As a railroad engineer for the old Reading and Pennsylvania Railroad who left service in 1989 I have no idea what you're talking about which certainly doesn't discount what you're saying. 🙂.
Maybe something to do with a manual track switch ? Are you sure dispatch said "Fixing" ?
Maybe said switching😉
Hump switching?
No, that's called hump switching.
There was a customer we used to do that at when I was a new hire. The conductor would sit on the knuckle at the rearmost car and I'd stand on the steps of the locomotive. We'd bottle the air then start shoving. Right near the switch, the engineer would fully apply the locomotive brakes and I'd jump off at the switch while the loads of cement and the conductor would keep on going up the hill. The engines would then rapidly go the other way until they were in the clear. Meanwhile, I'd line the switch into the industry then get back out of the way just in case something went drastically wrong lol. When the cars ran out of momentum going up the hill, they'd come back past me and into the industry track. When the conductor saw me, he'd kick open the angle **** with his foot and the cars would go into emergency. I'd run over to line the switch for the engines which were on their way back towards me on the mainline. We never had any issues doing it that way, but you'd get fired about 7 or 8 times simultaneously doing it that way now lol
Sitting on the knuckle? Sounds like a fantastic way to lose body parts. No need to mess with angle cocks... just bleed them off.
When I started we had a saying I learned very quickly.. no one ever gets "hurt" on the railroad, you get...... well I'll leave it there.☠️😄.
I understand it's pretty dangerous, but that's the way he wanted to do it. Bleeding them off would only give him real control of 2 of the handbrakes, whereas, "shooting" the brakes when he came past would put all 9 cars into emergency. 9 cars was the most the customer could hold at one time. 9 covered hoppers worth of cement. Eventually, he retired and the rules changed. Then we'd run past there to the next siding, run around the train and just switch that customer on the way back.
To each their own. 2 handbrakes will hold 9 loads pretty well and tying brakes allows for more precision when spotting like that since there's nothing attached to move the cars. Even back 80 years ago doing anything with the knuckle of a car was known to be a really bad idea.
Pretty crazy way to do it.
That was only used to get the cars to the other end of the engine. Once they were stopped, we’d couple back up to them from the opposite end and spot them at the unloading tipple. The safest method, taking them to a siding and running around them there, could cause hours of delay while waiting on trains. It was a very busy line, and if you “got in the clear” anywhere, you could be stuck there for quite awhile.
Efficiency only benefits the company. Taking risks greatly decreases safety and increases the odds of an injury.
I understand the sentiment. Some of my managers were really good managers though, primarily the ones with actual experience. We'd do our best to get the work done, and they'd look out for us in any way they could. We wouldn't go out of our way for anyone with a bad attitude towards us.
