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Inspired by Leo's report of a "rooftop walk"...I had to put in my ...only 1 cent worth... First summer I worked on the Lincoln Division...1956.. I caught Lincoln-Ravenna local No. 47 off the xtra board. We got to Grand Island and I picked up a message from the operator which read something like get 25 SD off we track ???....I couldn't decode this one alone at this time..but someone...I guess is was the hind brakeman enlightened me...SD is Single Deck Stock Cars...WE is west end...
Well we pulled down and I cut the engine off and went against the SD's. The rear man made the cut behind 25 and gave a go ahead...We pulled the SD's out onto the main...I lined the switch and locked it and rode the rear SD back to a joint with the rest of the train. The rear man had stayed back or walked back to the WC.
After I made the joint and the air came up the rear end gave a highball...There I was...25 cars back from the engine and we were starting to move...What could I do, but walk over the tops of those 25 SD's as we picked up speed getting out of town..
Fortunately for me the cars were all the same height and we were on pretty good track so there wasn't much bouncing and swaying...That was a "long long trail" for me over those cars...I had been on top before, but never that many at "speed"....
I was scared...to say the least, but nobody ever asked me if I could do it, or if I had done it before...It was just what was expected and I survived...I did think about the stories in the old Railroad Magazine about those trainman riding the "swaying tops" in the wintertime on ice.
Getting rid of the running boards and "topside" hand brakes was a good thing.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: Leo <qutlx1@aol.com> To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sun, Sep 29, 2013 7:33 pm Subject: Re: [CBQ] RPI box car Stating from memory w/o researching the Old field manuals; I seem to recall the rule was 1964 for new equipment and a several year phase in period for existing equipment. Also I recall that if the ladders and hand brake were lowered so there was no access to the roof,the roof walks could stay.
There were many cars still equipped with full ladders,high hand brakes and roof walks well into the 70s. Climbed up more than a few. Even. Watched a Condr walk across the tops and down a ladder to check a journal on a car while moving along, only once.
Leo Phillipp
Sent from my iPad
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