People who were riding the train with us this past week sent me some interesting links.
David Fullarton rode the 251/714 train on Memorial Day and took video from the front end. Here are links to two YouTube segments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z-d_-F7F0oDavid Fullarton rode the 251/714 train on Memorial Day and took video from the front end. Here are links to two YouTube segments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ef5jwAvoc
Our old friend Tom Hunter rode the 309 on Saturday, and took a large number of pictures. Here are just a few which illustrate picking up flimsies:
The dispatcher (Adam Robillard) attaches the flimsy to a loop of string and mounts it in the hoop.
As the train approaches, conductor Joel Ahrendt reaches out to put his arm through the triangle formed by the loop of string in the hoop. He doesn't have to actually catch anything with his fingers.
He has pulled the the string away from the hoop, and can now unroll and read the order.
Tom says he will also make a movie out of this sequence. So stay tuned!
So thanks!
Tom says he will also make a movie out of this sequence. So stay tuned!
So thanks!
Back in Kentucky, when I was a teenager, on selected weekends at the Kentucky Railway Museum, I'd dress as the station agent and "hoop up" the orders to the steam locomotive and conductor as the train passed by. I had a pair of hand held "y" forks in the telegraph office that I used. On occasion, I also used the "hoop" style, that required the person you handed orders up to to actuall grap the cane hoop, unclip the orders and drop the hoop.
ReplyDeleteAfter I while, I dug out an L&N train order stand out of one of the baggage cars we used for storage, restored it, and mounted it in the depot platform, like the one at IRM. Visitors always enjoyed this aspect of simulating railroad operations.