Elliston Feb 1953 - Oddball Left-Handed Signal - WHITE FLAGS

[NW Mailing List]

 Thanks, Abe, for your recitation of "blowing green." That was something my father taught me 77 years ago, and it was nice to see that somebody else was familiar with it.
Jim Nichols
    On Saturday, July 15, 2023 at 12:22:18 PM EDT, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:  
 
    Since Herr Comrade Lisle likes the idea of using the display of the headlight to date photographs, I will offer one more item.       Notice that the 2148 in the subject photograph is carrying Classification Signals, i.e. white flags and white classification lamps upon the engine.  White Classification Signals indicated that the train was an Extra, i.e. not a train scheduled in the Time Table.       Another color used for a Classification Signal was Green.  If regular (i.e. scheduled) train were to be run in sections (e.g. First 53, Second 53, Third 53,) all sections except the last would "Carry Green."  This was a notice to all other trains that another section of the train was following, and to exercise diligence accordingly.   So important was the matter of other trains recognizing that a regular train was running sections, that a special whistle signal was required.  Every train displaying Green Classification Signals was required to blow one long and two shorts to every other train or engine met or passed, and the train met or passed was required to return the same whistle signal as an acknowledgement.       I can remember No. 3 leaving Roanoke in sections and "whistling signals" to every other engine encountered, until No. 3 was out of my earshot.  And, of course, all those whistled to returned the whistle salute.  (Attorney Bongiovani over on the Virginian would probably call these parties the Whistle-or and the Whistle-ee.)       Sometime around 1954, 1955 or 1956, "the display of White Signals by Extra trains" was discontinued where Rules 251 or 261 were in effect.  Let's unpack that language...       Rule 251 stats that, on tracks so specified in the Time Table, trains would proceed on signal indication.  (The double track portions of the Norfolk and Radford Divisons had been operated under Rule 251 for years, but each track had a Current of Traffic, i.e. it was signaled only for movement in one direction.)  In effect, where Rule 251 was in effect, a train not scheduled in the Time Table did not need a Train Order as its authority to operate on the Main Track - signal indication was the authority.       To expand on this principle of "operation by signal indication,"  Rule 261 addressed the situation of a track on which bi-directional signaling had been installed, and could apply to either single track or double track railroad.  Rule 261 states that on portions of the railroad so specified in the Time Table, trains will proceed on signal indication which will SUPERSEDE THE SUPERIORITY OF TRAINS FOR MOVEMENT IN EITHER DIRECTION.  This meant that the superiority of trains by Schedule, Right, Class or Direction,  and the requirement of either a Time Table schedule or a Train order as the authority for movement, were all out the window.  In 261 territory, if you get the signal, you go irregardless of other trains.       The above sounds like an exercise in tediousness, but it is the conceptual nits-and-bolts of how trains operate on signaled Main Tracks.  (I seriously doubt that the NS has any remaining main tracks where operation is by Rule 251.)  If you "like trains," I seriously suggest you figure out this material on Rules 251 and 261.  For any professional railroader, the first question in his mind is, What rules are in effect on this track I am operating on?       Sometime around 1954, 1955 or 1956, the N&W discontinued "the display of White Signals by Extra trains" where Rules 251 or 261 were in effect.   But the 2148, in our photo is still displaying White Classification Signals, i.e. it is running as an Extra.       Which means we need to figure out when the N&W dropped the requirement for the display of White Signals on tracks where Rule 251 or 261 was in effect.       << As an addendum:  The display of White and Green Classification Signals continued on the Punkin Vine right up until CTC (Rule 261, the movement of trains in either direction by signal indication) was implemented in the 1970s.  But this was necessary because the meets were still arranged by Train Order and northward trains were still superior by direction to southward trains. >>        So, just WHEN was the display of White Classification Signals withdrawn on the N&W ?  Knowing that date may help in dating some more photographs.       -- abram burnett   American Turnip & Rutabaga Cartel       ________________________________________
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