RE: (erielack) Flying Switch, Need of a Translation.

["Timothy Phalon" <rivercat12_@_hotmail.com>]

List,

   I was once told by an old railroader that when a flying switch was 
performed on a siding that was short, the engine would pull into the siding 
and let the car roll forward of the switch on the main.  The engine would 
then pull out, retrieve the car and spot it.

Tim Phalon


>From: Dlw1el2_@_aol.com
>Reply-To: Dlw1el2_@_aol.com
>To: erielack_@_lists.elhts.org
>Subject: (erielack) Flying Switch,   Need of a Translation.
>Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 19:06:51 EST
>
>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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