If you’re a real working man, you don’t need super-heavy coats. I have a pair of carhartts. One lighter, one heavier. But I dress in layers, so, doesn’t really matter.
Nick,
I’m not a railroader, so I have to ask. What is a “reverser?” By the way, I thought a lot on your list can be transferred to other professions.
Thanks,
Tom
Why duct tape? For MOW gangs, yeah, even for the engineer to have in the cab, sure, but out switching cars?
It’s the handle on the control stand that controls which direction the locomotive will move. While not exactly the same thing, it’s analogous to the shift lever on a car with an automatic transmission.
In the cab to seal leaky doors and if the conductor carries it the engineer dont haft to also in the field if your train goes into emergency you take the roll with you and if its just a air hose seperation or leaky air hose coupling its been used to make sure that they wont seperate again until pin is pulled
You can think of the reverser as a key of sorts also…with it pulled out of the control stand you can not move the locomotive unders its own power,
Duct tape repairs rain gear, selas leaky doors, windows, holes in the floor, and as Mr. Wabash states, tape glad hands together to keep them for braking apart at the wrong time.
Always have a good alibi…and a couple of not so good in reserve.
Sharp shooting is not an exact science.
Always leave the engine in the clear.
Best advice I received my first night firing:
“If something don’t look right, STOP. You can always tell them why you stopped. You can’t tell them why you didn’t.”
Whenever separating engines, ALWAYS unhook the crossover chains first. Anything else can be tossed in the weeds if it gets ripped out. But it’s hard to hide bent stanchions…
Duct tape is like the Force…it has a light side, a dark side, and holds the universe together.
No sharp shooting is not an exact science, more like a black art. But it’s very helpful if you’re good at it.
Nick
Duct tape I understand.
Sharpshooting?
Please excuse my ignorance here, but -
What exactly does this mean ? If anything other than making sure that the engine is far enough into the siding and beyond the ‘fouling point’ at any switch/ turnout ? And/ or, separated from any standing cars that are not that engine’s train by a couple of carlengths ?
Thanks in advance.
- Paul North.
That’s all. leave it far enough in a track so it doesn’t trade paint with anything…
Always leave the the engine in the clear:
Won’t have to ruin the coffee break/beans to move it.
No body can shove a track from the other end in the side of it, thus avoiding lots of paperwork.
If it’s in the clear and it gets hit someone else does the paperwork.
Chris:
Sharpshooting is using anything at your disposal to position yourself (or your crew) to catch a choice/primo assignment on the next call. You can also sharpshoot to try to force someone on the board ahead of you to catch a miserable job so you don’t. You need to know the Agreement, the train lineup, the tendencies of others on the same board/pool, be able to do a creative tie up/arrival/markup, etc. It’s not an exact science in that others also may find the ways to be more creative and/or the lineup changes, someone marks up or lays off unexpectedly, etc
Good brief explanation, without getting bogged down in a lot of detail or with a specific example. In other contexts, ‘sharp-shooting’ the extra board would be called “gaming the system”. What can make it interesting and inexact is that it’s interactive - what Crew A does may affect the options that are available to Crew B, and vice-versa. Kind of like a real-time chess game with live people and really big pieces. The economics and operations research type of professors and experts use ‘game theory’ to figure out the options and probabilities and likely outcomes for this kind of challenge in everything from oil pricing to nuclear warfare . . . But I’d put my money on an old-head crewman with about 25 years seniority on the same district to beat any of them at his game . . . [;)]
And thanks to zugman and rrboomer for the answers to my question about what “Always leave the engine in the clear” means.
- Paul North.
I knew a couple of older master sharpshooters who played the game by cultivating favor with various yardmasters and callers in the terminal. And maybe a few dispatchers, too.
I’ve often wondered what a couple of the sharpshooter would have done with today’s wide availabilty of information via computer of what is coming and what might run first. On the other hand, they wouldn’t have the callers located locally, as today’s mega-systems have centralized call offices and being best buddies with the caller seemed to be a key ingredient for any good sharpshooter of the past.
Valley,
Yeah, sharpshooting is definitely more difficult now then in the past. Many of today’s systems have guards in place to limit the practice…such as there has to be an hour difference in the off duty times to change your standing order.
But it’s still possible if you can figure out the rules. It’s still possible to make nice with the callers, especially if you have assigned callers at the mega crew management center. Speaking of callers, I can always tell how desperate they are for a body by the message they leave. If they REALLY REALLY REALLY need someone, they call me Nick or Mr. Brodar. If not…it’s just dead air.
It’s also amazing to watch some of the guys sharpshoot for off days. You’d mark up on a job knowing you’d get bumped, in order to string together three, four, five, or possibly more days off, and not get charged for them.
Nick
[(-D] Exactly that - both aspects, too - was the subject of the following article/ essay by former PRR/ PC/ ConRail engineer and Road Foreman of Engines (I believe) John Crosby - ‘Al’ was the caller:
You win, Al
Trains, April 1977 page 30
an award for acting
( CR, CREW, “CROSBY, JOHN R.”, DISPATCHER, ENGINEER, TRN )
- Paul North.
There are professions where you can swap into such deal. My son is a firefighter. He can swap shifts, day for day, to give himself a long weekend or to have a birthday (or other event) off. It means he’ll have to work three straight 24 hour shifts at some point, but their workload is usually such that he can do that.
Corrections officers (AKA prison guards) around here are famous for their swaps - they have to carry calendars to keep them straight. There is always a market - folks who want a lot of time off in the summer are more than willing to trade with folks who want a lot of time off during hunting season, f’rinstance.
HoS rules that out on the railroad, of course.
A “Duck” gets wet when it’s raining.
An Engineer shouldn’t ,but sometimes unfortunately does [(-D]
Keep your brakes warm. Especially in the winter. Snow brakes are no brakes.
I’ll wear the Carhartt over 2 or 3 layers. Helps when it’s below zero out. I also have some of the lock de-icer they sell in gas stations. It works pretty well. Much easier on the lock than torching it with a fusee.
If you can arrange it, carry a spare independent brake handle. (All our engines have 26 air) The plastic ones don’t weigh much. Spare automatic handle wouldn’t be bad either. A small pry bar to adjust brakes helps, too, when assigned to outlying terminals. I already have the duct tape, zip ties and spare reverser handle. Found a yellow one, so I remember to take it back if I need to use it.
Yard switching is similar to playing chess, with big pieces. A strategic cut can save a number of moves down the line. I’ll help a new guy out for a while, but if he keeps making bonehead moves, I won’t say much, just let him do whatever. They can only work us for 12 hours.