Articles from RPO V4 N2
Dispatcher’s Desk
by Bob Amsler
I attended the National Convention and Train Show in
Long Beach, California and it was a fantastic
experience. If you ever get the chance to go to a NMRA
national convention, do go. It is an experience you will
long remember. I attended many clinics and saw many
sights. It was great to go to Cajon and watch trains and
the clinics that I attended were informative. I learned
many things — from appropriate weathering for freight
cars during the steam era to how to re-motor a brass
engine so that it will run well. I also attended a few
clinics on operations.
One of the things that I learned at an operations
clinic was that the railroads use words that have
meanings that can be easy to figure out and use, but at
other times these words will not necessarily make sense.
For instance, if you thought a "yard" meant
that there were multiple tracks around and perhaps a
switcher or two, you would be wrong. When I found this
out I was amazed. And I know this is true because this
was told to me in a clinic not by some model railroader
who works in a non-railroad job during the day, but by
an engineer who started out hand firing Santa Fe engines
over Cajon.
A yard is "a system of tracks within defined
limits provided for the making up of trains, storing of
cars and other purposes, over which movements not
authorized by time-table, or by train order, may be
made, subject to prescribed signals and rules, or
special instructions." Sounds similar to what I
used to think of as a yard, until it was explained by a
real railroader.
There are two tracks owned by the Santa Fe which
snake their way through Cajon, over Summit and down into
the Mojave Desert. These tracks diverge at Cajon,
California. Because the mountains are so steep, Santa Fe
had to use helper engines. (The two different Santa Fe
tracks are at 2.2% and 3%, also known as Santa Fe
"Easy Way" and Santa Fe "Hard Way".)
The crew of a helper engine consisted of two men, an
engineer and a firemen. On the west side of the pass the
helpers were stationed at Cajon. A station was there
with a telegrapher, as well as a small coaling area and
water tank so that the helpers always had sufficient
coal and water to tackle the steep grades.
When the helper stopped at Cajon, it would block one
of the two tracks. According to the rules (Rule 99 in my
1940 version of the Uniform Code of Operating Rules),
when a train stops on the main, the flagman must go back
immediately and place two torpedoes and lighted fusees a
sufficient distance from the rear of the train in order
that any train coming from the rear will have time to
stop and avoid hitting the train on the main. The head
end brakeman or fireman must do the same for the front
of the train to avoid the same results for any train
approaching from that direction. Therefore, when the
helper crew was at Cajon, according to the rules, they
would have to flag protect their train. But if they did
this, who would put the coal and water in the tender or
get the orders from the telegrapher and sign for them?
There are only two men on the helper engine.
Well, the railroad created a yard at Cajon by simply
declaring it so. There were only two tracks at Cajon and
they are both mains. But the advantage is that in a
yard the main track can be used without flag
protection against all but first class trains. Second
and inferior class trains had to move through the yards
at restricted speed, which is defined as proceeding
prepared to stop short of a train, obstruction, or
anything that may require the speed of the train or
engine to be reduced. Thus the helper crew only had to
get out of the way of the passenger trains. Everybody
else had to be careful when approaching Cajon. Since all
but passenger trains stopped here to pick up a helper,
this worked out great. (Sometimes even passenger trains
used the helpers though.)
The railroads used the definition of a yard to
alleviate an operating problem. The railroads did this
so that they would not have to hire two more men for
each helper engine working over this stretch of the
railroad. It increased the efficiency of the crews
because while the fireman took care of the engine, the
engineer could get his orders and get his engine out of
the way of the next train coming down the mountain or
get his engine ready to help the next train needing a
shove over the mountain. The railroads got around our
usual perception of a yard by the phrase "and other
purposes" in the definition of yard. This was the
other purpose. Numerous railroads did this whenever
confronted with a similar problem.
If your railroad does not have the money to hire two
additional flagmen to protect your trains in helper
districts, do what the prototype does. Declare the area
where your switchers wait for trains a yard. Then you do
not have to go and hire them (not to mention paint
them.)
I’ll let you know more about what I learned in Long
Beach in future columns. Until the next time I hope all
the signals that you see are green over red!
|
