I don’t often look at the “Trains” forum but stumbled on this …
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/170894.aspx
It strikes me that there could be some modelling interest here.
For a start what’s a “yellow board” and what does one look like please?
Thanks
[:P]
A yellow board is a signal or a square metal “board” mounted on a steel post that can be temporarily driven into the ground displaying a yellow or slow indication. There are red, yellow and green boards and red and white stripped temporary one to indicate work boundaries. In the previous post they probably are indicating soft spots in the roadbed.
Rob
Very era and rule book dependent.
Under current GCOR rules there are 4 “boards”. They are about 2 ft square made of aluminum and are attached to a metal staff (older signs were at ground level, modern ones are about 6 ft high).
A solid red board is a stop sign. It is used in conjunction with a gang keep trains out of a work area. Only the foreman in charge of the gang can get a train by that stop sign.
A solid yellow board is a temporary speed restriction sign. It means that 2 miles form the sign there is a speed restricted peice of track. Prior to 1985, this was also was used to protect gangs.
A half red, half yellow sign, divided into quarters diagonally is called a yellow-red board and it indicates that there are men or machines working two miles from the location of the board.
A solid green board is a resume speed sign, that means that when the rear of the train passes that sign the train can resume max authorized speed.
If there is a slow order/speed restriction between mp 205 and 205.5 then for trains in one direction there will be a yellow board at mp 203 and a green board at mp 205.5 and for trains in the other direction there will be a yellow board at mp 207.5 and a green board at mp 205.
If there is a gang working on the slow order/speed restriction between mp 205 and 205.5 then for trains in one direction there will be a yellow-red board at mp 203, a red board at mp 205 and a green board at mp 205.5 and for trains in the other direction there will be a yellow-red board at
The green end boards and yellow begin boards, tend to be opposite sides of the same sign. The yellow sign is placed at the beginning of the restriction and the green at the end. I’m not aware of any sign under our rules that is placed in advance of a slow order.
And to further mess you up…we use diamond shape signs for permanent restrictions and square ones for temporary ones.
Also our advance warning board is yellow with a red slash diagonally across it. They are placed 2 miles before the red Stop Board.
Nick
A great illustration of why you have to check the rule book for the railroad or area you are modeling. Even though Nick and my replies are completely different, both are correct, it just depends on where and what era you are modeling.
Thanks all. [^]
I’m getting used to this! [(-D]
So, I know I want 1985 and Chicago… all I have to do now is figure out which RR(s) as the track owners… [banghead]
[:P]
Guys from the UK get all wound up about each railroad having its own rule book, just remember that any one large US railroad/system/consoidated rule book might have as many miles as a large portion of the whole UK rail system.
For example the current GCOR has probably covers 3 times the mileage of the entire UK national system
Because in 1985, both of our answers could be “wrong”, they could be using another, earlier rule book which might have just red, yellow and green boards. In the earlier systems there wasn’t necessarily a separate board for gangs.