CPL history lesson

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Jerry:
Just prior to the transition to color position lights, N&W had six  
indications which
required six amber lights displayed three each on two targets (or  signal 
heads).  
At the time the amber lights were in service, there were no  
engineer-trainees.
Candidates came out and qualified as firemen -- after a physical and  visual
examination.  The signals may have initially been confusing to those  
qualifying
for fireman, but there comes a time when you gotta know the rule  book.
 
For those that have heard this, excuse me.  The late Carl Lewey was  Road 
Foreman
of Engines on the Norfolk Division at the time of the VGN  merger.  The road 
foremen
coached the VGN engine service employees,  acclimated them to the  N&W 
signals,
and familiarized them with N&W territory because VGN crews would have  to 
begin operating on N&W Abilene and east.  There was one character,  quite 
well known
to the Virginian people,  that just didn't grasp N&W signal  theory.  Mr. 
Lewey caught
him on a drag to Norfolk one night.  East of Poe on the 62-mile  tangent, Mr. 
Lewey
began to quiz the engineer,  "now if there were three yellow lights in  a 
horizontal
position on the next signal, what would that mean ?"  The engineer  told the 
Road
Foreman that he didn't know, but he always kept a rule book in his grip and  
that if
he came upon a signal he didn't recognize, he'd refer to the rule  book. 
 
The October 30, 1953 rear-ender at Wallace, VA (ICC Accident Investigation  
#3538)
is an example of what can happen when visibility is impaired  and the engine 
crew
deciphers it as a "high ball board" rather than take the safe course.
 
                                                                              
    Harry Bundy
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