I worked in Train Order territory on the Q territory in Nebraska, Wyoming, and
Montana for 14 years with diesels on BN. We routinely picked up orders on the
head end at the 49 mph dark territory max or a few mph faster. Some wimpy
conductors wanted you to slow to about 35 mph for them to pick em up on the
caboose. They claimed the wind kicked up too much dirt in their eyes. Others
had no trouble at 50.
We picked up orders at least once every trip and often 2 or 3 times. Over those
14 years I think I only "missed" maybe 5 or 6 times and those were due to the
operator flinching at the last second. However I had to stop and back up, or
stop and wait for the operator to drive to us, or stop and wait for the
brakeman to walk back and meet the operator, perhaps a couple of dozen times
account the string broke when I hooked it. That usually occurred with one type
of fork if the operator put the string on the the wrong side.
In ABS territory I picked up orders at 60 mph on several occasions and that is
about the max I'd want to do it!
When I worked helpers pushing on the rear end, the conductor would pickup the
orders from his caboose (or the rear helper unit if he was riding that). The
bundle would have 2 sets of orders and clearances. One for him and one for me.
My helper brakeman would go out on the front of the helper unit and the
conductor would hand him our orders across the gap. Or my brakey would go back
the catwalk along all the helper units to the trailing unit and bring our
orders back up to me.
AK
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