Re: [CBQ] Switch Stands

["Steven Holding" <sholding@sbcglobal.net>]

When an unlock was opened it would set the signals and also light up the section on the CTC board.   That was WHY you had to talk to the DS first before opening it up.   On some that had a signal to come out.  You had to get permission to open it, then open it and when the indication showed up on the CTC board then the DS could line the signal.   On the CTC machines in the BC era(before computer) if the DS got a track light and IF he knew his territory you could call the maintainer and tell him what you had and where it was at.   IF the maintainer was smart he would walk right up to it.  Course some would fumble around in the dark till their time ran out.

Not all progress in technology was good.

Steve in SC

On Monday, January 16, 2023 at 02:33:55 PM EST, wcman8 via groups.io <wcman8=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

Mike Thanks for the photo.  That metal tab 1/2 way up the switch stand was used to get leverage to push down the bar on top of the signal box with your foot after "stealing the switch"  Every switch stand on the Galesburg to Quincy branch had a spike lying between the ties to use to get into the box and by-pass the 7 minute timer.  On a wayfreight 7 minutes seemed like an eternity.  We even had an official tell us to steal the switch when special machinery needed to clear Amtrak.  You are right about the foot pedals popping back up when you started to throw the switch.  It was really bad when the pedal was on the opposite side like it was at Erie, Illinois.  Bud Linroth

On Monday, January 16, 2023 at 08:28:38 AM MST, Mike Decker via groups.io <mdecker=gwtc.net@groups.io> wrote:

From personal experience, I can guarantee that the foot pedals could be a literal pain.  When I hired out on the Alliance Division in 1977, the CTC ended at the west end of the Alliance yard.  The only thing they told us in Brakeman class was about the new power switches, not a word about foot pedals.  So, when I went to work at o-dark-thirty in Edgemont on my first trip, I found out about them.  The first time I needed to throw a switch was at the west end of the Upton siding.  After all our meets, I went down to line us out.  No matter how hard I pulled on the handle, that stand wouldn't throw.  Finally, the engineer, who I just saw yesterday at a memorial for another Engineer, came out on the nose of the motor and pointed to the outside of the other rail.  That was all the instruction I got on the foot pedals.  Sometimes they wouldn't stay down, by the time you got back to the stand, the pedal had popped back up.  Here's a high-level stand I got off the Deadwood branch.

Mike

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