Here is a blurb about what a journal box is. I will have to look in The Hammer book. Now I am beginning to think a journal box hammer had a curved cross peen on the one end. I still have not found out what a journal box hammer does, but I have had some.
Journal Hook used in railroad work
Catalog #: 2002.0075.01, Accession #: 2002.0075
Currently on display
From the Smithsonian Collection
To check oil level in the journal boxes of railroad cars and locomotive tenders. Each journal box had a lid; the journal hook was used by a car inspector and/or oiler to pull open the lid, check for adequate oil level, fill with oil if needed, and close the lid. (The "journal box" held the axle bearing, made of bronze, at the outer end of a railroad-car axle. Hence there are two journal boxes per axle and pair of wheels, and thus four journal boxes on a typical four-wheel "truck" or "bogie (UK usage)" that supports each end of a railroad car on the track.
