RE: [CBQ] Emergency Waycars

["John D. Mitchell, Jr." <cbqrr47@yahoo.com>]

Not only that Charlie, but if you fell off the steps, there was a good chance you would go under the car and there was that trailing truck that could "get you". With end platforms, you could get on the rear steps and if you fell, you were behind the train, hurt but not cut into three pieces!

--- On Thu, 1/24/13, Charlie Vlk <cvlk@comcast.net> wrote:

From: Charlie Vlk <cvlk@comcast.net>
Subject: RE: [CBQ] Emergency Waycars
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, January 24, 2013, 4:57 PM

 

All-

“Widow Makers” was a common term on many railroads for any caboose/waycar without end platforms with only side door entry.   The issue was getting on and off a moving car and having to negotiate a straight vertical set of steps.  If that wasn’t bad enough some of them had end doors terminating in nothing over the coupler. They were outlawed in most states (probably WWII allowed them to be used).   Many roads had them (including the CB&Q in both NE-5 temporary WWI and WWII incarnations) but some roads had them as regular production types…MKT and ATSF come to mind…and fairly well into the 20^th century.

Charlie Vlk

 

The Aurora,IL BRT lodge files are full of complaints by the members from finding "their" Waycars in shambles after a yard crew had used them as bumping posts,held onto them while switching or kicked them into a string of cars.

I have a file from the Chicago switch mans lodge(I believe Courtesy of Steve Holding) that is very lengthy and describes in great detail how unsafe and poorly maintained the emergency w/c's truly were.

They were referred to by all train crews as "widow makers"

Leo

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