(erielack) Flying Switch, Need of a Translation.

[Dlw1el2_@_aol.com]

The question was asked a short while ago on this list,  what  was a flying 
switch?   I don't remember seeing a response, so  I'll try to give a 
description. Please excuse the duplication if there was one  already give.
 
 
It was a way of getting a car behind the engine into a facing point siding  
or track in front of the engine.  A full crew was needed to make this  move.   
One man at the switch, one riding the brake, and one pulling  the pin or 
cutting lever.  Oh, and a good experienced engineer!   Level or ever so slightly 
down grade was desirable.  If the grade was up  hill you best NOT try it.
 
When everyone was in position, and the air brakes have been bleed off on  the 
car or cars, the engineer would notch out the throttle till the desired  
speed was reached for the distance the car or cars had to go.    Upon the 
conductor, or man riding the cutting levers signal,  he  would  apply the engine 
brake, never completely shutting off the throttle.  This would momentarily have the 
car roll into the engine enough for the slack to  be in, so the pin puller 
could  pull the pin. With that  accomplished the engineer would release the 
engine brakes and open the  throttle full to pull away from the car now rolling on 
its own in the same  direction the engine was going but at a slower rate of 
speed than the  engine.    
 
The second the engine passed the points of the facing point switch the man  
positioned at the switch would throw it, so the following or free  rolling car 
would roll into the desired track. When the  distance between two moving 
pieces of equipment was not great,  this became an anxious moment for the 
switchman. The man riding  the brake now had to make sure he stopped the car before it 
went to far, or just  in the clear, if the engine was going to come back and 
couple up to the opposite  end of the car and spot it, or take it some where 
else to spot.
 
I was a quick way of getting a car spotted or on the other end of your  
train, but it all took team work, practice and a good knowledge of the  gradient at 
every location.  Oh, and you wanted to make sure you had a good  working hand 
brake on the car or cars being flyed.
 
When Railroads started getting more blood out of the stone, by removing the  
third member of the ground crew the, the pin puller and man riding the brake  
often became one in the same, or the guy at the switch hopped on the brake  as 
it rolled by.   Today with only one man on the ground and no more  blood in 
the stone, it's a practice that's become HISTORY!
 
 
This is differed from a DROP in that by doing  a drop you simple cut away 
from cars.  Bleed them off,  ( release  the air brakes ) and let them roll into a 
desired switch or simple down the  main, after the engine has gotten out of 
the way.   No start with the  engine is needed, just the proper gradient.  
Centrifugal  force  does the rest. Again a good hand brake or brakes is needed. 
 
This ( if had to be )  can be all accomplished by today's one man  ground 
crew, but takes much longer, isn't legal, requires the stone be  given a blood 
transfusion before and after the move, which never happens, and  thus is also 
becoming HISTORY.
 
Hope this helps
Bob Bahrs


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