I have a switching layout, a few questions:
Was forward (oo) and reverse (ooo) blown every single time on switching moves?
When is the bell used in practice? I can't imagine they rang the bell the whole time they were switching in a yard?
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/t/46269.aspx
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
As I recall there were some experiments in the '60s with the 'aural equivalent' of flashing beacons or strobes to let switch men know where locomotives were moving when invisible from the ground in yards. As I recall they rapidly became 'noise pollution' -- and the dangerous points are the silent ends of shoves, for which there is little 'technological' solution. Bells, as noted, are either to call attention to a locomotive that is about to move, or warn that it is moving. In the days before Federal assertion of most railroad safety, there was a railroad in Mississippi which, as part of a court sentence, was required to sound bells within particular city limits -- they rigged a trip to the wheels that rang the bell continuously whenever the engine was in motion. I'm glad I didn't live there then...
The whistle signals are intended as warnings which way the train is about to move. I witnessed a delightful performance by a railroad Gradall (which as I recall was black with a PRR keystone on the cab) sounding a continuous string of little stops, forwards, and reverses on the little truck horn as the rig moved while digging. It had never occurred to me before that whistle signals applied to off-track equipment...
JaBear, thank you for the link to that thread. Great stuff! OF COURSE I'm not the first person to ask this question, should have used the search feature first.
Or you could just ring it when required:
MoPac UCOR 1968 :
Rule 30: Ringing Bell - Except where the momentary stop and start, forward or backward, are a continuous switching movement, the engine bell must be rung when the engine is about to move, and while approaching and passing public crossings at grade, stations, and through tunnels.
Minimally - Yes
About to move - Yes (unless its switching, then not required)
Passing standing trains - Not required.
Shoving cars - Not required
Approaching station - Yes
Crossing public road - Yes
Crossing parking lot, private road, driveway apron - Not required
Whatever the heck you are talking about with the F3's - Not required
5 track yard - Not required while switching.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I agree with Dave, check your rulebook.A friend of mine in high school spent a day at work. with his uncle who was a Milwaukee Road engineer in a yard in Milwaukee. He said the bell rang non stop and drove him crazy. For what it's worth. This would have been about 1972.
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
Dave and Bayfield... interesting to go read that entire link. Rule book is relative it seems. Combined with the comment that the bell never stopped ringing...
"Was forward (oo) and (ooo) blown every single time on switching moves?"
Absolutely not. A review of six prototype railroad rule books from a 1937 New York Central to a 1985/1986 General Code of Operating Rules confirmed there is no requirement for two or three horn blasts every time a locomotive moves. It does not mean "I'm about to move forward or backward, east or west", or any other direction.
The three shorts (ooo) indicates when a train is standing, back up. The 1985/1986 GCOR defines three shorts or, Rule 15f, as "Acknowledgment of Rule 8 (d), which is the hand signal for train and engine movements to back up". It is also the answer to Rule 16(c), the communicating whistle signal when a passenger train is standing, to back up or, when running, Rule 16(d), stop at the next station.
The advent of sound in model locomotives has fostered a false requirement that every time a locomotive moves in either direction, the horn must sound either two or, three short blasts, depending on direction. Imagine a large yard with three or four switchers working, blowing their horns each time they began to move! Sheer bedlam would result in action by the local authorities in the form of a cease and desist order to eliminate the noise pollution. The "authorities" could be city hall, the county court or-your significant other.
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Some engineers ring the bell more than others. If you want to ring the bell the entire time you are running trains on your layout, have at it. Its your sanity. All I can do is quote the rules and tell you what my experience was.
The rules on bell ringing are not that far apart over a hundred plus years.
P&R 1894 rules:
dehusman Or you could just ring it when required: MoPac UCOR 1968 : Rule 30: Ringing Bell - Except where the momentary stop and start, forward or backward, are a continuous switching movement, the engine bell must be rung when the engine is about to move, and while approaching and passing public crossings at grade, stations, and through tunnels. Minimally - Yes About to move - Yes (unless its switching, then not required) Passing standing trains - Not required. Shoving cars - Not required Approaching station - Yes Crossing public road - Yes Crossing parking lot, private road, driveway apron - Not required Whatever the heck you are talking about with the F3's - Not required 5 track yard - Not required while switching.
In my Canadian 1962 UCOR rule 30 is followed by rule 32:
"The unnecessary use of the whistle or the bell is prohibited. They will be used only as prescribed by rule or law, or to prevent accident."
Rule 30's text in the Canadian book varies a little as follows:
"The engine bell must be rung when the engine is about to move; while moving about stations; while passing a train standing on an adjacent track; and 1/4 of a mile from every public crossing at grade (except within the limits of such towns or cities as may be prescribed in special instructions) until the crossing is occupied by engine or freight cars."
re: continuously ringing bells... if you're operating in a busy area with a lot of traffic or people moving around on the ground the bell may be justified as a warning device to industry workers on the ground. If you're switching a yard or the back side of an industry, not needed.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
I don't know which yard in Milwaukee my friend was at, we were too young to think about such things. But he mentioned that they were not the only switcher, and that there were a lot of trains moving through/by as well.