06-30-2010, 07:10 PM
No Tom, no switch. It was a former WSOR road unit, ex CNW.
As for the rules, Yes, the class 1's have taken railroading out of railroading. I used to talk to the CR STO. He is a good friend, no longer a railroader, retired.
He always argued that we were going to get hurt getting on and off moving equipment. My old time FRA man that had 30 years with the PRR-PC and 45 days with CR used to laugh , because he said if you couldn't get on a 10 MPH train when he was hired, you didn't get the job.
Using radios when the engineer can see you is stupid. Hand signals are faster then the reaction time to key the mike, and sometimes with gloves, mikes are hard to key.
I do however like the three step protection and we always used it. It gives you an extra second to think.
As for riding cars, it is harder to run over yourself if you are on the car instead of walking with your back to a moving train. There have been several crewmen killed because they aligned a switch and were walking the gauge (a NO-NO) when they got run over, because they had thrown the switch to the track they were on.
You can't think about anything but railroading when you are railroading, or you will get hurt or killed.
I only had 14 years running a railroad, but I had to know how to do everything, from cutting weeds to maintaining track and rolling stock.
The year before we bought the line the FRA track inspector found 680 violations in 3.4 miles. We were running passenger trains on legit class one track the following year, most of the work done by volunteers. He found 4 violations when he inspected, 2 were what he said was wide gauge, but when I checked the next day they were 57 1/2, not 58 1/2 like he read, and the other 2 were because there was standing water in a couple of ditches. He couldn't believe what we had done. The only other time he got me for a defect was I had forgot to sign one track inspection report. He never fined us, but would have written up any defect.
Charlie
As for the rules, Yes, the class 1's have taken railroading out of railroading. I used to talk to the CR STO. He is a good friend, no longer a railroader, retired.
He always argued that we were going to get hurt getting on and off moving equipment. My old time FRA man that had 30 years with the PRR-PC and 45 days with CR used to laugh , because he said if you couldn't get on a 10 MPH train when he was hired, you didn't get the job.
Using radios when the engineer can see you is stupid. Hand signals are faster then the reaction time to key the mike, and sometimes with gloves, mikes are hard to key.
I do however like the three step protection and we always used it. It gives you an extra second to think.
As for riding cars, it is harder to run over yourself if you are on the car instead of walking with your back to a moving train. There have been several crewmen killed because they aligned a switch and were walking the gauge (a NO-NO) when they got run over, because they had thrown the switch to the track they were on.
You can't think about anything but railroading when you are railroading, or you will get hurt or killed.
I only had 14 years running a railroad, but I had to know how to do everything, from cutting weeds to maintaining track and rolling stock.
The year before we bought the line the FRA track inspector found 680 violations in 3.4 miles. We were running passenger trains on legit class one track the following year, most of the work done by volunteers. He found 4 violations when he inspected, 2 were what he said was wide gauge, but when I checked the next day they were 57 1/2, not 58 1/2 like he read, and the other 2 were because there was standing water in a couple of ditches. He couldn't believe what we had done. The only other time he got me for a defect was I had forgot to sign one track inspection report. He never fined us, but would have written up any defect.
Charlie