RE: (erielack) Ray Ruff

["Philip Martin" <martinpl3_@_earthlink.net>]

Michael DeCarlo is asking what those things on the shelf above the levers
are.  He may be refering to the slow releases.  When you pull up a signal,
and a train hits the approch, the company doesn't want you to slam the
signal back and line up a conflicting move right away.  You can always slam
a signal back in an engineer's face, especially if you get careless, but
the interlocking prevents you from getting the signal lever all the way
back, without running the slow release; so the route stays locked out until
you do.  You can't rearrange the switches, or pull up an opposing signal. 
We had a true confession, a few weeks ago, from a lister who did that once
at Summit.  But the maintainer had to pick the signal levers back for him
to do it.  The slow release enables you to get the signal lever all the way
back, after an interval of from thirty seconds to several minutes,
depending on track speed and other safety factors, so you can rearrange
your routes.  Those glass bell shaped objects in the photo, are slow
releases, and are attached to the model board.  Each one has a wheel-like
handle sticking out of it, which is part of a clock type mechanism.  To
actuate that kind of slow release, you give the handle a twist, to get it
off center; the signal drops, and the clock mechanism winds down.  When it
is wound down, two contacts meet, and the mechanical interlocking mechanism
releases the signal lever, so you can get it all the way back, and then
take out your route.  Don't forget to wind the slow release back up, after
you've gotten your lever back.  There have been plenty of stopped trains
because operators didn't remember. 
There are various types of slow relases.  They have different ways, of
doing the same thing. 
When I worked the North East Corridor in the early 70ies, and they got
really high speed trains, they changed the slow releases so you had to run
them down any time you pulled the signal up, whether there was a train on
the approch or not.  Of course, when the circuit behind the signal is
actuated, as for instance, when a train passes it, the signal lever goes
right back, but you dan't rearrange the switches while the train is on
their circuits.
One question I have is how come all those white levers on the machine?  At
most towers I worked at, painting a lever white indicated that it was out
of service. 
It is good to see Ray again.  I e-mailed the picture to the dispatchers
office, where there are guys who knew him. 
Philip Martin   




	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	Sponsored by the ELH&TS
	http://www.elhts.org

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