Sounds like an old ore cart. I come from coal country and most of the mines back here clean on up to WWII used wooden carts on tracks to pull ore from mines. My g'uncle died from injuries sustained from falling under a mule-drawn wagon in 1935. He was a teamster in the mines. The tracks ran down the shafts, just like a mini-railroad. I've never seen one with a pulley, but it makes sense if you are underground in one of those carts to be able to just crank yourself around off a cable.

Before engines were commonplace those carts were pulled by mules...........dogs......or young boys. Had another great uncle working in the mines at age twelve doing something equally as nasty. Link below to kids playing in 1/2 scale reproduction ore cart.

A picture would have helped, but you can see what I'm talking about and compare it to what you have.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mining cart

Ore carts are like wagons - with sides.

She might have a dynamite cart - a flatbed cart to pile crates of dynamite or tools on. They were also used to pull people.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6RXTIP46tMo/SbWdxIRd1bI/AAAAAAAAAQA/B2cB9DURTWA/s400/Oar+cart.jpg shows the flatbed kind, with some sort of tub on it.

Would you be referring to carts used on the platforms of train stations of long ago? A picture would help, or at least a better description.

Cleveland art has a bunch of carts--do you see one that sounds close to your description?

Here is a link that might be useful: Cleveland Art Carts

It would save us all a lot of trouble if the poster would put a pic up. Those train carts were a lot bigger than coffee tables, as were mining carts for that matter. I used to pick up the train mail to take back to the Post Office and they had handles, not pulleys and were pretty danged large.