Telltales were often used to warn employees on top of cars of approaching tunnels, snow sheds, bridges and other close clearances. There are different designs but most are a simple post of wood or metal with a cross bar over the track(s) and knotted ropes hangling from them. Are any of these devices still in use? I’m sure many have been removed.
Footboards have been removed from the tops of cars and railroad employees are prohibited from riding the tops of cars. While covered hoppers still have a top walkway - this is only for shipper and consignee personnel for loading and unloading the car at their companies facilities.
The elevators have had to install a horizontal bar above the top of the cars to be loaded to act as an attachment point for the safety harness worn by anyone working on top of the cars.
Most have been converted to electric eye or wire frame systems.
You may still find a few around - I think there’s still one in Saranac Lake, NY - but only because they haven’t been removed…
A few years ago I read this comment about telltales, to imagine being on top of a railroad car on a dark, wet, and freezing cold night, then to imagine the impact of suddenly being struck in the back by several of these hanging, ice-covered thick ropes, hitting your body at perhaps 15 to 25 miles an hour!
I can’t imagine how many brakemen lost their lives working for the railroads, particularly before the 1920’s. It must have been about the most dangerous job in the world for a hundred years or more.
Someone once asked why the railroads were so slow to adopt Westinghouse’s air brakes. Another answered, “When air brakes are cheaper than immigrants (meaning brakemen), then the railroads will buy them.”
Still, as a kid I was fascinated by telltales and thought they looked like a fine idea…but I only saw them on sunny or nice days.
Might be fun to put up a replica telltale at a museum or tourist railroad, and see how many people ask about or can guess what it’s for. Would be good to have a real reason for its existence nearby - the Strasburg RR has at least 1 bridge over its tracks, IIRC - but even as a stand-alone would be informative.
- Paul North.