WOW

Now there's a nice detail . . . . too bad I'm an nscale guy . . . . .

Very nice! I'm a bit confused

Very nice! I'm a bit confused with the scale though, 16" in HO isn't almost 3/4" of an inch. Am I missing something?

S

ProtoType Dims...

When I first spotted these in a catalog, they were referred to as 16" and XXX lbs.

I think I'll take the 16" out of the product name.

AND I've just spent the better part of the day tweaking the product so look for updated images soon.

I've been able to improve the look substantially.

Ah! 16" must refer to the

Ah! 16" must refer to the range they can take up. 

Range

That makes sense!!

 "16" must refer to the range

Probably the size based on the rough modular dimension of the barrel? The range appears to be 12 inches           ( 50.87-38.86= 12.01) according to the drawing.....DaveB 

I'll check

Very nice Bill, they're on my Christmas list! I'll check today and see just what the 16 represents. 

Wow!

I've been watching the "Railroad Alaska" series on the Destination America channel and noticed all of the binders used to secure heavy equipment loads on flat cars, great detail parts.

A great show,

,as mentioned above and great models (just curious is that a legit reality show?)

"is that a legit reality show?"

I'm not sure.  They seem to have a "stock" shot of a train arriving at a yard that is used everytime they show the train arriving at a destination.  The train may have four units on the point and a helper on the rear, but when it arrives at it's destination it always rolls in with 2 locomotives on point.  Some of the break down leave me wondering how much is done to build drama for the producers?  Their mow equipment seems to suffer some sort of break down in every episode.  Do they just not maintain their equipment?  Every break down seems to get fixed in just the nick of time!

The show is still a lot of fun to watch, and the scenery is awesome.  Having sailed to Alaska a few times in the Coast Guard, except for the Aleutian Islands, what I saw of Alaska was truly awe inspiring.  I'll never forget sailing into Juneau, and seeing an island that looked like Mt Shasta!

Reality

Like cop shows, logging shows, doctor shows, endurance racing and so on, "Railroad Alaska" shows the seven minutes of excitement that happens in a month.

Time Frame

Those look great Bill.  Any idea when this style of binder came into being - historically speaking?  I have a flat car load that I want to chain down and have been unable to find a binder that I like that looks right for 1964. 

Keep up the great work.  Jeff EL Marion 2nd Sub 1964

timeframe?

I am not sure, but I'll be releasing the "lever style" binders shortly too!

Time Frame

Jeff,  I used binders like that as early as 1968.  I do not know how long before that they were in existence, however 1964 seems very likely.

Patent

A patent was filed in 1965 for this style of load binder.

http://www.google.com/patents/US3338359

Found one for 1949! http://www.google.com/patents/US2673632

The over center or lever style seems to go back to 1930:

http://www.google.com/patents/US1885128

 "a binder that I like that

When I was racing in the 60's and early 70's we used the lever type binders to chain our cars onto the trailer. The ratchet ype might have been around but I don't recall ever seeing them. The lever style in various sizes were quite common....DaveB 

Handle?

Well i measured one today and the handle is "16.  Ours are rated by the chain link size and weight capacity. There is a "take up" measurement also.  It seems different manufacturers label them by different measurements as well. 

A /Big Thanks

Thanks to all for their input, and especially Bill for his research.  I tried numerous iterations of wordsmithing to find something more definitive than "current images" resutls, and yet there's Bill with the answer.  Nice.

Jeff