Bob and listers
Bob has outlined the probable sequence of events just before the collision
from an engineer's viewpoint. This is probably as good a re creation of what
happened as we're ever going to get.
Someone mentioned whether this event had anything to do with the
installation of the red Mars light on the rear end of passenger trains.
A reading of the ICC report tells us that the flagman did not activate the
Mars light before he headed out to flag, which says that there was one
there...However if you read it all, you will see that, prior to the application
of
the brakes prior to the collision, he was riding at the front end of the 12th
car which put him two car lengths from the rear end of the train. He said
this location was the only place from which he could make proper inspection of
his train on the curves.."because of the type of equipment being
used"....blind end cars???.
Therefore, when he sensed the "emergency stop" he would have had to run back
through two cars, grab his flagging equipment and then, run all the way back
to where he was to get off to flag. (One of you more "equipment savvy" guys
can tell us what kind of equipment consitituted the last two cars on the
train). In his haste he probably overlooked flipping the switch that would
have
activated the Mars light. Apparently they (at least this one) were not set
up to activate with an emergency brake application....Or perhaps he was able
to get off from the rear end of the rear car....Somebody come on an tell us
what the platform and/or vestibule situation was on these last two cars, and
why that arrangement would prevent the flagman from being able to inspect his
train.
Just as a little aside and at no extra charge, let it be known that one of
the flagman's primary responsibilities was train inspection. The head
brakeman would be occupied with "handling transportation" (tickets for you
non
rails) and other details in assisting the conductor with passengers.
Early in my RR career an old operating officer told me, as a young
trainmaster. "Now son, when you're checking a crew look at the flagman....if
his face
is dirty he is making his curve inspections, if it isn't he isn't....Most of
the flagman "back in the days" wore goggles and when they would take them
off at a station stop or final terminal, they would bear the "racoon look" and
you could instantly tell if the inspection was being done. Normally these
guys would be "out" on every curve and would "highball" the head end to let
the
engine crew know that they were on the job. At night the flagman would give
a highball with his lantern or flashlight and the engineer or fireman
(depending on whether it was a right or left hand curve) would flash his light
through the side window into the outside mirror to let the flagman know that
he
had seen his "OK" If it wasn't too cold, they might roll the window down and
look out.
Charlie mentioned that some of the relatives of the engineer (W.W.Blaine)
and the flagman (Tangney??) were at the BRHS meet a few years ago..IIRC it
was
one of the Aurora meets....The flagman's son was there at the behest of Jim
C...On Sunday after the meet Jim and I took him across town to visit with
some other relatives so we had little time to talk with him.
Bob...You probably won't be able to find JDC today..He'll be over at the
"site" with his black armband. Or he might be at the point where the fireman
landed when he jumped...He has these locations marked out and took me to the
fireman's landing spot, near the cemetery near the east end of N'ville several
years ago.
Pete
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|