Photos:
Tim Cook - Pump Trolley in Permanent Way Exhibition in Buffer Depot
Andrew Bratton - Who needs a gym when you have a pump trolley!?

Pump trolleys were used for inspecting the track. Originally believed to have been built by the Sheffield Car Co., Three Rivers, Michigan, USA, this inspection pump trolley was probably built in the 1920s and is similar to the Sheffield Car Cos. model 45 design of not earlier than 1889. It is now believed to be a Buda Harvey No.1 Car. It is the same type as features in older American Westerns and "The Great St Trinians Train Robbery" film. It is propelled along the track by pumping the handle up and down like a see-saw.

It has engineering links to our velocipede car and was used on the Great Eastern's Buntingford branch line. Purchased for six shillings (30p) in 1966, it will be restored for use and demonstrations here at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. It arrived at Quainton 25 May 1996.

The Sheffield company has a complex history , with an origin in E & T Fairbanks, St Johnsbury, Vt in around 1824. One of its employees, a Charles Morse set up, a sales agency to promote the Fairbanks scale, known by 1872 as Fairbanks Morse and Co. This sales division overwhelmed the manufacturing side of the business, and it began to take over other companies, including the George S Sheffield Co., Three Rivers, Michigan, probably in 1883, though full takeover was not until 1918. It then merged with Colt Industries in 1964. The Three Rivers factory was closed in 1960.