Jim G. Wrote:
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> That creates another question for me. This packing hook. Does it look like a policeman's billy club, but 2x as long. I have a family picture showing rr employees in a rail yard, and one employee has his arms crossed holding one of these "billy clubs".
>
> Sincerely,
> Jim G.

Uncle Dave Wrote:
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> That billy club sounds like a brake club. Trainmen used it to help tighten the brake wheel when setting hand brakes (good leverage). A packing hook is all metal with an oval handle and shaft about 2 feet long with a blunt hook. At least the ones I've seen over the years.
> Dave in Msla

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Thanks, Jim and Dave, for your question and answer. They sent me digging for more.

Google search [railroad packing hook] [www.google.com] turned up some interesting things. Among them:
* C.S.Osborne, manufacturer of a complete line of quality Packing Hooks, Packing Extractors and Packing Pullers since 1826. [www.csosborne.com]
* AN INTERLOCKING PACKING HOOK A special hook said to be particularly ... such, for instance, as out of the grease boxes on the axles of railroad rolling stock, ... [books.google.com]
* Journal packing may appear in good condition on first examination; however, car inspectors should make a thorough Inspection by use of the packing hook ... [books.google.com].

That last one is a link to a Google books collection of twenty Army manuals for Locomotives and Railcars, and sent me digging further.

My Google search [Manuals Combined: Over 20 U.S. Army Locomotive, Rail Car And Railroad Trackage Manuals] [www.google.com] turned up many potentially interesting ones, including this one: TM 55-203 Technical Manual Maintenance Of Railway Car [www.liberatedmanuals.com], which, on pdf page 34, shows a packing hook with its dimensions. Many of you other APers might want to take a look through this document and/or some of the others Google pointed to.