Last Manual Blocking of Trains on the N&W ?

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Sorry, Abe.  I spent several years as one of those "assistant-whatevers" and operated according to N&W's instructions governing detouring of trains.  We had a damn good understanding of "what it was all about" or we wouldn't have been out there.  We also had operators to handle the messages on each end of the detour.  Regular union-dues-paying operators.
 
Those instructions provided for absolute block for trains running against the current of traffic, and operating by signal indications for trains running with the current of traffic.  The protections for motor cars were stringent.  

Before you denounce the N&W's system, take into account the number of years the N&W operated that way in Rule 251 territory; more than your 20.  And not just on the Pokey; my experience was on the Scioto, and they also had lots of that territory on the Radford and Norfolk divisions.  The instance cited here is the only one I know of where there was such a tragedy. 

Us "assistant-whatevers" might have been better than you'll let yourself believe, at several different kinds of jobs.  Hell, there's no doubt about it.  

Detouring was the reason there were three Assistant Road Foremen and two Assistant Trainmasters on the Scioto when I was there (early-mid sixties).  

Now, I've been a dispatcher, too, Abe;  I've dispatched all kinds of territories, and I fully understand where you're coming from.  

If we "assistant-whatevers" had belonged to the ATDA would you say the same thing?

I've seen the Chicago and North Western do it your way in commuter territory in the Chicago area, and they damn near had to put on an extra dispatcher to put out all the orders necessary.

IMHO, the dispatchers in Portsmouth were damn glad that all they had to do was put out a train order to all concerned about where the detour was, on which track, and between what times.

Ed King
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
  To: NW Mailing List 
  Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 7:08 PM
  Subject: Re: Last Manual Blocking of Trains on the N&W ?


  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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