There was, I believe, a recent post about poling of cars.
Of course, I can’t find it now.
Anyway I did find on YouTube a video that discusses poling, why it is dangerous, shows a “poling car”, and has some old-timey movie clips of poling in action.
Enjoy.
Poling was a routine action on a lot of urban railroad areas where tracks were laid with substandard clearances and excess curvature.
In the Robber Baron era of railroading there was little to no regulations about safety on the railroad. A brakeman’s was judged by the number of fingers he still had on his hand - when a rail employee was killed on duty the refrain from the company was - NEXT!