I have heard about in cabooses them storing Torpedo’s, what are these and do they still use them today? Mike
A torpedo is a firecracker with a pair of soft metal straps sticking out that enable it to be affixed to the head of the rail. A train running over the torpedo detonates it and it makes a loud bang. The torpedo was used as an unattended flagging device, along with the fusee, to warn a train that it was approaching the rear of another train on the main track. After striking a torpedo a train must proceed at restricted speed (able to stop in 1/2 the limit of vision short of anything, but not more than 20 mph in any case, on most roads) for two miles, then may resume speed if it has encountered nothing.
When a train stopped for whatever reeason in unsignaled territory, the flagman would walk back a proscribed distance from the rear of the train and wait there (if possible he dropped off the caboose as the train slowed). When the train whistled him back, he would light and drop fusees and place torpedoes, and return to the train.
Most rulebooks required the flagman to place two torpedos in case one didn’t detonate. They would be placed on the right-hand rail in the direction of motion of the departing train so a train coming the other direction (e.g., it had entered from a side track) would know the torpedoes did not apply to it.
Few railroads still use torpedoes; they went out with the caboose. (Wikipedia says its because locomotive cabs are now soundproofed, which goes to show just how little you can rely on it as a definitive source.)
Torpedoes are required under section 6.19 (b) of the General Code of Operating Rules. However, for most trains flag protection is waived, which obviates the use of torpedoes. See the following link and read Rule 6.19 for the full description of the practice under current operating rules:
http://www.sdrm.org/faqs/rulebook/movement.html
RWM
A torpedo is a small packet of explosive with metal tabs that can be bent around a railhead to hold it in place. Think very large cap pistol cap.
They were set out to warn oncoming trains of a stopped/stalled train blocking the track, or for other problems calling for an emergency stop NOW. In this day of instantaneous radio communication that may not be as critical, but they are probably still carried.
This is one area where I’ll defer to a present-day professional railroader to describe current practice.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
The UP no longer uses torpedoes. The rule regarding them (5.7) has been removed from our book, although the flagging rule still mentions them. The last ones I have seen were on an engine that was on a run through train from a foreign line, and that’s been a few years ago.
I too have heard from other sources about crews on engines with the sound proofed cabs not hearing them. Before they were done away with about the only use was for managers out testing. I did hear one time that a section foreman used them to flag a restricted section of track.
A few old rule books in my collection state that one torpedo detonation is a signal to stop, while two are a signal to proceed at restricted speed.
Jeff
I have heard of guys failing efficiency testing in comfort cab engines due to not hearing the torpedos. Usually when they go off, you know it. [;)] They are not stocked any more, but some engines have some aboard yet…
Minor point, the flagman walks back the prescribed distance, sets two torpedoes then walks halfway back to the train. When recalled he sets 2 more torpedoes and pops a fusee.
Correct, with the caboose gone there was no way to flag to the rear, so traditional flagging went away. They eliminate torpedoes, since the neeed for flaggig to the rear was gone, there was no sense in stocking explosives in every yard office, store room and locomotive.
Dave H.
I remember torpedos well. We lived just east of Auburn on the NP mainline and one early morning in 1954 we heard two go off and the next thing was train brakes screeching. The WB North Coast Limited stopped just short of a disabled freight. We learned later that the engine had failed on the freight and they sent power from Auburn to haul it in. The North Coast limited did not escape completly unscathed as every wheel on the train was flat.
That afternoon a substitute mostly heavyweight NCL departed Seattle for Chicago while the wheel shop in Seattle was very busy.
I read somewhere that the idea started during the Civil War on the US Military Railroads. A train had a breakdown at night. A soldier went back a ways to flag, but realizing it was too dark for him to be seen, took a bullet or cartridge out and used some mud to stick it to the track. When the following train ran over it, it made the bullet explode, and the engineer stopped the train assuming something had gone wrong with his engine causing the loud bang.
I would also add that torpedos contain more explosives than an M80 firecracker. As a kid I knew a friend who blew off half his hand with one. Definitely not user friendly if mishandled.
Torpedoes went away for several reasons…
1.) They tended to get crusty and unreliable when stored for long periods of time.
2.) You couldn’t really hear them in a Comfort Cab.
3.) They’re dangerous. In addition to their explosive power. The metal bands shoot off in all directions like shrapnel, when the torpedo detonates.
When I hired with Conrail, several moons ago, they had already banned torpedoes. After I went to CSX at Split Date, I saw really crusty and degraded torpedoes on the locos, but they all disappeared after two years or so. And I haven’t seen one since.
Nick
I well remember the night I strolled from my West Allis WI apartment across a field to the C&NW main line near Belton Junction. I’d sit on a battery box and wait and hope for a train (had no scanner at the time). I was rarely disappointed. So a westbound came over the hill and under the freeway near my vantage point – and hit a series of torpedos to stop the train (there must have been another westbound stopped around the bend – they would sometimes get stalled on the grade or would be parked near Greenfield Avenue due to congestion at Butler Yard).
I “knew” immediately what they were but that did not prevent my heart from nearly jumping out my throat. Good thing that apartment complex had a laundry facility …
Then there was the night I was sitting on the battery box and noticed that someone had dropped a beautiful hat on the ground. As I leaned down to investigate I learned that it was no hat. It was a skunk …
Dave Nelson
We still use our own variety regularly in the UK. In fact I place and lift them about 50% of the shifts I do day or night. The original design (of the type now in use) dates from about the 1850s. The early ones were made of cardboard (or similar). The design probably came from the charges loaded into muzzle loading side arms. The military (in the form of retired officers) were pretty heavily involved in quite a bit of early railway thinking/development. (Semaphore signals clearly came from the navy while the electric telegraph came from the army… IIRC… don’t recall the name of the guy but I have notes somewhere). Naturally we came up with a bunch of ideas and so did everyone else in their own way. Churchward f the GWR was pretty unusual in deliberately going to the USA and openly bringing back ideas and applying them. A lot of “Not Invented Here” always applied.
We call our torpedoes “Railway Fog Signals”. At least that’s what we’re supposed to call them because the police get a bit jumpy these days if they over hear us talking about “detonators” (abreviated to “dets”). It’s quite interesting when I get pulled over in the middle of the night for a “routine check”.
They’re called “Fog Signals” becuase we used thousands of them to assist Drivers to know where they were in our densely packed track system. To put it very briefly/simplistically… every tower had a Distant Signal on each approach side… in “fog and falling snow” these had to be manned by a “Fog Signalman” who’s job it was to maintain one det on the railhead when the signal was at Caution (Yellow). When the lead wheel ran over this and blew it the driver got an indication of where he was. I don&#
In 1986 I was working for the B&M when the word came down from headquarters to get rid of the torpedoes immediately. It seems the State Police pulled a hyrail truck over, and found a bunch of torpedoes. Well, this officer decided that the truck was carrying a Class B explosive without the proper placards. Result: $15,000 fine.
Faced with the cost of getting placards for all hyrail trucks, and getting the drivers of those trucks licensed to carry Class B explosives – they had to go!
As an aside when an engineer retired others would line the track with torpedoes for his last departure. The noise would shake the station to its foundation. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen any more.
DAW
You’re all wrong! A torpedo is a device that General Electric put in their U-boats designed to sink General Motors’ Geeps!
Some other stories, possible akin to railroad urban legends, about the dangers of torpedoes.
Crewmember has a torpedo or two in the bottom of his grip. For some reason also decides he needs a fusee, one with a spike on the end, remember those? Shoves fusee, spike first into grip and strikes torpedo and it goes BANG.
The soft metal clips were often removed and used to tie up messages to be tossed off a train at an open station. The torpedo without a way to fasten it to the rail was discarded out the window. One time during the discarding process, the torpedo misses the open window but hits the cab wall and it too goes BANG.
I heard those stories from a RI agent/operator about 30 years ago.
Jeff
You have it backwards. The torpedoes were placed on the roofs of GPs (and SD24’s) to sink the U-Boats. There was a cartoon to that effect MANY years ago in MR.
For those not in the loop, they were actually the air tanks moved to the roof from their usual location between the fuel tank and walkway. This allowed for greater tank capacity, especially needed on GPs in passenger service in the steam heat days. A good part of the fuel tank was partitioned off to hold water for the steam generator.