Month: February 2020

Another craft superseded by technology, automation: Switch-tenders and grade-crossing guards.  The grade separation story about Oklahoma City last February included pictures of grade-crossing shanties.  Some were rather elaborate, and a certain “ownership” was obvious.  Note the Good-Luck horseshoe over the doorway in the picture above, along with the bench for outdoor comfort.

Many if not most of those positions were filled by employees injured on the job. These men were able to remain employed, and achieve their deserved retirement benefits. 

The handy broom hanging on the wall does double duty, sweeping dirt out the door, and snow out of switch-points. Switch-Tenders received their instructions for routing incoming trains from the Yardmaster.  They usually assisted the “herder” with departing trains.

In my home-town, Tacoma, Washington, there was an elevated tower on the double-track that crossed Pacific Avenue, perhaps the busiest street in town.  On double track these towers had to be high enough to monitor the movements on both tracks.  For years the gentleman manning that tower had a warning system alerting him of snoopy inspectors.  He used fish-line to serve as a trip-wire on the steps leading to this elevated tower, whereupon anyone coming up the stairs would jiggle tin-cans or bottles.  That way he could wake-up, and/or quickly hide his bottle.

The switchman shanty at East End in the Cheyenne yard is visible behind the smoke and steam escaping from the boiler pressure relief valves.   A similar arrangement existed at the other end of the huge yard.  – Gary Ostland

Credits:  Shanty – Emil Albrecht photo, Don Strack collection,   #9040, a three-cylinder 4-12-2 – photo by James L. Ehernberger

Credits:    Photo of NYC Hudson #5403 by noted photographer, the late Phil Hastings as seen in Classic Trains, Summer 2014.  Notice how Hastings managed to get a silhouette of the engineer, usually unseen in pictures of the left side. Text by Robert S. McGonical, Editor of Classic Trains, used verbatim.  Bob’s right, other than a short visit in the cab of UP’s excursion locomotive #844 in the Summer of 2004, I cannot recall the last time I’ve responded to “come-on-up.”   In that same magazine were six accounts in “Tales from the Cab.”  Great stuff.

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Those three words – used almost universally by engineers to invite visitors into their locomotive cabs – are among the most thrilling a train-watcher can hear.  They signal access, however temporary, to the most alluring of railroading’s inner sanctums.

Although we may also be drawn to other places, some that reveal even more about how a railroad functions – dispatcher’s office, caboose, boardroom, backshop, interlocking tower – none of these matches the engine cab for its combination of public visibility, crew-only exclusivity, and sheer excitement.

Spend enough time around the railroad, and circumstances eventually tend to result in invitations to visit, or even ride in, engine cabs. For most of us, these are rare glimpses into a realm to which we’ve been attracted since childhood.  Memories of these occasions stand like trophies on our mental mantelpiece.

Today, an increased emphasis on safety and security are threatening to make those “Come on up” moments extinct.  In any case, the cab experience for crews in vastly different now” steam locomotives are gone, employees are fewer, equipment is more uniform.  – Gary Ostlund