I posted the following pic in another thread about painting undecorated shells:
Was this a common practice among yard switcher crews? Would be a cool detail to add.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Nobody I ever worked with hung their lantern like that. Perhaps it was to satify the rule regarding displaying a red light in a conspicuous place to the rear if the locomotive was shoving behind a long cut or another train on the main track. I can't tell the color of the globe in the photo. Note there are no class or marker lights in the brackets at the end of the hand rails. Maybe they forgot about it when they tied up and just left it there.
The guys I worked with would have swiped it by now.
Charlie
Thanks for the reply, Charlie. I forgot to add that the picture was taken in Chicago in Nov '46.
Tlom
What's that interesting detail on top of the cab?
maxman What's that interesting detail on top of the cab?
Auxiliary sanding.
It's fascinating what NYC could do with Basic Black plus a really cool font!
Ed
Lanterns in engine service had heavy, weighted bases to help keep them from tipping and sliding around too much.
Guys in train service wouldn't lug around all that extra weight.
Studying photos from "back-in-the-day" I'm often amazed at how much work had to be done in the dark, or very nearly so, as anyone who has used a kerosine lantern for illumination can attest.
Photos of yards and engine service areas show that they had very few light fixtures installed. Walking must have been pretty treacherous at times.
Regards, Ed
Depending on the era and exact locomotive you want to model, there was a period when the NYC installed flashing yellow beacon lights on the cab roofs of some yard engines. A fellow who used to be GYM at Collinwood told me that the official line was safety, but the flashing lights made it hard for the crews to hide at night. It took the yard crews only a few days to figure out that an empty coffee can would cover the light perfectly and enable them to elude detection.
charlie9The guys I worked with would have swiped it by now. Charlie
Absolutely! As a student brakeman on the PRR I made a mistake by leaving my Starlite unattended and it disappeared probably before I entered the break shack for coffee.
I had to endure a 20 minute lecture from the stores clerk about leaving my Starlite unattended and how costly they were to the Company.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Since it looks like the photo might have been taken on an engine servicing track, the lantern might have a blue globe - although blue lights were usually displayed lower rather than up around the headlight.
So a blue light would indicate a locomotive was out of service?
A blue signal, could be a flag or a lamp or both, was used to protect mechanical forces working on equipment from the equipment being coupled to or moved. From my observation, the surest way to get yourself in trouble on the railroad was to get caught violating the blue flag rule.
DSO17From my observation, the surest way to get yourself in trouble on the railroad was to get caught violating the blue flag rule.
"You're fired" would be the correct answer even when I started railroading in August of '66. Railroads may have looked over minor safety rule violations back then with a slap on the hand and a notation in your service record but,not a blue flag infraction. The offending crew would be taken out of service on the spot and would remain "out of service" until the investigation.
I never seen a blue flag that high up.. The head crew would probably walk by it and not see it. Place a blue flag on the grab irons by the steps or between the rails and they will see it because that's the normal location..
7j43k maxman What's that interesting detail on top of the cab? Auxiliary sanding. SNIP Ed
SNIP
I think that is a sand tower, but I think it's just lined up in the pic that way, not actually on the loco.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Mike,
I'm 99 & 44/100s sure maxman and Ed's comments were meant to be tongue 'n cheek. At least I found them humerous.
I appreciate the comments, fellas. Noticed something else.
From the various pics of the NYC SW1s on the Fallen Flag site, there seems to be three distinct exhaust stack types: straight, tapered, and tapered/covered:
I found both straight and tapered stacks for all years of the NYC SW1s - i.e. 40s, 50s, and 60s. The covered stacks seemed to be more common to the 60s.
Thanks for the input.
Tom,That is a spark arrestor.. A lot of NYC switchers had those as well as NYC's GP7/9 and RS3s.
Thanks, Larry. I was wondering if that might be the spark arrestor but mistakenly had it my mind that it was smaller in size.
Were cabooses stacks outfitted with those, as well. Or, was it just a cover?
NYC's cabboses had a "T" shape stack.. I suspect that was for coal sparks and to keep the weather out of the stove.