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Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad Photographs

Located in Williamstown, Vermont

These photographs were taken by Fred F. Pirie. Several of the photographs are dated in 1939 and 1940s. The photographs are used with the permission of Paul Wood, at the Vermont Granite Museum. Most of the photographs have been contributed by Paul Wood and Andreas Kuehnpast. The photo captions were written by Paul Wood. The Vermont Granite Museum welcomes contributions of photographs, etc., relating to the Vermont granite quarrying industry. (Please note that the photographs are not presented in chronological order. Peggy B. Perazzo)

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Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#1 )1. This photo is the same as photo 6 in Pirie Quarry 1. No doubt one or more tracks went through the stoneyard so cars could be unloaded by the overhead crane.

Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#2)2. Not clear what is inside the wood-sided gondola car. Is this an older-style gondola? There is what looks like a railroad water tower at the left edge of the photo.



Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#3 )3. Tracks with loaded flatcars and boiler house behind. Metal parts in right foreground, including large-diameter threaded iron pipe. Many buildings have permanent roof ladders – perhaps used to inspect/clean the smokestack or to open/close the ventilating cupola.

Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#4 )4. A string (how many?) of loaded flatcars ready for transport. Metal graveyard in the photo center and the edge of a stoneyard in the right foreground. The location with hills in the background is not certain – surely not at the Pirie Quarry.



Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#5 )5. This is the same location as photo 4 but taken further back. With at least three parallel tracks, it would seem to be a rail yard.

Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (# )6. Same as photo 4.



Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#7)7. Close-up of same scene as photo 1 and with much better sharpness/clarity.

Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#8 )8. Derrick loading a quarry block onto a flatcar using a baling hitch. We speculated that the black mark on the block was caused by the explosion of black powder explosion set in the two drill holes. It looks like the flat-bed trailer on the left has also being loaded. The bed is clearly sagging under the load. Wooden toolbox in center with four handles that would allow four men to move the box – heavy and hard work!



Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#9 )9. Pirie’s saddletank moving two loaded flatcars with hand brakes. Is there some kind of machine/engine in the center foreground?

Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#10 )10. This may be where all the quarry spurs meet for the downhill run (to the left) to Barre.



Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#11 )11. Loaded flatcar with side stakes – I assume to prevent load shifting.

Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#12 )12. A string of flatcars being moved by the Pirie locomotive with two of the flatcars yet to be loaded. Grout piles in the background.



Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#13 )13. Close-up of flatcar end showing the addition of end stakes to prevent load shifting toward the end.

Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#14 )14. A heavily loaded (steel frame?) flatcar showing a clear sag in the middle.



Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#15 )15. A derrick mast and boom lying on the ground as it is worked on by a rigging crew. Did they arrive in the parked car? It looks like the top of the mast is supported on the end of the flatcar – probably so the riggers can gain access to the underside of the mast. This photo was probably taken shortly after photo 24 of Pirie Quarry 1.

Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#16 )16. Fred Pirie may have climbed a derrick mast to take this unusual photo at mast-top level. In addition to the tops of a smokestack and derrick mast in the foreground, the saddletank belches smoke in the distance. Distant grout piles show the location neighboring granite quarries.



Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#17 )17. Photo showing a track with two flatcars running along the quarry edge. Not sure if a track runs around the entire circumference of the quarry.

Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (# 18)18. This photo is the same as photo 24 of Pirie Quarry 1.



Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#19 )19. “Loaded flatcar with side stakes. The presence of brake wheel and air hose indicates that the car has both hand and air brakes as is the case even with modern equipment. The hand brake is used when the car is decoupled from a locomotive. Hand brakes are used when a car is parked (just like an auto) to keep it from rolling away. Once the trains had air brakes, hand brakes were no longer used when the train was running. (The Vermont RR Commissioners mandated air brakes for all cars on high-speed tracks so, for example, Hardwick & Woodbury RR’s flatcars that had only hand brakes were not allowed on the main line.)”

Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#20 )20. A fully-loaded flatcar parked near its future competitor – a late-1920s/early-1930s truck. I’m not sure this truck (or even the road system) could handle blocks of the size that are on the RR flatcar.



Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#21 )21. Old saddletank hauling loaded flatcars. The bed heights seem different on the flatcars. Is this true? Isn’t there a big advantage for a standard height? I wonder why one car is staked and the other is not staked – perhaps the stakes were not needed but they didn’t want to bother to remove them.

Photographs of the J. K. Pirie Granite Quarry / Railroad (#22 )22. Looks like the flatcars of photo 21 but from a different angle.


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