Railway tracks are produced straight. They may appear to be easy to bend and may appear flexible, but are required to be bent for curves, at rail joins on curves and at point (turn-out) junctions. For a safe transition around curves and in the finer areas of the point, this was required to be done with a manual rail bender. Sometimes referred to as a Jim Crow, the rail bender attaches its two claws to the rail. In the middle of the two claws is a screw that is slowly tightened using a crow-bar to bend the rail. Tightening the screw too fast or too tightly may not give the structure of the rail time to redistribute and the rail may break if not done properly.Victorian Railways Permanent Way and Works track equipment Light Rail Bender narrow GaugeCast iron semi-circular tool, with hooked ends and central screw shaft.puffing billy, rail bender, jim crow

Bushfire perimeter rather than bushfire area is the main control problem for firefighters on the ground. A conundrum rapidly compounded by spot fires. A small 5 ha fire can be nearly 1 km around the perimeter. That's a long way to build a control line by hand in rough bush. Dry firefighting techniques by hand were mostly confined to “knocking down” or “beating out” the flames, as well as "digging out". Digging or raking a “mineral earth” trail down to bare dirt proved most effective in forest fuels which, unlike grass, tend to retain heat and smoulder. Early tools were whatever happened to be close at hand. They were simple and primitive and included shovels, slashers, axes, hoes, beaters and rakes. A cut branch to beat the flames was often the only thing available. Farming and logging tools, developed over centuries of manual labour, and readily available at local hardware stores came into use, but little thought was given to size, weight, and balance. For years foresters experimented with combination tools. In about 1952 fire beaters and other implements were being replaced with Rakuts.Fire tool used before the introduction of RakehoesRakut - Fire Rake and cutting toolGreen and red coloured handle and 020 marking indicated which FCV District the tool belonged tobushfire

BLACK METAL WITH WOODEN HANDLE - BRACE AND BITA POPE PRODUCT - FALCON - POPE PRODUCT MADE IN AUSTRALIAlocal history, medicine, surgery, medical