I have an old Burlington Northern hand truck and have been looking all over the net for a name for the darn thing. I remember seeing conductors of yore trundling crates and baggage around the stations with these things.
Can anyone put an actual name to this device?
Two hard rubber wheels, two wooden handles, very heavy construction.
It’s a “dolly”.
Or a “hand truck”.
http://www.ie.ncsu.edu/kay/mhetax/TransEq/IndusTr/Images/Two-Wheeled%20Hand%20Truck.gif
Do you mean besides “dolly”?
That must be SOME search engine you use DDG, both of your links fit the bill. Now tell me, I used both terms in my search and couln’t turn up anything like what you found, leading me to believe there must be some “special RR term” for the darn thing!
Thank you for again proving that I need to spend more time looking before troubling you kind folks.
Now that I have you here though, any idea of the legality of ownership of such a tool? It’s been sitting under a tree on my property for the last 22 years and it occured to me that maybe I could unload it on ebay.
Sure wouldn’t want those railroad dicks lookin’ me up though.
Er, I can’t take any credit for any extraordinary Googling–what you described is just generally known as a “hand truck” or a “dolly”, so after Googling around for a bit to see if “Burlington northern railroad dolly” turned up anything special, I just shrugged and went and found a couple of pix of what you were probably describing.
Maybe you weren’t using Google’s Image search?
After 22 years, I would think that “finders keepers” would apply. I mean, where you gonna turn it in, down at the Burlington Northern Office? Has it got a BN logo on it? If not, then IMO it’s just a generic dolly, do with it what you will.
But ya know, they’re great for moving furniture and boxes of books, so maybe stick it in the garage? You never know. 
When I worked where we used them - liquor store, warehouse, plant janitor - we referred to them by the inspired name of two-wheelers. Served to distinguish them from the other various dollies, hand trucks, lifts, forks, mules, etc.
Might be a midwestern kinda thing.