Thanks to Gerald for his "expansion" of the tell-tale matter. Glad it came
up..first time I recall the subject being broached on this forum...It was a
real part of railroading "back in the days" as some of us remember it.
Gerald posed the question as to why a RR was riding on top since there were
no retainers to set up or turn town.
There were many reason for a brakeman to be on or "go over" the top.
1. Probably the most common reason in "flat" territory was to pass
signals..(remember there was a time when there were no or very few radios),
When
you were switching around curves or in areas where the view was obstructed the
only way that a signal could be transmitted from the man controlling the
movement to the engineer was via the head brakeman or perhaps two brakemen
being
on top of the cars...
The last job I worked as a brakeman for the CB&Q was the Fairmont-Hildreth
local in Nebraska. It was the summer of 1958. The job went west from
Fairmont to Hildreth on Monday Wednesday and Friday and returned on the
alternate
days. It was the height of the wheat harvest and the basic operation was to
peddle empties going west and pick up the loads coming back east.
When we went to work at Fairmont about 4:00pm or so the yard would be full
of empty boxcars (grain boxes) set out by a main line "grain box drag".
There were about 12 tracks in the yard. After getting our station switching
done
we would line up our train on maybe 4-5 tracks holding 15-20 cars each. By
the time we got this done dusk would be falling and at twilight it's
difficult to see lantern signals, and nearly impossible to see daylight hand
signals.
My first day on the job when we were ready to "double up" and get our train
together, the conductor said..."now Jim you better ""go high". The drill
was...I tied the engine on the track which was to be the head end of our train,
cut the air in and waited for a "go ahead" sign from the rear brakeman who had
been "making" the air on the track.
Upon receipt of his go ahead I signaled go ahead to the engineer and "went
high" on the first car behind the engine. As we pulled out the first cut the
rear man "went high" on the rear end of the cut. The conductor stayed on
the ground to handle the switches.
We would then "double" from track to track each double getting longer and
longer as we picked up the cars from each track. I would have grabbed a
couple
of fusses from the engine and the rear man would have some from the
waycar....we would both be on top. The rear man would signal go
ahead---stop---back
up from his position on the rear of each cut and I would transmit his signal
to the engineer via fussee.
When we made the final double we could be handling 50 - 75 cars (boxcars).
One night we left Fairmont with 90 empties. (One lightweight SD 7 was always
our power). On the final double to the track holding what would be the rear
end of our train it was indeed a long way to see signals and a fussees held
by brakemen on top was the only way to do it.
When we had our train together, we would wait a few minutes for the brake
system to charge.
When there was the required 70 PSIG on the gauge in the waycar, the
conductor would yell up to the rear man on top of the car ahead of the
waycar..."set
em up"...He would signal "apply air brakes" by the standard horizontal
movement of his fusee...I would give the same sign to the engineer....He would
set
the air. followed by one long whistle blast..When the rear end set up, the
rear man would signal "release" by holding the fussee over his head which I
would transmit to the engineer...He would whistle two longs and release the
air.
When the rear end released the rear man on top would give a "highball" with
his fusee ending by throwing it up in the air. The engineer would whistle
two longs and I would quickly climb down before movement began, swing around
from the sill step of the head car onto the engine steps...walk up the running
board into the cab...Drink about half the water in the cooler and sit down
on the brakemans stool ahead of the fireman...
2. Another reason for being on or going over the top was to save time in
picking up or setting out cars. I remember the first time I went over the
tops
on moving train. I was head brakeman on No. 47..The tri weekly local
operating between Lincoln and Ravenna. We got to Grand Island late in the
afternoon and I picked up a message at the depot to "Pick up 25 sd at a track
on the
west edge of town...Well, after pondering over what an sd was and being told
by the rear brakeman who was on the engine with me that a sd was a "single
deck" stock car, we had pulled up to the storage track. The rear brakeman
dropped off at the east end of the sd's.
We pulled up to the west end of the track...I cut the engine off and backed
him in and coupled up. The rear man signaled ahead and we pulled those 25
sds out on the mainline. Shoved back and coupled to our train.
The rear man said, as he highballed the engineer, now 25 car lengths away
from us...You can just go over the top to the head end....I climbed the ladder
as we started to move and made my way to the engine. We had a light train
and it wasn't long until we were at track speed (55mph). That was my first
experience with "walking the tops". It was fairly easy since the cars were
all
of uniform height and the ride was fairly smooth, but it was a bit scary.
Difficulty arose when there were flatcars, gondolas or tank cars in your
train,
and you can imagine what it was like in snowy or icy weather...
Well, that was more information than was necessary, but I hate to miss an
opportunity to tell how it was "back in the days".
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/
|