work, steel-car repairs, intermediate-terminal operations, air-brake repair and testing, couplers, draft gear, derailments and wrecking equipment, hot boxes and journal bearings, federal safety appliances, first aid, passenger-car emergency repairs, and established shop practices. Detailed discussions cover brake rigging, journal boxes, knuckles, couplers, truck springs, wheels, center plates, draft sills, air-brake cylinders and reservoirs, terminal inspection, repair-track planning, car-heating equipment, and the tools and materials required for field and shop work. The photographic illustrations document actual railroad equipment and repair methods, giving the volume considerable value as a primary source for early twentieth-century railway technology, labor, safety, and mechanical practice. This is an authentic 1920 original edition rather than a modern facsimile, reprint, or print-on-demand copy. Original working manuals of this type often received heavy shop use, making complete, solid, presentable examples increasingly difficult to locate in the antiquarian market. An important reference for collectors of railroadiana, transportation historians, railway museums, mechanical and industrial-history libraries, restorers of historic rolling stock, and researchers studying the everyday work of American railroad carmen. It would make a thoughtful and distinctive gift for a serious railway collector, historian, retired railroad worker, museum library-or for yourself. …