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Mopick - Posted - 05/26/2011: 07:21:34
quote:
Originally posted by mike gregory
I don't know what the procedures are for track inspectors, but I did notice that someone in the COMMENTS section claims that the line would have been blocked, and a lookout posted.
Any actual railway workers among our 55,000+ members know for certain?
When grandpa was working on the railroad they always had a time table that told them when trains would be coming by. You could always set your watch to the trains, in fact, a train would come by the house and grandpa would look at his big gold railroad pocket watch and say, "There's number 41 right on time."
So they knew when the trains would be coming which is kind of important when you are tearing up and repairing sections of track. Also they had a really neat thing called a torpedo which was an explosive device placed on the rails. When the train would roll across the torpedo the engineer was required to slow the train to 20 miles per hour. The torpedo would make a loud bang also to warn both the train crew and the workers on the track that a train was coming. The torpedo had long lead straps that secured it to the top of the rails.
A torpedo or warning detonator.
TB-4 Guy - Posted - 05/26/2011: 10:33:49
quote:
Originally posted by Mopick
quote:
Originally posted by mike gregory
I don't know what the procedures are for track inspectors, but I did notice that someone in the COMMENTS section claims that the line would have been blocked, and a lookout posted.
Any actual railway workers among our 55,000+ members know for certain?
When grandpa was working on the railroad they always had a time table that told them when trains would be coming by. You could always set your watch to the trains, in fact, a train would come by the house and grandpa would look at his big gold railroad pocket watch and say, "There's number 41 right on time."
So they knew when the trains would be coming which is kind of important when you are tearing up and repairing sections of track. Also they had a really neat thing called a torpedo which was an explosive device placed on the rails. When the train would roll across the torpedo the engineer was required to slow the train to 20 miles per hour. The torpedo would make a loud bang also to warn both the train crew and the workers on the track that a train was coming. The torpedo had long lead straps that secured it to the top of the rails.
A torpedo or warning detonator.
I recall the railroad torpedoes from my time as a child in Chicago. They were often used by track maintenance crews when working on a curve, especially in the era before hand-held portable radios became available. Some of the juvenile delinquents in the area were known to find them laying loose on the road bed where workers had carelessly left them. In other cases, they may have broken in to storage sheds in the many RR yards in Chicago and stolen them.
A favorite trick was to place two or three torpedoes on the rails of the city streetcars. This was often enough to derail one of the trucks on the streetcar. I guess they thought that was funny. It was pretty dangerous, for sure.
That inspector was violating the rule about checking the train schedule before doing a close up inspection of the rails. At that speed, there's obviously no way that a train can stop. Ordinarily, any work or inspection on a railroad right of way requires that track time be scheduled so that there will be no trains in the area.
dmiller - Posted - 05/26/2011: 17:02:06
quote:
Originally posted by Frebazak
Holy,...#@!#$%^&@*($$!!!!! That lad can hop!!!
Whoever said "White men can't jump" never saw that clip! 
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