Drop Table - Savannah, GA - Georgia Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Drop Table

The Drop Table is located in the Roundhouse. It is a device that enabled mechanics to remove the axles and wheels of a locomotive easily. This allowed repairs to the wheel assembly and to otherwise inaccessible parts of the locomotive.

The Drop Table consisted of a platform and a short section of track. When mechanics lowered the Drop Table beneath a locomotive, the wheel assembly sitting on the Drop Table was lowered into the pit. The Drop Table then moved the wheel assembly horizontally in the pit to an adjacent track. Mechanics raised the Drop Table to ground level in the adjacent bay where they serviced or replaced the wheel assembly.

(captions)
(upper right) The modern example of a Drop Table (below left) functions much the same as its historic version (above). The Drop Table sits in the Roundhouse as shown on the plan below. It is unique because it still functions. The Whiting company, Midwestern firm established in 1884, manufactured it and continues to make drop tables today like the one at the bottom left.



(lower left) Note the wheel assemblies on this modern Drop Table track.