The three man shove

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Driving through town today, I saw something interesting. A locomotive was pushing 2 empty car and a caboose shoving platform. On the platform were 3 switchmen. I wonder what kind of move would take three men on the ground. This move is usually done with an engineer and a switchman.

The move involves heading south out of the yard, with the locomotive at the head end. The line goes about amile, crossing 2 busy streets that have warning lights. It switches onto an industrial spur, and goes about 6 blocks into and industrial park, shoving platform forward, crossing 2 more busy streets with lights It also runs several blocks through the middle of a hospital parking lot at one point.

The spur serves a lumber whlesale yard, a steel fabricating company, and a refridgerated warehouse/ freight forwarder type business. After switching the spur, the locomotive takes the same course in reverse.

Any guess on what type of situation would require 3 men on the ground?

2

The switchman

A trainee

A supervisor

3

What happens on the cabin - STAYS on the cabin. [:-^]

4

Gonna quote you here Zug from another thread:
“Follow the goats: they know!”

[;)]

5

[:-^]

6

AN ENGINEER, A CONDUCTOR, A TRAINMASTER, AN ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OR VICE PRESIDENT.

7

You assume those guys know how to get back out…On the other hand, some of them[:-^][*-)][%-)]

8

Was one of them wearing a safety orange cap?

If so, a guess, besides being a goat herder, is a switchman foreman, switchman helper and a trainee.

9

ZOOM !!! That’s the sound of the goat references going right over my head.[sigh]

Ed- as I recall, they were all three wearing safety vests, brights colored hats or hardhats, and at least two were turned so I could see radio mic’s clipped to the front of their shirts.

henry6: While I’m not saying that’s not possibe, this seems a little of the beaten path to send anybody inportant along for the ride.

10

This is beginning to sound like the beginning of a math problem…

If a Switchman, a Conductor and a Supervisor were standing on the back of a shoving platform… how many Engineers would it take to change the lightbulb in the marker lamp?

11

Maybe one man knew the way to the ‘Spot’ and the other two were there because tyhey knew the way back?

[Think about the old joke about how many Polacks it took to change a light bulb.

One to hold the bulb and two to turn the ladder.] [sigh][^o)][*-)][:-^]

12

One… to call the machinist!

13

Hard hat means MOW.

Guess he needed to see a problem first hand?

14

Well, he didn’t say what railroad, and I’ve seen railroads of all sizes in many places. Hell, I’ve even seen the President out working a train…or supervising!

15

I see what you mean. I guess I didn’t mention that it was on a BNSF line, that’s off a secondary main line, that’s out in corfield and soybean country.

16

Probably just the conductor, brakeman, and a trainee. It’s nice to still see brakemen on jobs these days.

17

Larry, Curly & Moe?

18

I dunno. If that were true, I suppose that would mean Shemp was running the locomotive. I’m not sure that I can picture Shemp at the throttle. [*-)]

I’m think the best explanations given were of it being a training or MOW related situatation.

19

Training and MOW angles notwithstanding, perhaps they needed to get everything done quickly - having to walk back and forth to get switches, pull pins, make air, etc can be quite time consuming. If you can leave one person at the switch while another handles the move and perhaps another is preparing other cars to be pulled, well things just (usually) get done faster…

20

Most of the time when the President of a carrier is a part of the train & engine crew he will be the Engineer. Being rank has it’s privileges.