Pete, thanks MUCH for the clarifications. Great histroy lessons in those.
My guess as to how one might create an 'old break': If it was me, I would look
for another piece of heavily-rusted iron and try to rub some of the powedered
rust particles onto the broken coupler's newly-exposed fisures so that the shiny
metal fracture wouldn't appear to be quite so 'recent'. lol Am I close?
Thanks again!
Val
PSHedgpeth@a... wrote:
> More Clarifications
>
> Give a Yank....Jerk the train after it's stopped.
>
> Drawhead...synonym for drawbar..or coupler....Indicates the whole mechanism
> in contrast to just the knuckle (The part of the coupler that swings open to
> allow the cars to "uncouple"...
>
> Drawbars down...when a drawbar was broken as in "got a drawbar"..the whole
> mechanism would come out of the car and fall to the ground...normally between
> the rails...This apparatus is extremely heavy and would normally require two
> men to drag it out from under the car and from between the rails.
>
> Break the chain...When a drawbar would be pulled out or broken from the
> "wrong end"..front end of a car...The normal procedure was to get the "bull
> CHAIN" from the caboose, drag it up to the car with the broken or pulled out
> drawbar, and "chain up" the bad order car to the car ahead and pull it to the
> nearest siding where it could be set out...This of course was a very "labor
> intensive" procedure...resulting in the conductor..."cutting loose" with a
> few pet names for the engineer.
>
> This HOGHEAD'S LAST REQUEST...was that after the trainmen got the broken
> drawbar chained up he would be able to "yank" the chain so hard that it would
> break....That's the point of the whole poem.
>
> It's only us old guys who remember the ongoing tussle between the engineman
> and the trainmen...One seeing what he could do to torment the
> other...BREAKING THE CHAIN would be the ultimate "torment"...thus his last
> request.
>
> Pete
>
> AFTERTHOUGHT:...It was considered by management, to be poor train handling on
> the part of an engineer to "get a drawbar"...Thus when it happened, the
> normal procedure was to lay the problem onto a certain percentage "old
> break"...ie the drawbar had been partially broken prior to the incident that
> resulted in the final breakage...Thus the engineer could be partially or
> perhaps entirely absolved when there was a high percentage "old break" in the
> fractured member.
>
> The percentage of old break could be estimated by the amount of rust on the
> facing ends of the broken drawbar....Thus the more rust on the broken faces
> the more "old break" and consequently less blame (and punishment) for the
> engineer.
>
> There was a commonly used method for creating "old break" when such was
> needed after experiencing a broken drawbar...
>
> What was the method??????? Leo, John, Karl, Bob....wait a little bit before
> you blurt out the answer...let some of the other non rails try to guess it.
>
> Pete
>
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