Thought I saw something like this discussed here but I cant find it. On the cover there is what looks like a telephone pole just before the tunnel. There are strands of something hanging down.
What is it? When were they used?
Telltales. Tichy sells them if you don’t want to make your own. According to their little blurb:
TELLTALES WERE USED TO WARN BRAKEMEN AND
OTHERS ON TOP OF CARS OF APPROACHING LOW
CLEARANCE CONDITIONS. THEY CONSISTED OF A SET
OF ROPES OR CHAINS HANGING FROM A CROSSBAR
PLACED SOME DISTANCE BEFORE THE HAZARD. THE
ERA IS 1900 TO 1965. HOWEVER SOME ARE STILL
STANDING TODAY.
part no 8164 $4.95
Walthers has them too
304-8707 $10
Well that one looks a little tall, and very close to the tunnel, they are called “tell tails” and they are there to warn train crew members on the roof of cars about bridges and tunnels that would knock them off the roof walk. They were common when/where crew still walked the length of moving trains.
Sheldon
Well, I haven’t seen the photo, but from your description of it, it sounds as if it’s a telltale.
Back in the days when brakemen had to use the roofwalks on cars to manually set or release the brakes on freight cars, telltales were generally mounted on a post and bracket so that they were suspended at a set height. From that bracket hung ropes, usually tarred, I think, to keep them from deflecting too much from wind. These were placed to warn men on the car tops that the train was approaching an overhead obstacle, and they best seek a better place to be. If the person wasn’t otherwise aware of the approaching danger, the warning was physical contact with the ropes.
Here’s a couple of scratchbuilt versions on my layout…
…although the one on the right looks as if it needs to be repaired.
Wayne
I also recall seeing telltales on industrial sidings where the customer had a loading dock with a roof or awning that would hit a man on the roof of the car, or the car could be shoved into the building through a large door. But those telltales were further away from the obstacle than is the one on the MR cover - and of course the speeds on the sidings would be much slower as well.
I never had a chance to examine one closely - but they appeared to be pretty darn substantial and likely would knock the man down, not just “warn” him.
On the C&NW they were known as “Whip Guards” and their 1933 standards (reprinted by the C&NW Historical Society in Vol. 1 on their Standards Book) says “guards to be placed 300 feet from structure to be guarded.” The siding in my home town had it closer, perhaps 50 or 60 feet - again speeds would have been slow.
The standard also makes mention of state laws that specified the placement of Whip Guards (telltales). I was not aware of that. The whips themselves were “No. 9 galvanized iron wire.” Ouch! The end of the wire was to be “not less than 6” below the lowest projecting point of the structure to be guarded." It further states that in the absence of state law dictating otherwise, Whip Guards would be placed “where vertical clearance of any bridge or tunnel is less than standard clearances for bridges.”
This might be more than anyone wants to know about telltales/Whip Guards but I found it interesting and learned something.
Dave Nelson
I have heard some tell-tales used chains as the warning device.
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The whole thing sounds very dangerous to me, but I guess it would be better than getting knocked in between two freight cars by a tunnel portal!
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-Kevin
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Wayne,We also rode top of the cars to pass hand signals and on PRR’s Panhandle this lasted until 68/69.
I’ve been smack by those tell tales and knew low clearance was ahead…We would stoop to one knee to clear the low clearance. A lot of the old brakeman would get on the end ladder of the car but,I never took that risk because one sudden jerk and you could fall between the cars.
Kevin,You never ever stood near the end of the car…You followed the safety rule of staying at least 20’ from the end of the car in a braced position.
Why would they be standing on the car in the first place? Seams a high risk. One post says they “stood in a braced position”.
So from what I’m reading these brakeman must have been daredevils!
running from car to car to turn brake wheels !!
https://www.american-rails.com/tell-tales.html#
How long did it take to stop a freight train?
Stopping whole trains that way was only done in the early days before air brakes, but it was still done for various switching moves into the 60’s.
That’s why cars had ladders and roof walks. Notice that modern cars do not have them…
But modern trains have radios, gps, fred and no caboose, so there is no reason to walk roof tops totay.
Also, it was a way to walk the train length if the trackside terrain was rough…
Sheldon
Gary,There was several reasons including passing hand signals to the engineer while working a long cut of cars or around a curve where the engineer or fireman could not see the switchman’s signals.
When I hired on the PRR braking was not for the faint of heart it because of the need to enter the red zone to connect the air line there was no three step.
Every time you had to set or release the car or cars hand brakes you had to climb the ladder,step around to the end ladder,hold the grab with your left hand,one foot on the ladder and one foot on the brake wheel platform and tighten or release the brake wheel.You was required to ride the roof walk if required to pass hand signals. You learned to swing on and off moving equipment.
IMHO there is nothing as frightening as being in between connecting the air hose and hearing the slack run in or out…
Of course you stood in a position where you could clear the cars as they begin to move.
Well, I‘m glad you’re alive to share that.
I was a Firefighter and Paramedic, we always had safety harnesses and lines. I’ll run into a burning building but I’m pretty sure I would not do your job.
I would like to learn more about the brakeman.
Gary,As long as you kept your wits about you there was little danger but,get careless and take risk you will pay the price because railroads doesn’t suffer fools or carelesness.
Maybe this will help explain things.
Speaking of the hazards of being a brakeman, before I was born my dad worked for a short time as a brakeman in the Pacific Northwest. I remember him telling me stories about doing that job in the winter, when the whole train was slick with a coating of ice. Really dangerous stuff.
Only 43 deaths (so far) this year! Big improvement over 1929!
Dangerous indeed!
NYC_deaths_1930 by Edmund, on Flickr
As you can see Road and Yard Brakemen topped their respective categories. This is only a six-month period, on only ONE railroad.
Regards, Ed
Ed,Between 1880-1910 families of switchmen would keep a new sheet for when that dreaded knock on the door came.
The switchman’s family would receive $25.00 and a Bible from the Brotherhood.
Brakie Back then, were switchmen basicly brakemen that worked the yards?
Henry,That would be correct…
In places that unload covered hoppers and tank cars in modern times you often see supports and cable lines running parallel to the tracks that presumably the workers attach their safety harness to when working on the tops of those cars.
Dave Nelson