In the spirit of the games, if the railroads held Olympics what would some of the events be?
Mike
Downhill slolams… Ride a humped flat car off the hump through the retarders and into the bowl tracks til coupled and remain standing without holding on…
How about trying to place graffiti as fast as you can on a rail car.
My dad has got some amazing pictures of graffiti that covers the whole car.
James
I’d say just about anything involving pre-mechanized trackwork would constitute an event worthy of the railroad olympics…
A crew lays more than 10 miles of track in one day to win a medal.
Stationary hurdles - stand on top of a moving boxcar as it passes below signal bridges
Lateral longjump - jump from a moving RPO
How about Olympic Dispaching? You have to get your freights across the sub without stabbing Amtrak.[:D]
Or mabee olympic locomotive washing? How fast can you make the flag visible.
Or how about olympic merger rumor spreading? See who can spread the fastest rumor of a merger by running a forign unit on there tracks.
What about an olympic competition to see who has the most / most hostile encounters with law enforcement.
And there should definately be an event for driveing while chaseing steam trains. The driver with the least moving violations wins.
Then we could also have an event to see who can burn the most memory takeing digital train photos.
I was also thinking of having a race to see who could change out a broken coupler the fastest.
What would the medals be? A golden spike is the obvious answer, but a fun alternative might be a golden FRED![:D]
Mike
Fastest spike mauls…
Quickest air hoses…
Drilling cars…
Sorry, folks, actions that violate safety rules (the slalom, hurdles, RPO jump) would not be allowed around any railroad, and probably shouldn’t have been suggested.
Getting on moving equipment and tying it down the quickest might be acceptable, but that sounds more worthy of a rodeo than of the Olympics.
How about tying the handbrake that can hold the most cars? I know a couple of guys who have broken brake chains when winding them up.
Handcar races would be another good Olympic event, IMHO.
The suggestions that involve physical prowess (tracklaying, etc.) are good ones. Again, I’ve known a few spiking “teams” that would make one’s eyes pop.
Different teams could start at points along the abandoned CMSP&P ROW across Montana, with material supplied by the wheat farmers.[;)]
How about building a switching puzzle (ala John Allen) and the crew that can exchange cars (or whatever the challenge is for that event) in the fewest moves gets a medal and the crew that accomplishes it in the lowest time also gets a medal.
about 30 years ago I saw an article about a boxcar building contest that NYC(I think) had hosted about 50 years before that. Each team (10 + peaop) had all the parts to build a wooden boxcar. These weren’t kits. They had to measure and cut each of the boards - but all the hardward was premade. I would think that qualifies as an olympic event.
dd
Here is another one. How aobut Knuckle changing, Finding the knuckle, and thne changing it including bringing the coupler from the head end.
I like the loco wash event alot that one would be fun to see and the railroad that can wash and polish half of their loco fleet in an 8 hr day should win the golden fred award.[:D][:D][:D]
Ah, how about the always fun replace an airhose in snow up to the bottom of the car frame! For the summer games, replace same airhose in mud, wearing a suit ( better yet, a classic conductor’s uniform, which has to be dry cleaned for ,say, $50. or more!) in 90 degree weather. Followed by the same job in a monsoon! No rain slickers permitted! All three events would be timed[}:)]! Or, how about NASCAR Crew bus/van races?
How about which crew can get an Amtrak Train ontime? Or the Longest Train Pull.
It was done on the Delaware & Hudson in 1922. See Jim Shaughnessy’s “Delaware & Hudson”, Page 300 (photo caption) in the Howell North first edition I haven’t seen if the same page applies in the second edition, from Syracuse U. The shops at Carbondale,PA, Oneonta, Colonie and Green Island,NY took part.
Speeder drag racing.
m
We should have the “who can run the fastest over the rough crossover switches without having their train go into emergency event.” [:D]