Russ, I remember those days of no radios and the moves we made in
the blind with only air and the engineer's knowledge of where he was.
We would bring a train into the yard at East StLouis from Hannibal
that was over 100 cars long and put it away on three or four tracks
that held about 30 cars each. After getting instructions from the
yardmaster, the headend would enter the first track and keep pulling
until the waycar was in the clear and the conductor set the air.
After a short wait, the engineer would pull ahead breaking the train
apart where the head man had made the cut and the head man would open
the anglecock when the remaining train was over the next switch that
the train was to be doubled to. The engineer would slowly begin
backing up when he got his air back thus putting 25 or 30 cars into
the next track. The rear brakeman would protect the move at the other
end of the yard and open the anglecock to stop the move. This was the
head brakeman's cue to make another cut and start the process over
again until the entire train was put away. Here is an old Indian
trick that would help the rear man quite a bit. Before shoving cars
into the track, the head man would slightly crack the anglecock a bit
so the rear man wasn't yanking against a frozen cock at the critical
end of track. A rear man had to be pretty nimble to mount the car,
keep one foot in the stirrup and grab the anglecock and start opening
it. I guess they were good old days. Archie
On Jun 17, 2009, at 10:53 PM, Russ Strodtz wrote:
>
>
> That was not a rule by the IHB. Had no radios at all so that was the
> only moves that could be used. Radio agreement did not happen until
> Engineers got it in 1977. Even then many still did everything by air,
> it was safer that radio. That's the way I did it.
>
> Russ
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ralph W. Brown, Jr." <cbq682@grics.net>
> To: <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, 17 June, 2009 22:43
> Subject: Re: [CBQ] Double Heading Steam
>
> Reading about the use of the air brakes as a signal reminded me of
> something an old head engineer told me. Back before the crews had
> packsets, they would go south of Galesburg to the coal fields. I was
> told one of the locations involved switch moves where visibility was
> obstructed. So the crew would crack open the anglecock on the last
> car. The engineer would be watching the gauge for a drop in
> pressure. That was a signal to stop. When the switchman wanted the
> train to move again, he would crack the air again. This would go on
> in forward/reverse fashion until the work was complete. That too
> would be a big no-no in today?s railroad, although very clever.
>
> R.W. Brown, Jr.
>
> Galesburg, IL
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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