"The Conductor Sounded The Horn And Applied The Brakes"

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Though the railroad was once a central feature of American life, it’s plain that awareness of railroading is slipping away from the general public.

One telling example: many newspaper reporters, who obviously never played with toy trains as children, seem to be unaware that, in the U.S, the guy who drives the train is called the “engineer.” It’s quite common to read news articles like this one from the May 7 Seattle Times:

"A man talking on a cellphone was killed by a train today near Emerald Downs racetrack, according to Auburn police. The man was struck while walking north on tracks in the 1400 block of C Street Northwest, said Police Sgt. Scott Near said. Near said the conductor sounded the horn and applied the emergency brakes but “there was nothing he could do.”

Now, we all know it’s possible that an alert conductor riding in the left-hand seat might indeed have reached for the brake valve and grabbed for the horn, but that in all probability, it was the engineer who took these actions. Almost certainly, this is a case where the reporter has acquired the misimpression that the operator of a locomotive is called the “conductor.”

Lest one think this is an isolated case, a Google News search will show similar journalistic errors repeated two or three times per week, as far back as one cares to look. If the reports are to be believed, conductors are running trains all across the nation.

When I called attention to this issue elsewhere, an anonymous commenter wrote in to say:

“My brother is a conductor on the railroad. For many short runs, or when he’s assembling a train, he often drives the train…”

I have to say, I’m skeptical of this claim. I’ve always understood that the union rules commonly in force are quite strict about who-does-what on a train. Hostlers (and other yard personnel) assemb

2

as far as the horn\brakes…modern US engines have a brake valve and a horn “button” on the left side for the conductor…just in case…as far as the conductor “driving to make up his train”…doubtful…ya might get a nice engineer that’ll help the ground crew (conductor) by throwing a switch

3

And just to underscore the point, this morning it’s a “sheriff’s spokeswoman,” quoted in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel telling us about another train with a conductor doing the engineer’s job:

A Coral Springs man whose car apparently didn’t clear the railroad tracks because of a traffic backup was killed Tuesday when an Amtrak train slammed into his vehicle at a CSX railroad crossing on West Atlantic Boulevard, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said. The train was traveling about 79 mph when it hit Crowell’s vehicle, authorities said. “The crossing gates had come down, the train conductor had blown his horn and he had administered his emergency brake when the collision occurred,” (spokeswoman) Russell said.

So now Amtrak engineers are letting the conductors do the driving?

Meanwhile, yesterday’s Mahoning Valley Tribune-Chronicle brought us a reporter who not only thinks the conductor drives the train, but apparently never heard the term “railroad:”

A week after a Newton Township police cruiser was crushed by an oncoming locomotive, a dispatcher in Newton Falls has been suspended for two weeks. Police Chief Robert Carlson released a memo Monday to part-time dispatcher Dawn A. McAvoy stating that she did not do her duty when she failed to call the CSX train company to tell them a township officer was chasing theft suspects along the tracks intersecting Miller Graber Road…

Officer Tom Colosimo stopped on the tracks about 10:50 p.m. when he spotted three scrap metal theft suspects walking along the railway. When they ran, he jumped out of the car and chased them, radioing that he was on the tracks and told the dispatcher to call the train company… Almost 13 minutes later, after the shift change, Colosimo radioed back and asked if anyone called the train company…

According to reports, the c

4

[quote user=“BillyFloyd”]

Though the railroad was once a central feature of American life, it’s plain that awareness of railroading is slipping away from the general public.

One telling example: many newspaper reporters, who obviously never played with toy trains as children, seem to be unaware that, in the U.S, the guy who drives the train is called the “engineer.” It’s quite common to read news articles like this one from the May 7 Seattle Times:

"A man talking on a cellphone was killed by a train today near Emerald Downs racetrack, according to Auburn police. The man was struck while walking north on tracks in the 1400 block of C Street Northwest, said Police Sgt. Scott Near said. Near said the conductor sounded the horn and applied the emergency brakes but “there was nothing he could do.”

Now, we all know it’s possible that an alert conductor riding in the left-hand seat might indeed have reached for the brake valve and grabbed for the horn, but that in all probability, it was the engineer who took these actions. Almost certainly, this is a case where the reporter has acquired the misimpression that the operator of a locomotive is called the “conductor.”

Lest one think this is an isolated case, a Google News search will show similar journalistic errors repeated two or three times per week, as far back as one cares to look. If the reports are to be believed, conductors are running trains all across the nation.

When I called attention to this issue elsewhere, an anonymous commenter wrote in to say:

“My brother is a conductor on the railroad. For many short runs, or when he’s assembling a train, he often drives the train…”

I have to say, I’m skeptical of this claim. I’ve always understood that the union rules commonly in force are quite strict about who-does-what on a train. Hostlers (and ot

5

It’s been my experience that despite their best efforts (occasionally), many reporters have no clue.

We see it in the fire service on a regular basis. Some fire departments have been known to run a “mini fire academy” just for the media, so they can be told the hows and whys of fire operations and maybe write about them intelligently next time they report on a fire incident.

Especially with a train incident, the reporter is often getting information not from the railroad, but from law enforcement, who also has no clue. In fact, the “spokesman” may not have even been involved in the investigation, but is simply reporting what he (or she) has been told up through the chain of command.

Ever play that game where a “secret” is repeated around the room?

Of course, the demise of the caboose hasn’t helped, either. Used to be that the engineer was in the engine and the conductor was in the caboose…

6

ohhhhh i see…we are critiqueing the press’s responsibilty on fair un-bias accurate reporting…well when ya find some lemme know…ill critique it [soapbox][banghead]

7

Well, it’s partly that-- if you can’t trust the media to get little things like this right, can you trust their reports on global warming, the crisis in the Middle East, or the state of the economy?

For me, though, as a historian interested in transportation, it’s fascinating (and sad) to see just how peripheral the railroading industry has become in popular culture. A couple of generations ago, everyone knew about engineers and conductors because trains were important in their lives. These days, it seems a lot of the public knows as much about trains as they do about Conestoga wagons.

One example of the practical consequences: some years ago, in Harpers Ferry, WV, I talked to a young woman whose car had just been smashed by a six-axle EMD. Seeking to avoid paying for parking, she’d squeezed the car into a “parking space” at the downtown railroad station… with her back wheels on the ballast and rear bumper sticking right out over the eastbound CSX main. It wasn’t long before the inevitable took place.

When I asked if she’d given any thought to the risk, she wailed, “I didn’t think they used those tracks anymore!”

8

Billy,

We experience the same kind of press and puplic ignoranace here in heavily transit rich and commuter RR rich New York City. There were many times I have seen in the papers where incidents involving accidents and suicide jumpers that refer to the subway train motorman as the “conductor”. “…The conductor could not stop his train in time…”

I am a NYPD detective and once I took a prisoner to Bellevue Hosp. Emergency Room there was a female motorman, or Train Operator as they are now called, that was taken to the ER for evaluation, because a jumper commited suicide by jumping from the platform in front or her train as she was braking for a stop. Well would you know it that the EMT’s and nurses kept referring to her as the train conductor.

So you see even in a place where trains, in this case subway trains, are just a part of the everyday lives of average New Yorkers today as their were 60 years ago and also here in NYC in working class neighborhoods everyone knows somebody be it a family member, friend or nieghbor work works for the transit authority because transit jobs are one of the few jobs that still offers good wages with benefits and pensions. There is a still creeping ignorance of what duties of the “conductor” and “motorman” are.

I think that part of this is due to the trend of corporatizing, “PCing” and desexing job titles by the transit authority, such as Motormen are now called Train Operators and Motor Instructor, the subway equivilant of a Road Foreman of Engines are now called Train Operator Supervisors. This blandness separates the present empolyees from their “electric traction heritage” and make thwm seem less distinct from any other j

9

Having worked in television broadcasting for 30+ years, I hate to say it – but most reporters “don’t have a clue”. I have had an on-going battle with the news department at the station I used to work for; they persist in referring to the rifle volley at military funerals as a “twenty-one gun salute”. They are also determined to work in non-standard English at every opportunity. I just have to grit my teeth and say nothing when I hear that “the burglar BUSTED out a window”, or “the teen SNUCK out of the house”.

And to think people used to complain about Dizzy Dean (remember him?) telling TV audiences how somebody just “SLUD” into third base!

/Lone

10

Why don’t they just call them all, railroad employees. Covers it all. The media is NEVER EVER accurate about anything, and never have been anywhere.

11

Whats wrong with that?

12

[quote user=“TH&B”]
Why don’t they just call them all, railroad employees. Covers it all. The media is NEVER EVER accurate about anything, and never have been anywhere.[/quot

I blame Google for some of the misinformation. Planning a trip to the beautiful “Mountain Empire” of Southwestern Virginia? Perhaps you’d like to stay in lovely “Abington.” Thousands of entries.

One problem, though, “Abington” did not and does not exist! The county seat of Washington County, Virginia, is “Abingdon” with a “d.” There were about three times more entries for the correct Abingdon spelling as for Abington. Nowhere under “Abington” did I see a link to the correct spelling, or mention of it.

Apparently sprucing up the Wikipedia is the least of our problems. Now the internet is convening whole cities where none existed.

al

13

[quote user=“TH&B”]
Why don’t they just call them all, railroad employees. Covers it all. The media is NEVER EVER accurate about anything, and never have been anywhere.[/quot

I blame Google for some of the misinformation. Planning a trip to the beautiful “Mountain Empire” of Southwestern Virginia? Perhaps you’d like to stay in lovely “Abington.” Thousands of entries.

One problem, though, “Abington” did not and does not exist! The county seat of Washington County, Virginia, is “Abingdon” with a “d.” There were about three times more entries for the correct Abingdon spelling as for Abington. Nowhere under “Abington” did I see a link to the correct spelling, or mention of it.

Apparently sprucing up the Wikipedia is the least of our problems. Now the internet is convening whole cities where none existed.

al

14

Another reason besides the reporters being ditsy and clueless, is the fact the when something happenes the Conductor walks back to the scene. When the cops talk to the reporters, it’s always the “Conductor” said this or that because that’s who he spoke to.

15

Well thank God they weren’t called “train drivers” or we’d be having a whole other discussion.

16

Then why do you even bother reading so many newspaper stories online?

And BillyFloyd – since you’re obviously such a stickler for perfect details and getting little things right, engineers don’t “drive” trains as you write several many times above – they “run” them. I thought everyone knew that. [:-,]

17

Hello everyone,

Actually, I had to laugh about the one where they call it a “train company”! I’ve never thought of a railroad in those terms. We could use it here on the forums for subjects such as “What’s your favorite train company?!”, “Classic Train Companies”, or “Train Company Locomotives”.

Later,

Gregory

18

Aside from the fact that they are BOTH examples of, at best, informal usage, or, at worst, just plain incorrect usage – NOTHING! The crook “broke” out a window; the teen “sneaked” out…

/Lone

19

Out in the real world, the conductor, qualified or not, is often the one running the train when the engineer is busy doing other things on trainling units, using the facilities or taking a rest to eat his/her meals.

20

Some very helpful information here - thanks!