UP crews have to love these two…not!
Two things come to mind:
Dragging
Equipment
I an glad they are not my children. But there is a piece of me that envies what they are doing. Ski jumping over a train is not wise but is awesome. I suspect that many of us have done or wished we had done something like what they have done. Smart, no, but fun, yes. Trespassing, yes. Safe? Questionable. We have learned that if our children don’t get exposed to some bacteria and other alergens when in their early years, their inmune systems lack the knowledge to protect them and they get asthma and other issues. Englad has some playground that have risky elements that kids learn how to coexist with danger. It has been said that life without risk is not worth living.
When I was about 14 years old, the Winton Rd bridge over Mill Creek was being built and I went to look at it. OSHA and all the safety rules were not in existance, and I was not chased or fenced out of the area. The girders were being riveted and I walked out on one of the completed girders to observe the work on another one. The girders had a Z shaped piece of metal attached to their tops about a foot apart that would embed itself in the concrete when poured and my shoes would fit between them. After watching the hot rivets being tossed to the riveters from the forge and being driven into the beams. I turned around and started back to the end of the bridge. Looking down, I could see the rip rap (broken concrete, and large rocks) about 30 feet below. After about six steps, a shoe got caught in a Z strip and I lunged forward. Fortunatly, my hands went forward and caught the I beam. Got a scare but nothing more. No worker said anything. My dad, had he know would not have been happy with me to say the least. At one time, some engineers would give cab rides and tower operaters would let you into the towers. But law suits have caused that permissive time to be curtailed.
I think about it everytime I wait for a Metra train and a freight train preceeds it and I and others stand on the platform (behind the yellow line) but within feet of the freight train passing us at forty mph. But I still do it. I have seen steel strapping hanging off cars and it could cut through you like a ginsu knife.
She be cute’in.
Such was the danger to Train Order operators in handing up orders to the rear end crew. Hand up to the Head End, walk to a location away from the train where you can observe the markers of the caboose approaching. When it is time move to where you can hand up to the rear end crew.
Yes, and if the dragging strapping doesn’t get you, there is always the ever available derailment to throw cars and track at you.
IC/ICG usually used a “crane” to deliver train orders at Rantoul. There were two swivelling arms, each with a fork at the end. The station agent/operator hung two sets of whatever was to be passed up, then swung the arms into position.
When the orders were hooped up by the crew, the arms would drop out of the way.
If you see images with a pole having two circles on it (one high, one lower), that’s the ticket. There were other versions.
I did see the agent use hand held poles a few times, too, but the crane was the method of choice.
Credit to Brian Hadley on Flickr.
There were a variety of Train Order Transmitters on the market with similar but different design features. On the B&O when I hired out and where I was working there were none installed. My
How should have that been done instead ? (not that I’m advocating it, but I don’t see an easy alternative solution)
Speaking of trespassing…what about the cover of the August issue of Trains, featuring half a dozen railfans getting the photo of a liftetime…but they don’t seem to be on public property, do they?
First Lesson: It’s OK when railfans do it, just not everyone else.
Second Lesson: It’s difficult to be consistent when applying the rules.
Third Lesson: It’s best not to pontificate on what other people ought to do.
I couldn’t help myself, I just kept muttering “Put a shirt on, ya bum!”
On the other hand, his girlfriend’s a hottie, so he must have something going for him.
The question for the ages - why do good girls like bad boys???
This, of course, is one of the several Questions of the Ages (such as, What do Women Want? which was posed by Freud).
I put this fine question about good girls and their attraction to bad boys to an expert. Here, at no cost to any of us, is her insightful answer:
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“Bad boys are more exciting than nice guys; they exude an air of danger.”
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“Because your dad doesn’t want you to hang out with him.”
Other than the blonde and the MoPac heritage unit, it was a waste of 8 minutes.
There are a lot of train surfing videos in with that one linked above. A lot of bad boys play that game. There was one that I can’t seem to find that showed two guys running down the top of a tank train, leaping from one tank to the next. Now that is really bad.
He’s not a bad boy, he’s a goofball. Maybe he makes her laugh? Chicks dig that too, ya know!
He did sound like a foamer.
According to the crow in “The Secret of NIMH” girls like sparklies.
“Sparklies?” I have never heard that before! But, I think I can figure out what it means. B’Jaysus, I wisht I was one o’ them guys!