What is the protocol for helper locos pushing from the rear of a frieght? Do the put the caboose behind the loco or do they collapse the caboose?
Depends on the caboose. Wooden framed and sided cabins would be cut off the train and attached to the helper(s) as these would wind up as kindling before the summit was reached. Later the introduction of reinforced steel frames and eventually steel sheet siding to the caboose fleet would allow the helpers to push on the caboose with more safety than a wooden cab, and allow the helper(s) to cut off on the fly at the summit and eliminating the need to reattach the caboose to the train with less delay.
Will
There was often a reluctance to push even a steel-framed caboose from behind, particularly when there was serious helper power. For instance, the SP routinely put 4-8-8-2 and 2-10-2 helpers in front of the caboose (and also, perhaps, in the middle of the train). However, on the short grade eastbound on the approach to the Martinez/Benicia bridge, the 2-8-0 helper was placed behind the caboose so it could be cut off without stopping the train.
It could depend on the conductor too, since he was the man in charge of the train. Even if the caboose were all-steel, the conductor might not like to have the helper shoving behind him and would make the crew move the caboose to behind helper engine.
Whether pushers pushed from behind or ahead of the caboose varied on different railroads and even on different parts of the same railroad. The Santa Fe’s practice on Cajon Pass in southern California (the line I’m modeling) was to cut the pushers in ahead of the caboose on eastbound trains out of the yard at San Bernardino. At Summit, the pushers cut off from the train with the caboose behind them, backed the caboose into an inclined track behind the station, and left it there with the hand brake set. The pushers then got in the clear to the west of the switch, and a crewman on the caboose released the hand brake and let the car roll back onto the train. The caboose might not always roll far enough, depending on the length of the train and how far to the east it had stopped, but now the pushers were behind the caboose and could move up and nudge it to a coupling with the train. So long, Andy
As you can see it was more of a railroad standard.
N&W typically pushed from behind the train with their 2-8-8-2’s on the Blue Ridge grade.
This was so they could cut off the train while it was moving, once it crossed over the grade.
http://spec.lib.vt.edu/imagebase/norfolksouthern/full/ns3067.jpeg
http://spec.lib.vt.edu/imagebase/norfolksouthern/F1/ns3222.JPG
Depended on the road and any local regulations. Some states required the helpers to be cut in ahead of the caboose. Others said you could push on the caboose, but the crew had to ride on the helper. Still others left it up the railroad.
PRR & NW built heavily reinforced steel cabin cars, so the helpers could shove against them, and then cut off on the fly. Other’s like SP and ATSF, preferred to cut the helpers in ahead of the caboose.
Nick
Steam Glory 2 has an article about ATSF operations over Cajon, written by an engineman from the 1940s. Also has pictures showing two 2-10-2s shoving on a steel caboose, and cut in ahead of a wood caboose.
The protocol today is for the engine to always be in front of the caboose.
No, that’s not right!!!
The protocol today is for the engine to always be behind the caboose.
No, thats not right either!!!
You know, now that I think about it, I don’t think they use cabooses anymore - which automatically means the engine is cut in in front of the caboose because the caboose is located thirty-five miles away in a junkyard.