North Fork Hollow Mine Run

[NW Mailing List]

Jim,

Mine runs had six-man crews. The middle brakeman of three was senior man 
and rode in the caboose with the conductor. Some short runs did not 
always have a caboose, including Algoma on the North Fork shifter and up 
Carswell Hollow on the Vivian Goat.

Backing empties downgrade into tipple delivery tracks was relatively 
easy. The track configuration was designed to make it as safe and 
efficient as reasonably possible and crews had ways of dealing with the 
caboose. Tipple carmen called "droppers" would help set brakes.

Grant Carpenter

On 12/5/2025 12:33 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> OK, I sit corrected on cabeese on mine runs. Putting it behind the 
> loco prevents those extra maneuvers I was worried about.  BUT, and 
> there's always a but, how many men made up a mine run crew?  Engineer, 
> fireman and probably a brakeman at the nucleus, anybody else?  Did the 
> mining operations supply workers to assist in the process?
> Jim Cochran
>
> On Fri, Dec 5, 2025 at 6:46 AM NW Mailing List 
> <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>
>     I've seen many pics of the caboose riding behind the engine on
>     switching moves to keep crews together.
>
>     Carl Barna
>     Emmaus, PA
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     *From:* NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> on
>     behalf of NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
>     *Sent:* Thursday, December 4, 2025 4:22 PM
>     *To:* NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
>     *Subject:* Re: North Fork Hollow Mine Run
>     Thanks Jimmy, this helps some of us modelers or others who are
>     just curious about history, who have never worked for the railroad.
>
>     Your question about "where would the crew ride" without a caboose
>     is helpful because I would not have thought of that.
>     Some of Jim C's questions are interesting to me as generalities to
>     understand the hows and whys of how things worked.
>
>     Mike Rector
>
>     On Thu, Dec 4, 2025 at 2:47 PM NW Mailing List
>     <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>
>
>         On 12/4/2025 8:19 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>         > However, Grant's information suggests that the run pulled
>         past the
>         > trailing points turnout and then backed the empties into the
>         holding
>         > track.  What was the motivation for this? Hauling a caboose
>         around
>         > through all these gyrations would have seemingly meant
>         additional
>         > moves to drop it off and pick it back up, so I am assuming
>         (and yes, I
>         > know what assuming can do) that these runs were cabooseless.
>
>         Jim,
>         First, the trains were not cabooseless! Where would the crew
>         ride?
>         Second, these crews have been switching out these plants for
>         years and
>         they know how best to do it! Trust me, they are not going to
>         do it the
>         hard way! What we don't know is everything that is on their
>         list that
>         needs to be done AND what the physical situation of cars left
>         over in
>         the tracks may be. Not knowing any of this, it is
>         inconceivable to guess
>         just how a plant needs to be switched on any given day. Sure,
>         there is a
>         basic system of working each place, but, that can easily change
>         depending on what other work needs to be done.
>
>         Jimmy Lisle
>
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