http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/Bor1857/rulebook1857.html $$$$ didn’t dictate safety like it does today. The trains actually went at a decent speed.
Like the CSX employee who was rideing on the back of the train and killed this week in 1857 would have been on top of the train signaling to another employee near the cab and the engineer would have known what was behind.
They actually slowed down and stopped for passenger terminals back then.
I was at a legion meeting, and got into a conversation with Tony Giaglo, a retired engineer from the old Illinios Central Gulf. He told me a story about a man they called Gunny Sack Joe. Gunny Sack Joe work as a fireman shoveling coal in the day’s of steam. He and his wife settled in a town along the ICG near LaSalle Ill. When he married her they agreed to have children till they got there first girl. Well she gave him 6 Boy’s before they got that girl. With so many children to feed things were tight in that household. Gunny Sack Joe heated his house with a coal furnace. When he was firing a locomotive through the town that he lived in he would fill the three Gunny Sacks that he carried with him with coal. (Hence the name Gunny Sack Joe.) When the sacks were full he would drop them off the train at the edge of town that he lived in. His two eldest boy’s would then retreeve the sacks of coal, and pu***hem home in a wagon. Three sacks of coal do not seem like much but when you do it through out the summer, were talking full coal bin by fall. He cried like a baby when the ICG converted to diesel. Story has it, the next day he went out and bought a fuel oil furnace. Then started showing up to work with buckets.
TIM A
I think that I have figured kind of where you got your info. I haven’t figured if it was “Back to the Future 1,2,or 3.”
I sure hate to think what you thought of at the end of Part 3 when the steam engine hit the Delorean at the end. There was even a crossing there you MORON!
Get a life Richard Cranium!!!
Brian (KY)
Due to slack action, and falling inbetween the cars, the life expectancy of any employee riding on top of a rail car was about three years.
A switchman was expected to lose at least two or more fingers within the first five years, and a toe or two during his career.
In 1857, railroading was the most dangerous profession, followed by being a solider or sailor.
More men died in railroad service than in any other profession.
You so stupid, you are making comparisons about a subject on which you show a tremendous lack of knowledge and common sense.
Tell you what, come on down, I put you on top of any railcar you chose, if you live through a simple shove from our recieving yard to the yard proper, I pay your doctor bills.
Not only is riding on top of a car against the rules, it against the rules of common sense, which you seem to lack in any amount.
Next to riding on a coupler, its about the fastest way to get killed.
Oh, in case you didnt notice, its not 1857 anymore. The reason they rode on top of the cars, so the engineer could see them, is because they didnt have radios. They died by the hundreds doing that.
The toads were right, you are dumb as dirt.
Has your momma let you outside, in the sunlight yet?
Hey, I think I will follow the toads advice, they do seem to be smarter than you.
WE DONT CARE ABOUT THE RULES IN 1857.
WE DONT CARE!
Ed
It is strange how strong safety harnesses are. Never have had one break have you? But who needs safety harnesses when there are video monitors that could be put on the back of the trains. Let’s see a video camera, a monitor, and a piece of coax.
mr miss,
since your so hot & all about safety, and have access to a rulebook from then, could you cite some numbers, please, about:
frequency of accidents on r.rs. in 1857, compared to csx’s miles of laid track today? the figure should include:
accidents due to poor r-o-w;
" " " " bad signaling (trackside & crew);
" " " engine maintenance;
" " " crewmen between cars;
" " " poor r-o-w design;
" " " situations undefined by the rules…
mr miss,
i know you know the figures, or where they can be found, so let’s stop playing games… what is the death & accident rate today versus 1857?
if you can’t answer the question, you have no right to criticize an industry, regardless of what sin it has committed…
i’ve been wanting to ask one question since you first appeared: who did you vote for in 2000? or, what is your political party or inclination (conserv, liberal, indep, other)?
in my mind, i’m guessing what it is… ??
mr miss,
who is going to install, maintain and inspect this eqpt., each & every time it is placed on a train or removed from it? you think a r.r. crew will touch this? not in this lifetime… hundreds of video techs. will be needed everywhere in the u.s… on top of which, there will be repairs, spare eqpt., offices, paperwork, etc… mr miss, does this come for free? don’t think so… everybody’s gotta eat, that means more money, higher rates… forgot one thing, mr miss, what about eqpt. failure, will that delay a run? i dont say a way around it… if you pass a law for video surveillance on trains, then a train has to wait until the camera works… just like a coupler, you cant’ have a train unless everything’s hooked up… so the train (and all other trains behind it) wait for this camera to work, to take pictures, to start the train, etc…
what was the post you wrote about efficiency? and wasn’t there a post you wrote about doing it your way and saving $$$? how much you figure the r.rs. will save with cameras, etc. on the back of every train?
Well … ignoring some of the comments in the string for the moment, the life of a railroader, particularly a brakeman, in the “glory” days of railroading before airbrakes is pretty unimaginable – running on wooden roof walks, jumping from car to car (including from gons to flat cars to tank cars to box cars), using both hands to sping brake wheels, all this in every kind of weather, at all kinds of speeds, with the whistle screaming for more brakes – this is the stuff of nightmares. If you have ever been on a train on somewhat worn jointed rail, you know that the locomotives and cars buck from side to side. It is hard enough to use the handrails on the side of an engine much less even think about walking the roof walks at speed. Those guys must have really had their “sea-legs.”
Dave Nelson
Strange how far you cna get dragged in a safety harness, and how much damage can be done to a human by a railcar when your tied to it.
Come on down, I will be happy to tie you to the next car I kick.
Ed
psst Ed - breaking my promise for a question - safety harness? What, where, and why?
Jen
I have no idea what planet he is on, but on earth, if you hook you self to a railcar with a rope, or sometype of harness, you better have your life insurance paid up.
This has to rank as one of the most insane suggestion I have ever heard.
In the performance of my duties, I have to ride on the sides of cars, in the sturrips and safty appliances designed for that purpose. We never go into the red zone, the plane of the car body, which includes the top or roof. There is a reason they no longer put running boards on the top of cars.
Before the FRA changed the name, it was called the Dead Zone, and for a good reason.
Tie or hook your self to a moving railcar?
Only if you want to get killed.
This guys even more looney that I though.
Although if he would like to come on down, I will be more than happy to duct tape him to a boxcar, and let him see for himself.
How about it, missouri, put your butt on the line right beside me?
It 8900 Clinton Drive, Houston Texas, directly across from the Port of Houstons Gate #8, at the Turning Basin. I switch under the control tower, the E and F leads, from 3pm to 11 pm, wed thru sunday.
That is, if your momma will let you out of the cellar for that long.
Ed
Call it serendipity, or just plain coincedence, but pictures do speak louder than words.
Page 48, Trains magazine Special issue on Chicago.
Missouri, even you can understand this.
Still want employees to ride on top of railcars?
Still to much of a coward to tell us who you are and where you work?
The Unihead Ed
what are you all on?!?!!?
I ride on top of trains to this day… thats where i Conduct from!
I staple my shoes to the roof of the engine, put it in speed 6, (8 when a corssing is comming up, note i use a broom stick held together with string to make the spped adjustments) and beat my chest and yell in a Tarzan style…
Don’t tell me none of you have seen this before?
Detour Kev.
A few things you may not have noticed missour…
Pensilvania RR… and…?
1857… my clock on everyhting must be really fast because i keep getting 2003.
note, i wasn’t aorund then… nor Ed… nor Ken nor Tim A, crabforwards was 10 at the time (too young to know…)
cabforward block your ears and eyes from the rest…
also whats up with these signal aspects?? Signal aspects and all the different ones should spell out the word “ORGY”
he he he he… i’ll explain how:
O - Out, to be treated as it’s own aspect, direct communication with the RTC, come to a complete stop at the signal… then and only after comming to a complete stop… proced at a restricted speed. Unless no R plate is present… if an absolute… stop and remain so.
R - Red, follow the directions, if R… Reduce speed to 15 mph, if “A” or no letter stop and remain so
G - Green signal, proceed… clear.
Y- Yellow… could mean various things… based on type of signal most common “clear to stop” expect next signal to be red.
thats how so… so what is this crap… blue…and white… and ornage with pink zebra stripes…
dude, you know that might be A tad bit outdated unless every single clock around the world is wrong, and you know better
well… it’s either 2003 or 1857.
Detour Kev.
Eddie, I don’t think ANYONE is as dumb as Misery pretends to be! Ole Misery spouts off some crazy stuff about car tops and such, and poor ol Ed starts yelping. Misery is dumb like a fox; he sure has found your hot button. I thought you weren’t going to bite on the Mike and Misery Flying Circus anymore.
Your right, but you know, I do think he really is a dumb as he seems to be, and if he has the cajones to put his money where his mouth is, the invite still stands, I really would love to see him standding on top of any car in my train.
The Unihead Ed
Skeets: This is better than most tv programs!
Jen
How about at Arbys there by the train terminal. Say 10:30 p.m. Saturday night. I’ll be out back. I’ll be wearing a big black hat with a feather. I guess you’ll be in your usual crotchless tights, wearing your SUPER RRer cape, rideing your stick broom switch engine huh?
ooo - tickets go on sale right here! Contact Jen for prices!!!
a word to the wise…
a post has been removed from this topic by the forum editor, due to content…
'fiesyou, i would be careful of what i say… the big conductor is watching, always…