Although I have not seen a rationale for going to orange MoW paint in
Burlington documents, under Ralph Budd, there was a major push to make the
Burlington a VERY safe RR (which ultimately resulted with the Q winning the
Harriman Safety Award* a few times). Other RR's that converted to orange after
WWII were B&LE, P&PU & CGW; AT&SF went to silver. Not coincidentally they were
also Harriman recipients. Those of you in other parts of USA may know of RR's
in your area that made the change post-WWII.
For a variety of reasons, in post-War America 'safety' became a more important
factor in consumer products, industry etc and one of the "findings" was that
certain colors denoted Safety or made an object more visible and safer. The
National Safety Council became a major force (remember OSHA did not come around
til 1970 and in any case, initially did NOT cover RR's) & FRA started to look
at personal safety rather than just rolling stock, locos & track conditions.
Thus "Safety orange" became popular thruout industry and many RR's that
heretofore painted their MoW equipment "boxcar" or "tuscan" red (common to
their frt car fleet & cheap) went to orange or silver. Per AAR stats, a common
cause of injury to MoW employees was when occupying their bunks, etc, they
would be 'struck' by cars being switched into sidings or handled roughly.
Since nearly all frt cars in the 40's/50's were either boxcar red or black
(tank cars), painting MoW equipment orange put them in the class of reefers
which also were orange/yellow & always got special handling. Also bright
orange or silver reflected sunlight, a plus for MoW bunks that were not
air-conditioned. (you'll note old wood & early steel passenger cars converted
to MoW service & painted orange, got silver roofs)
The Q like most RR's req'd MoW equip to be handled either directly behind the
motive power or next to the waycar; being orange it was easier to see what was
MoW and what was frt (MoW equipment mostly being ex-frt cars made them similar
in appearance at a glance when all were painted the same boxcar red)
*The Harriman Award was created by & partially funded by the Averill Harriman
family as a result of the many deaths in the RR industry. Into the 1970's,
RRing was one of the 10 most hazardous industries in America and "in the day"
more RR'ers died in the line of duty than did coal miners. Today RR'ing is a
relatively safe occupation largely due to a major commitment by the RR's and
the Brotherhoods. Indeed RR'ing was so dangerous a 100 yrs ago that the 1st
Industrial Safety Dept was created not by a steel company or mining corporation
but by a RR (C&NW) in 1901. The oft-quoted "Safety First" came from the RR
industry as did a wealth of Safety promotions via the AAR, Brotherhoods,
individual RR's etc. To win the Harriman was a real coup and was touted in
passenger promotions in terms of passenger safety. If you look at old CB&Q
TT's, you will see remarks relating to safety, esp. when they converted to
steel cars, electric light (vs Pinsch gas), steam heat vs stoves, ATC, etc.
The Burlington proudly displayed copies of the Harriman awards not only in
company shops, but in some depots, etc. The old multi-colored certificates
show up at some RR shows and are very displayable.
Those of you with collections of old RR-issued accident reports will note into
the 30's the ultimate cause in cases on personal injury was "want of caution";
i.e. the RR'er was not being careful. After WWII you start see other causes,
the hazard was not marked, employee not trained properly, hope not filled, etc.
Safety Depts went from being reactive & 'rules' driven to pro-active &
training.
Today's BNSF (always remembering where the 'first' name of BNSF comes from!)
was among the very first major employers to mandate 'stretching' exercises for
Engineering emps @ start of shift - the 'time on the clock' to do so is paid
for by BNSF but the reduction in work comp costs more than repays the lost
productivity time.
Gerald
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