Last Manual Blocking of Trains on the N&W ?

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Remembereth Ait'sch:


>>

In April, 1950, N&W was detouring eastbound trains
on the westward main track to Kimball.  No. 24 entered Kimball Tunnel and struck a motor car killing six employees.
<<

My personal opinion on that, Harry, is that detouring trains against-the-current-of-traffic under the "flag protection" of two "assistant-whatever's" is about the dumbest way there is to run a railroad.

The movement of trains on a main line, and especially movement "A.C.T.," is the business of professional Train Dispatchers who do it every day, not assistant-whatever's who are stuck out there occasionally for a day in the rain and have very little understanding of what it's all about.

I'll bet that if you asked one of these asistant-whatevers whether Manual Block Rules applied when a train is operated against-the-current-of-traffic, he'd give you a dumb look and say, "Huh...?"

Just my 2-cents worth.  But it's the opinion of a guy who spent 20 years up-close-and-dirty with a "Rule 251" double track railroad and hand crossovers... and 60 trains a day !

-- abram burnett
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