In the case where a through freight enters a yard with a cut of cars to set out and another to pick up, would the normal practice be for the road engines to do this switching move or would they cut off from the train and allow the yard switchers to make this move.
I am looking at the current issue of The Diamond, the magazine of the Erie-Lackwanna Historical Society and they have a picture of multiple FTs having been cut off from the train and the yard switcher pushing the cut of cars onto the back of the engine lash up. Presumably, the road engines will then back the cut of cars onto their train and then be on their way. Also shown is the yard throat has been shut down for track maintenance. I’m wondering if this type of switching move would be the norm or might this have been neccesitated by the shut down of the yard throat.
If one end of the yard was out of service then that move would definitely be more likely. If the whole yard was in service then that would generally be the hard way to do it.
There are Company/Union work rules that had to be complied with.You see a road crew was only allow to make so many enroute pickup/ setouts…
However,if a yard crew was station at the yard the setout is to take place then the yard crew would switch out the setouts for the pickups the road crew would recouple the train…The switch lead had nothing to do with that movement…You see since the road crew didn’t make the pickup by doing the actual switching the crew was good to make other enroute setouts.
Now a local or interdivision transfer train is not under any switching restraints.
my railroad experience was when a yard job was on duty, the road crew would not perform the work.
local and transfer jobs were a different class of service and for the most part they could do any pick up, set out, or switching that pertained to their train regardless of whether there was a yard job working.
i do remember that road crews on the old NYC/PC received a 50 mile arbitrary payment for delivering all or part of their train to the TRRA at Madison IL. previous to this agreement, all interchange deliveries were performed by yard crews.
rules and practices varied from road to road and a lot of it was based on agreements protecting jobs. it seemed like the work was only important if someone else did it. that is a labor/management issue and even though i have been on both sides of fence, i have been out of it so long that my dog is not in that fight anymore.
now something you might consider on your model railroad is that there is almost always more than one way to do the same thing. for instance, if you are making a set out you can leave your train on the main line and cut the cars to be set out off and pull them into the yard. (assuming the yard tracks are double ended) then get back on your train with the light power.
it is always safer to move light engines than to shove cars into a track but, this means the head man will have to do a bit of walking. variables abound-does he have to ride the cut back when you shove it? will the other brakeman help with the move? are you completely inside yard limits? do you need to protect the rear end by flag while making the set out? etc. etc.
grizlump wrote:it is always safer to move light engines than to shove cars into a track .
It may be safer but,it saves time and its done on a routine bases.In fact most old line PRR and later Chessie(C&O) conductors I worked with preferred shoving or kicking cars into a yard track…
A heads up crew would have those cars dropped and ready to go to coffee.
Don’t forget the yard ape may not allow you to make that move if he has a inbound behind your train.He will need the clear track for the inbound.
There is no attention getter like making a shove on(say) #1 yard track from the lead with a headlight approaching on #2 yard track…Of course all is like a well rehearse act in a play and comes off smooth as silk…You complete your shove and the inbound stops at the fouling point,head end crews exchange greetings and then go about their business…
brakie, you are correct. unless,course the guy is on 1 and not 2 then you all get to visit with the superintendent and his stenographer. 5 days on paper, can you say that? don’t ask how i know.
From someone who hasn’t got a clue how you would do it…
If you had a bunch of locos on the front of a long train stopped on the Main could the locos cut off, draw clear and let a yard job cut out the cars required?