Out here in the sunny state, the only two hand signals in use are “the wave” and “the finger” with the former being given by someone barging into traffic and the latter being given to that same person, usually.
Before radios crews could talk with hand signals. Not just stop or moved ahead. The conductor could tell another crew member to lets say go in track six pick up two cars and kick them down track seven. No words would be spoken and everyone knew what to do.
The good old days.
One pro-safety aspect about using hand signals instead of the radio: For the engineer or othe crewmen to be able to see the signals - even on straight track - the crewman giving the signals practically has to be out beyond the sides of the cars, which is also out of the ‘red zone’ and no longer in the track ‘gage’, so there is less of a risk of being crushed or run over by the moving equipment.
- Paul North.
Radios have certainly changed railroading, mostly for the better with sometimes quicker communications and better safety. But I would think that hand signals with line of sight would be safer because you’d know no one was between or under cars or in an otherwise unsafe positon; plus the engineer would know what to be looking for, who, and where. But the addition of a mandatory knowledge and use of hand signals is good, too. As a railfan I have communicated dark headlights, lack of markers, stuck brakes, hot journals, and other safety information to passing trains using handsignals. I can listen to the radio but I can’t transmit. They saved thier trains because they were able to understand hand signals., Dead batteries, dropped radios, and other damages, dark or blank spots, extraneous noises, static, over or under modulations, and all other kinds of radio interference and activities, can often happen at the most inoppertune time, in the most obscure places, and maybe the most unsafe time. Being able to help yourself could be the best and safest reason to know hand signals: both you and the rest of your crew.