Power-operated locomotive hoist, Battersea running shed (CJ Allen, Steel Highway, 1928)

Bettendorf truck at Illinois Railway Museum

A drop table or wheel drop is a device used in railway engineering during maintenance jobs that require the removal of locomotive or

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...

wheelsets. The machine is built in a ''drop pit'' allowing a locomotive or rolling stock to be rolled onto it, avoiding the need for heavy

crane Crane or cranes may refer to: Common meanings * Crane (bird), a large, long-necked bird * Crane (machine), industrial machinery for lifting ** Crane (rail), a crane suited for use on railroads People and fictional characters * Crane (surname) ...

s or jacks to lift the vehicle off the rails. The vehicle is placed over the drop table, and the connections attaching the wheelset to the vehicle are unfastened. This allows the wheel set to 'float' independently of the locomotive. The wheelset is lowered into the drop pit on a short section of rail, and a dummy rail, normally a part of the drop table machinery, is then inserted in the gap over the lowered wheelset. This enables the vehicle to be moved clear of the drop table on its remaining wheels, so that the removed wheelset can then be lifted out of the drop pit for maintenance work to be performed on it.

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A drop pit and simple drop table in use in South Africa in the early 20th century
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Drop pit and Drop table at Acca, Virginia, USA in the mid 1920s

Rail technologies Maintenance of way equipment