Hangy down thingies!

[Mookie]

You just knew this was from The Mookie didn't you!

Get your Classic Trains Magazine out and turn to page 38 - I'll wait!

What are the hangy down thingies?

Thank you!

Back to work, now....

Mookie

Oh - for you that don't get Classic Trains - you don't know what you are missing!

[CShaveRR]

Hey, Sis!

Those are "tell-tales" (or is it "tell-tails"?). They were a warning to anyone walking the tops of freight cars (back in the days when that was allowed or even necessary) to lie low--a clearance problem was just ahead (in this case it would be the bridge on which the photographer was standing). Nowadays there's no reason to be on the roof of moving equipment, so you don't see them.

[eolafan]

Hey Mook, is "Hanging Down Thingies" one of those new fangled techie terms?

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

You just knew this was from The Mookie didn't you!

Get your Classic Trains Magazine out and turn to page 38 - I'll wait!

What are the hangy down thingies?

Thank you!

Back to work, now....

Mookie

Oh - for you that don't get Classic Trains - you don't know what you are missing!

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR

Hey, Sis!

Those are "tell-tales" (or is it "tell-tails"?). They were a warning to anyone walking the tops of freight cars (back in the days when that was allowed or even necessary) to lie low--a clearance problem was just ahead (in this case it would be the bridge on which the photographer was standing). Nowadays there's no reason to be on the roof of moving equipment, so you don't see them.

I told my driver I thought....sort of.....that might be what they were. I think someone told me that before, but the Mook's gray matter is getting a few holes here and there - so couldn't remember. I never even thought of the photographer - I guess I just think they are taken by aliens flying low! I get involved in the photo and forget how it came to be.

Thanx Brother Carl - tell Mom Hi!

Sis

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by eolafan

Hey Mook, is "Hanging Down Thingies" one of those new fangled techie terms?

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

You just knew this was from The Mookie didn't you!

Get your Classic Trains Magazine out and turn to page 38 - I'll wait!

What are the hangy down thingies?

Thank you!

Back to work, now....

Mookie

Oh - for you that don't get Classic Trains - you don't know what you are missing!

I am so glad I get to answer a question instead of ask! The hangy down thingies are related to the yellow thingies. There are some more thingies out there and I need to go find them!

Mookie

[dharmon]

MlM,

You got me all excited for a moment...I thought this was going to be the Victoria Secret thread [}:)]...ah but alas you were talking about tell tales.....[:(]

[edblysard]

Hummm, most of what I see in the Victoria's Secret cataloge dosnt hang down, they sorta all shove up and out...
as Martha say's, "thats a good thing"
Ed[:D]

[mudchicken]

CShaveRR:

Tell tales are not obsolete, they just have a new purpose and they are now hooked into the signal system and operate similar to a slide fence (and some high water detectors)....set the circuit up so that a wire passes through the "clearance envelope" and is broken if struck by any object. Broken circuit = red signal) The tell tales now tend to reside just out of yard limits to warn the train crews, the dispatchers and the car inspectors that they just overlooked something. (i.e.- look up!)

You apparently see few double stacks with 19'-2" ATR minimum clearance trying to fit through a tunnel or thru-truss bridge that can only fit through a 18'-6" envelope ??? Or low hanging overpasses like the ones they crash auto-racks into.....For 'da Mookster's benefit on another post, this is why there are Bamboo Peacocks (Clearance cars, the old fashioned kind - the new ones (Sperry) use photogrammetric means to determine clearance from a measuring fram mounted on a special piece of track machinery)

Mudchicken

ps - I thought the "yellow thingies" were re-railing frogs mounted on a switch engine truck. The relationship between the two is really a stretch! (now if we could just get MLM's e-mail server to accept attached photo files!)

[Anonymous]

In London they have a different kind of height detector. Because parts of the "tube lines" (smaller clearence, mostly round tunnels) are shared with "subsurface" (larger trains, runs closer to the surface, in older tunnels), or even mainline (as in "not London Underground"), there has to be SOME way to keep the overheight trains from smashing themselves in the tube. A metal gantry with u-shaped glass tubes hanging from it lies over the track, just before the last platform before the tunnel. An overheight train will smash it, causing red signals to appear, and cutting the power. So far none of these have been tripped.

~Ra'akone

[CShaveRR]

Mr. Mudchicken,

I'm familiar with clearance detectors in which a blocked beam of light will set signals against a train (we used to have one of those in the days before double-stacks; they improved the clearances on the line after that). I believe there's still a similar device on Amtrak's line out of Porter, to protect the drawbridge at Michigan City.

But there are no thingies hanging down on those.

I remember seeing the Clinchfield's clearance car (which was ex-C&O, for the other freight car freaks). Nowadays laser technology for measuring clearances is employed, instead of measuring deflection in the "sticky-out-thingies" (have to lend some support to my sis!). Mom says "hi".

[Anonymous]

Oh, I'm sorry my mind is in the gutter. [:p][:0] Hi everybody!!!!!!! I;m still here, and back working after being off 10 months. Same Marty different day [:D][8D]

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by drailed1999

Oh, I'm sorry my mind is in the gutter. [:p][:0] Hi everybody!!!!!!! I;m still here, and back working after being off 10 months. Same Marty different day [:D][8D]

Hi Marty!!!!! [:D] I am so glad you are back!!!! I looked for you awhile back and mused that you might be out fighting fires! You were definitely on the missing list!

Welcome Home!

Mookie