Friday, July 27, 2012

Help Wanted

We need people to sign up for the wood cars this Sunday, July 28th, including an extra trainman.

Also, the cars are scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday of the following week. More crewmen are needed then also. Sunday, August 5th is the Transport Extravaganza. You won't want to miss it!

While we're on the subject of operation, it's interesting to read the 1951 ICC report on CA&E operations; it's posted as part of the Johnson Collection under "Mechanical Dept." I was astounded to notice this:

In the make up of trains at Wheaton it was noted, at the time of inspection, an employee makes the electrical connection between the cars and couples up the air hoses after which the motorman sets the air brakes making a twenty pound reduction and opens his controller a few points to ascertain if he has brakes.

Yikes! Don't ever try this at IRM! Anyhow, the ICC persuaded them to change the procedure and visually inspect the brakes on the rear cars. That is, of course, our standard required procedure.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow, operating rules straight out of 1910. I imagine the thinking was "if you find you have no brakes, reverse the controller and plug the train".