[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

Re: (erielack) Netcong, NJ freight service

Based on Bob Stafford's responce to your Branchville question, of similar
vein, I seem to feel that the Netcong spurs were trailing-point Eastbound,
and were probably served by eastbound trains from Phillipsburg, which ran
dailey, or westbound as required, as Bob says, with Flying Switches, or
Dutch-Drops. The drill to Branchville only ran 3 times a week, or less, and
all of the few photos of it that I have ever seen only show 3 or so cars;
this would imply that they would not haul cars all the way out to the end
of the line, and if they did, those cars would interfere with other
switching en route. I have watched local freights in many other locations,
and while I never saw this one, in most cases, locals do not haul cars
needlessly, whenever otherwise possible. It only creates added switching
problems at the outter end of the run.
For example, on the Gladstone Branch, the sidings were of limited capacity,
and if the drill pulled all of the cars to the end of the line, so as to
always spot them with trailing moves, they would likely not be able to run
around the train at the end of the line, or at intermediate points. And
when you are doing a Dutch Drop, you do not want any more cars involved
than the bare minimum! Of course there are always exceptions......
The more I watch the prototype doing their work, the more I learn. I do not
believe that there is any such thing as Scale Time applicable to modeling;
we modelers only have to couple and un-couple our cars, we do not have have
to pump air, or connect hoses; and all too often we fail to allow time for
a brakeman to walk back to the loco and/or the hack. (To say nothing of
setting up or down retainers, or looking for a hotbox or other defect, and
then fixing it.) We are a bit impatient, and are more interested in seeing
things MOVE. In real life, an engineer will often, whenever possible, move
the engine or the whole train, so as to save the ground crew from having to
walk, whenever possible. And of course I've seen crews fritter away time to
justify a full day's pay, or gain overtime....... In our worlds, things are
more perfect. And of course YOU wouldn't do anything like that, would you?
A classic example of this sort of thing was watching a former Erie crew at
Lackawaxen, PA, picking up 4 cars westbound in 1987. It took them 85
minutes to make a "simple" trailing-point pick-up; and the DS or
Trainmaster at Hornell got on the radio to ask WHY? The responce was that
it takes a little time to pump up the air in a 150-car train.......... It
would've taken that long or more to tie down the train with hand-brakes,
while making the pick-up, but that was left un-said. Of course when I do it
on the model rr, I simply lay a track-cleaning pad or a screw driver in
front of the cut of cars.
I do NOT want to start a discussion on Scale Time, I've done that before,
but we all need to get out on the main-line more, and OBSERVE!
Last year I watched a crew spotting sand hoppers at an un-loading pit, and
was very surprised to learn how much time it takes to un-load a hopper,
using the bottom doors; and down here in Florida, neither sand nor COAL
freezes up. (It takes the FEC crew 5 minutes per car.)
73's, charlie

 ------------------------------------------------------------
Visit the erielack photopage at http://el-list.railfan.net

------------------------------