Poleing used to be done pretty regularly way back when. You know, taking a long wooden pole and running it between a loco on one track and a car on the other, and then pushing the car with the loco.
Now I have pics of a GP9 that has poleing pockets on the corners, but I don’t know how much actual use they saw.
My question is, when did the common practice of poleing actually end? I’m sure it ended for safety reasons, but when?
I know one of you knows.
Poleing was outlawed due to the dangers involved to crew members on the ground who had to place and remove the pole, because too many railway workers were being injured. I don’t know exactly when this happened, though. Perhaps if you search long enough on the FRA web site you can come up with a date.
I am not sure when it ended but,recall making 3 such illegal moves while working on the PRR in 1967 because of bad track on a industrial siding…
Oh, no! Not another poll!
[#offtopic]
Nah, what you’re talking about is poleing.
Many individual railroads had rules against this practice before it was outlawed by the feds. I don’t have the details about any of that, just remember reading it in Trains or elsewhere over the years. I think that the fed rule happened sometime circa 1960, but I’m not certain.
Before that, and likely after, even on roads who outlawed it, it was done “unofficially” with a handy length of wood. But don’t get caught! And that was the main problem with the practice. Someone had to hold the pole and that someone could be struck and hurt if things didn’t go right.
When poleing was allowed, the pole was typically hung under one side of the tender for easy access. Diesels had similar hooks to hold a pole under the side of the frame, where this was still used. By the diesel era, is was increasingly a forbidden practice even before the feds finally outlawed it.
There were a few yards that used poleing cars. These were somewhat safer, as the poles were suspended at the corner of such a car, usually rather short-framed, by chains or cables. They folded up against the side of the car, except when in operation, so these typically had four poles, one at each corner. These weren’t ever widely used, but I’d be curious about where they were, as well as the dates of when individual railroads and the feds put into effect prohibitions on poleing.
Hey thanks! I knew you guys would know!
And sorry about the misspelling. I was at work, so my brain wasn’t functioning! [:P]
I just got this great link from Smitty on a post about roofwalks being banned -[8D]
http://www.hosam.com/grd/dates.html
It has dates for just about everything!
There were hump yards long before retarders, riders would ride the cars and turn the brakes wheels which were extended up to the car top exactly for that purpose, a car rider would be able to brake the car while riding it.
The taller cars today really make riding cars impossible anyways especially with certain clearances limitations.
Did I miss something? I didn’t see poleing end dates anywhere on the list. But I could’ve missed it?
I’d be surprised if it was an actual ICC or FRA “ban”. These agencies only had authority to regulate interstate commerce - poling or other actions would not come under their purview. They were able to set rules about car design by saying that that such and such car “could not be accepted for interchange”. If a car was never presented for interchange, it didn’t have to meet the rules, which is why there are 60+ year old cars and archbar trucks still seen on MOW equipment.
KL
Kurt,
Safety issues are something that the federal government has jusrisdiction over. In fact, the assertion of federal power for railroad safety was later extended to include safety in other industries. The 16-hour rule, later reduced to 12-hours, is just one example.Safety applicances are another. Such regulatory power was in place by the first decade of the twentieth century.
The issue with equipment still being allowed on a railroad’s line that is not allowed in interchange is a bit different, but I’m not an attorney – and the coffee isn’t working enough to get my brain to defince exactly what the difference is right now.
OK, I had some time while breakfast is cooking to do some research. I still haven’t found the naswer on federal regulation. I did find that the spelling should be poling, instead of poleing. My bad.
In Utah, state regulations for industrial RRs state: ““Poling” or moving a car on another track with a pole should be done only in extreme emergency and under direct supervision. DO NOT PUSH CAR UNTIL ALL PERSONS ARE IN A SAFE PLACE.”
http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code_rtf/r614-006.rtf
So for intrastate RRs in Utah, at least, poling is not strictly prohibited, but is discouraged.
The Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen doesn’t say that poling is strictly prohibited in their list of RR definitions: “This was dangerous to the crew as the pole was difficult to place and often broke. Poling is rarely if ever used today.”
http://www.brs72.org/BRS-RRTALK.html#P
This engineering book from 1912 indicates situations in which poling is used:
So I guess the jury is still out on this one. Of course, the lack of poling pockets on much equipment discourages the practice now.