Fig. 76.
The many objections to the center ridge car are almost entirely avoided by the use of the Barnhart plow, [Fig. 77], employing the ordinary flat car without any preparations except changing the brake staffs to one side or placing them in sockets at their ordinary places and inserting short stakes in the stake pockets, permitting the immediate use of the car for general service if necessity should so require. This plow is also built of heavy plate and angle irons, strongly braced, and headed by a cast steel point to which the cable is attached; it is preceded and followed by guiding sleds attached to it by adjustable hinges and guided over the car by the stakes in the stake pockets, which are indicated by the dotted lines. The usual speed at which it is drawn over the car is about four miles per hour, but in loose gravel it can safely be drawn at a speed of six miles per hour. On straight track it is scarcely ever thrown off the car unless carelessly handled, and it works equally well on curves when the usual means are adopted to maintain a tangential pull of the cable, as will be subsequently described. Two styles of the Barnhart plow are in use: One unloading on both sides of the car, and called the center plow, [Fig. 77]; and the other unloading on one side only and called the side plow, [Fig. 78].
Fig. 77. Fig 78.
Fig. 79.