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Pete Our old lamp man was "Guiney" Moonyham and I always looked away when he struck a match, to light a switch light. I just knew, he would become a "human torch" and he always smelled like "coal oil". I never saw an amber switch light on the Q (they were before my time), but the IC used them on "inside tracks" until they quit using switch lights. BTW, I'm not old. I've just been young a long time! John From: "STEVEN HOLDING sholding@sbcglobal.net [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> To: "CBQ@yahoogroups.com" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2015 10:00 PM Subject: Re: [CBQ] Re: Q Switch Marker Lamp with Amber lenses ? Leo It is like an A plate on a signal. Its in the rule book and only one place I ever saw one Steve in SC On Thursday, April 23, 2015 6:59 PM, "Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> wrote: That guy wiping the lenses and filling the "fonts" was know as "THE LAMP MAN"...We had a Mexican guy with only one eye who did this job at Joliet when I was ATM there in 61-62...He was, of course, known as "Mexican Pete...or One Eyed Pete" in those pre PC days.
He always appeared as though he took a bath fully clothed in his Lamp Oil..He was the main switch sweeper in the winter...I always feared for him when he got too close the the fire the switchmen always had going...He could have instantaneously combusted.
Pete
-----Original Message----- From: qutlx1@aol.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thu, Apr 23, 2015 1:27 pm Subject: Re: [CBQ] Re: Q Switch Marker Lamp with Amber lenses ?
Sounds logical Pete.
Maybe as time went by red/green became standard to reduce costs. I say this because my first visit to the Aurora coach yard and Eola would have been around 1962/64 and I recall only red and green. When I was doing my "volunteer hostling" at Eola from '68-72 and sometimes riding with the switch crews all switch lamps were red/green.
When I started getting paid for being on the property in '73 all switch markers at Eola,Savanna and the couple at Aurora depot were red and green. At one point probably around the time the Aurora storehouse was being prepared for demolition all the switches in the Aurora Hill yard received brand new marker lights with the tags still on the lenses. Needless to say they didn't complete a full weeks service. It was amazing how fast they left the property.
I have clear memory of sitting on an Earlville turn engine in the west yard at Eola waiting to leave and watching a senior member of the section going about his route. He wiped the lenses,fueled the pot on each switch and moved over to the next one.
Leo Phillipp
__._,_.___ Posted by: "John D. Mitchell, Jr." <cbqrr47@yahoo.com> __,_._,___ |