What does an orange lock on a track switch mean?
Are there any M.O.W. cars/equipment in the spur? According to the CSX employee that lives in this house, it’s an M.O.W. switch lock.
The switch leads to a spur that used to serve a Brick Yard. There were four old gondola cars parked in it. The gons stay there pretty much all the time.Sometime over the weekend, a well car with a container was set off in this spur too. I am guessing there was something wrong with that car and a crew of some sort came by and fixed it. Late sunday afternoon, I was there when an intermodal train stopped at this switch, apparently to pick up the well car. They uncoupled part way in the train and the engines with some of the cars pulled past the switch. One of the crew was about to line the switch for the siding when I heard him say over the scanner " This one has an orange lock on it". They proceeded to put the train back together and leave without the well car. I wondered if the orange lock meant there was something wrong with the spur. If there was something wrong with the spur, why did they have cars in it at all? I just wondered what was going on.
George
George
welcome to the forums. I have seen in Deshler a car set out into a track with MOW equipment. The Mow dept. had to come unlock the switch first.
stay safe
joe
Some of the old gons do say MOW on them. I have also seen thier specialized track maintenance machinery parked there sometimes. So, I guess there was supposed to be a track foreman there to open the switch, and, for whatever reason, the word didn’t get passed?
George