could someone please explain “poling” to me. i noticed most steam and early diesels had poling slots on the or near the steps. thank you!
poling was were you used a piece of timber to shove a car on an adjancent track. some RR’s even had poling cars were the switchman or brakeman could stay off the ground and shove the cars around. Fell out of practice due to the danger in it pole breaks and splinters fly around. Also good to clear a fouled switch lead.
From those I knew who actually did it, it was mostly used to put cars in the clear when a drop or kick move didn’t get the job done. Had an old conductor tell me one time, when he was a young brakeman, he refused to stand and hold the pole when it started to creak and he thought it was going to break. The conductor he was working for wanted to turn him in to the trainmaster for failure to do his job but nothing ever came of it, he continued to railroad until retirement. This would have happened in the late 1930’s.
Poling is incredibly hazardous and a switch crew could consider itself lucky if nobody got injured or killed in such a maneuver. It has been outlawed for some time now.
Didn’t any of you wonder what that round steel plate at the corner of a boxcar and on each corner of most steam engines was for? that’s where the pole went so it wouldn’t slip out (supposedly) Gee, no danger there eh?
Many, many moons ago we tried to spot a reefer beside the ice house, no locomotive was available not even a pinch bar, so one guy got a C.P.R. truck and an old fence post, well, after the pole slipped off the front bumber and destroyed the grill and part of the radiator we got the car rolling, oops, it just went off the track into the gravel, who thought to stop it, after the stationmaster reamed us out we spent the rest of the day watching B&B guys put the car back on the tracks, and we finally got a pinchbar. good times.
A lot of locos did have polling slots, despite the danger involved. I think it was only for when a loco got trapped by a car that didn’t quite get the distance to clear up. Railroads aren’t immune to dangerous practices, such as link and pin couplers, which thankfully didn’t last.
Poling was just like a lot of things around the railroad - it was only dangerous in the hands of people who didn’t take care in doing it, and who used unsafe poles.
I’ve seen it done many times by people who knew what they were doing, and there weren’t any problems.
Old Timer
True, but I always thought it was a rather nerve-wracking operation. Extreme care had to be used.
What’s a pinchbar? Any pictures? Thanks
The last time I actually saw railroaders “poling” a car was in Shawano, WI back in the mid 1970’s on the old SOO Line.
I didn’t notice anyone involved being particularly nervous. Careful, yes. Nervous, no.
Old Timer
Pinchbar is a long handled rig with a wedge shaped shoe that slides under the wheel of a car and you push down and move the car slowly,—does anyone have a photo??? I’ll try for a picture.
I believe poling is used on speeders that have run out of gas. Sort of like gondoleering in Venice.[:D]
rr65: for a photo of a pinch bar try: www.gwsr.com go to Quick Links then Search, type in Pinch Bar, there it is.
At one time I remember seeing a photo of a poling car, it was a shorty flat car with a pole on either side, one end was fixed to the car and the other would swing out to contact the poling pocket on the car to be pushed [at one time most cars had a poling point on each corner of the car for this practice] The pushing end was supported by a rod or brace from the pivot point on a verticle support on the side of the car. I cannot remember the details, but I would suspect that that type of car would be located in a large yard or certainly to switch crews in urban areas that had to do a lot of car pushing. It was certainly not an unusual practice, when most rail cars would have a poling pocket made onto the car. Many steam switch engines, and early diesels had poling bars hung on the tender frame or on the walkway of the diesel. At least until the practice was outlawed b the Operational Rules of the RR’s.
Sam
I remember doing a poling once and once only as we would have been “poled” by the trainmaster had he known about it lol thats what we got for running late and finding a car that absolutely had to be picked up!! Oh well thats history now and we survived that and some other stupid tricks
THe poling car that I was describing resembled a transfer caboose, similar to some of the ones the MoPac and UP had. Only the one I remembered seeing was a very rustic version as the “cabin” resembled a hand built shack on the car.
Sam
Poling like many operations requires close attention and awareness of the potential safety hazard involved. When used only as a last resort by knowledgeable people it can be performed safely.
It was common on interurban freight operations and most steeple cabs carried poles often on brackets on each side of the locomotive frame.
re. Pinch bar
I worked for the Southern Railway in the Carolinas in summer/fall of 1962. I was in the MOW dept. It was a real angle bar railroad back then. I used a pinch bar to move hopper car out of the way so we could patch a broken rail.
gmstm