To anyone who is interested, I found this to be a helpful website for some info.
http://www.tpub.com/content/armytransportation/
I know it is older, but I found that terms, etc have not changed.
Nance-CCABW/LEI
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” --Will Rogers
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right! --unknown
Nance, you'd only have it down if it came up!
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
What's a skate? I think it's similar to a chock but...
zardoz CShaveRR: I went out on my bike late this morning and wound up getting thoroughly sprinkled. I wish these trains carried markers! They probably should have markers, as they seem to run in sections.
CShaveRR: I went out on my bike late this morning and wound up getting thoroughly sprinkled. I wish these trains carried markers!
I went out on my bike late this morning and wound up getting thoroughly sprinkled. I wish these trains carried markers!
Nance, This site (no endorsement intended or implied) has pictures of both chocks and skates, which may serve well to illustrate the difference between the two.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
WMNB4THRTL What's a skate? I think it's similar to a chock but...
You use a chock when you want a car to stay where it is. You use a skate when switching cars, and you want a car to move some distance before it stops. Unlike roller skates or ice skates, these skates are designed to slow a car and stop it at a certain point--at which you pick the skate up and go back to skate another car with it. Please do not ask me about the coarse points, much less the fine points, of skate usage. Ask someone who uses them.
I was not aware that skates are still used until Larry indicated, with the link, that they are still manufactured and sold.
Johnny
Yup, I know of one that does for sure. That's how this particular question arose for me. (Although that is often not necessarily the case.)
Oops, second part, I meant to ask, how do you determine then where it will stop? I still don't quite get how they are used? This time, it's more than hypothetical, so I hope someone can help; thanks!
Ho-kay, this is Freddie Fleetfoot Junior, the very occasional skateman while he was working. Thank Goodness they retired that job before they retired me!
There may be threads mentioning skates in the archives, as I know I participated in some of them. But for now...
The purpose of a skate is to stop a free-rolling car that may be moving too fast to board and apply the hand brake. They provide considerably more friction underneath one wheel than no skate--and the wheel on the other end of that axle isn't going anywhere, either.
As a skate man, your job was to keep cars from rolling out of the other end of the classification bowl (except that at Proviso it wasn't a bowl--the profile was downhill all the way). Normally, bowl tracks were "posted" with a sufficient number of hand brakes to keep the cars from moving out to foul the east-end leads (that was also the skate man's job--he had to know which tracks needed how many brakes, depending on whether they got a lot of loads, rolled faster, or whatever, and tie brakes accordingly). Most of the time you were allowed to cut a couple of cars off a departing cut; those would be your "post" if you thought the brakes were working well enough. But sometimes, due to cars not being good enough to post, or too "hot" to leave behind, the track would have to be pulled clear.
If a track in the bowl was clear, you, the skate man, were required to go up into the bowl, place one skate ten carlengths from the end, and another twenty carlengths from the end. (Skates weren't all that heavy, but they were made of steel, and one carried on each shoulder would reduce your height a little!) The hump would notify you when a car was being sent down the track, and it was your job to stop it--the skates were just there to help. A car would roll up to the first skate, and hopefully the lead axle would ride it properly--if not...well, that's why there was a second skate. Then you, the skate man, would get on the car (or cars), and tie the brake, or brakes. A skate man had between 21 and 25 tracks to patrol, and make sure they stayed in the yard. Accidents did happen, and skatemen were often found responsible when a track rolled out and something happened.
Disasters would result when a skated track rolled out--a skate encountering a switch wouldn't go past the frog, but the cars might then go up and over the skate. And trust me, they almost never landed back on the rail! Occasionally a pumping joint or a gap in the rails would also catch a skate in this fashion.
Edit: Johnny, you don't pick up a skate when you've gotten the car stopped--unless you're adept at picking up the car that's sitting on top of it! It stays there until they come to couple the track, then the engine can come and move the car so the skate can be pulled off the track.
I worked a skate job one and a half times in my career. The first time was when I acquired my most serious on-the-job injury (my second in my short career, and I had 39 injury-free years after that). I had properly skated a track; they sent four loaded cars down, and I tied brakes on three of them. Now I was never known as being particularly muscle-bound, and though the brakes were tied as tightly as I could, I was concerned that more loads would be coming, and knock my post out. So I went up into the bowl, and boarded another cut of four loads, and began tying brakes. I was on the second brake (up near the roof of this 40-foot box car) when the rolling cars hit the ones I'd tied down earlier. That post didn't go anywhere! But I sure did. My feet were knocked off the handbrake platform. I held on by the roof grabiron, and the platform caught me in the thigh, causing a deep puncture wound. It didn't hurt much, but it was definitely the fastest and the mostest I'd ever bled. Fortunately, I was able to walk to my skate shanty and notify the hump yardmaster that I was hurt. I was taken by trainmaster to the hospital ER (an arriving IHB train never moved so fast to clear the East 5 crossing as when he was told somebody had to be taken to the hospital!), where the wound was swabbed out, shots (tetanus) were fired, and I was told to tie up and go home.
I did return to perform the job one more time a few months later; that was uneventful by comparison.
By the end of the 1970s, the skate jobs were eliminated; the pulldown crews were required to cut their own posts when leaving a track. If a track had to be pulled clear, arrangements had to be made to place some cars in that track in some way before it could be used.
One other method of posting a clear track was to ride cars down from the hump, and tie on the brakes. I got to be fairly experienced at that, too, but that might be a story for another time. Things were operated a lot more safely later on, but it was fewer guys doing the job a lot more slowly...production, for better or worse, would never be the same.
Located a skatebox and a carstrap & poling box station with my survey crew this weekend this weekend while BNSF gave their roadswitchers a day off. (Freddie Fleetfoot doesn't carry those things around in his back pocket). One of the two skates was missing as were the pole and carstrap. Oddly, this was not in the yard, but on an industrial lead north of town. The holder for the pole & strap was kinda neat, a modified 12" PVC Pipe, about 8 ft long with caps, mounted on a steel signpost. (Us Santa Fe folks just had hinged boxes built out of 2x16's painted yellow.
I wonder how many poles, straps and skates the local roadmaster has to buy because of the trainmaster whining about his absent minded kiddies never putting the stuff back?
It's really strange where we find IBC's, skates, poles and straps out in the middle of nowhere.
Our skates displayed migratory tendencies.
Operating practice dictated that they always be placed on the south rail (that was the side of the track on which all of the engineers and brakemen worked, from the receiving-yard shoveout people through the pin-pullers, yard clerks, and pulldown crews). So when a skate was found beneath a wheel it was just tossed alongside the track, on the south side. Its next use might be on the next track south. Eventually North Skate would run out of them completely, while they were all over the place between the southernmost track and the South Skate shanty. A messenger vehicle would easily fix that problem. I don't remember any great loss of skates (but then, I didn't work down there often). I just figured the new ones showed up when some older ones wore out.
("Freddie Fleetfoot" was the name a fellow car retarder operator--much older and seemingly more out of shape than I--gave himself when he surprised everyone and took a skate job on his day off. I mean, he did it voluntarily--who did that, ever?)
On storm watch here--hoping to ward off basement flooding as the front passes through. It won't take much to give us the wettest July on record in Chicago (officially, that is--I think the airport has gotten a lot more rain than we have). Metra trains on our line have been stopped twice due to high winds--about two hours ago and again now.
Pat and I were at the opening of the DuPage County Fair yesterday. We don't normally go to such things, but it gets a whole different flavor when our three curious, adventuresome grandchildren (and their fun-loving mother) are there with you. A lot more trains than the three we noticed must have gone past the fairgrounds while we were there; on the relatively short trips to and from the fairgrounds there were three trains apiece, including the eastbound "blade runner" we saw on our way out there. One eastbound manifest seemed extraordinarily long; the midtrain DPU added to that impression. Another eastbound manifest, though not as long, provided fodder for the addition of two entirely new files to my logs (SLRG and GLC).
CShaveRR Our skates displayed migratory tendencies.
I mentioned earlier in the month that CPR Royal Hudson 2816 had been sidelined with a cracked axle on the rear driver pair. I said then its' schedule had been cleared until July 18. As of about twelve hours ago, a posting on a Canadian forum states that the engine is still laid up, with no return date mentioned.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Jim, the skates went south all year long! The migration north had to be assisted.
Hey, Jim, I just heard that our illustrious governor is going to be helping out at a food bank in Kenosha, wearing a Packers jersey (result of a wager when the Bears and Packers played in the finals last year).
Sorry to hear about CP 2816, Bruce; hope it will be back someday (these things always take longer than expected; I suspect you'll be kissing the entire year goodbye, at least).
No time to stay trackside today, but I lucked out...two minutes at the grade crossing and I caught moving trains on each of the three tracks: westbound scoot, eastbound manifest, and eastbound auto racks. I got the feeling that the eastbounds were waiting for the scoot to be clear of the platform.
Plenty of time trackside the past two days, although the variety left something to be desired, as I only saw two trains, one of them six times.....
Conductor yesterday for train robberies, student engineer today, struggling to remember it all after a week or better out of the cab.
I'm getting lots of seat time in August. With any luck, I'll be on my own by the end of the season.
We managed to get out of Chicagoland without seeing a single train; now in the trackless wilderness (almost) of western Michigan. Limited trains, limited cell-phone service, limited Internet, limited television service: welcome aboard the 21st Century Limited!
CShaveRR ...now in the trackless wilderness (almost) of western Michigan. Limited trains, limited cell-phone service, limited Internet, limited television service: welcome aboard the 21st Century Limited!
...now in the trackless wilderness (almost) of western Michigan. Limited trains, limited cell-phone service, limited Internet, limited television service: welcome aboard the 21st Century Limited!
Well, we will have a land-line available, electricity for lights (no a/c), and our motorcar, which will occasionally be left there as we use our bikes for shorter trips. At my age, I consider our bed and a shower to be a luxury!
I actually heard a couple of trains last night in Grand Haven: probably the full extent of service on the Michigan Shore Railroad. It went southbound around midnight (Muskegon to Waverly [Holland]) and back north around 5:30 a.m. I still could remember which grade crossings they were blowing for by the distance between them.
TrainOrders.com is reporting the passing of Dick Will. Dick was one of the foremost authorities on diesel locomotive history, and is probably best known for having provided an annual motive power review to Extra 2200 South since the magazine's 1968 inception. I had some brief correspondence with him back in my days of documenting the C&O's diesel fleet; there may have been some phone conversations as well. No further details available at the moment.
We had a brand-spanking new FBOX in the yard today. Build date 7/11. Could still smell fresh paint - may have been the inaugural load.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Grab a number if you can, Tom...if you've seen one, there will probably be more.
Celebrating our arrival in the North Country with a Diet Vernor's in an internet cafe...no real news here.
Once again driving for miles to find a place I can hook up to the Internet. No railroad news of note here.
But I did find out about those new FBOX cars. They're built by National Steel Car, FBOX series 505500-506071 (572 cars...wonder why the strange quantity).
Today we're in Ludington; I'm hoping to find some interesting equipment at the Marquette Rail yard in a few minutes.
I'm guessing it's because they were X dollars apiece and FBOX had X times 572 dollars available. Or not.
Given that they overlap an "even" number, maybe they're filling in a gap.
....Boy, Carl....sounds like you're really up {out}, in the "boonies".
I have to agree with you, a good bed and shower an absolute necessity...{especially, at my age}.
And that's exactly what we have lined up starting tomorrow night in Somerset, Pa....at the Hampton Inn....Guess they do have a bit more to go along with that. Happy motoring.
Quentin
CShaveRR Once again driving for miles to find a place I can hook up to the Internet. No railroad news of note here. But I did find out about those new FBOX cars. They're built by National Steel Car, FBOX series 505500-506071 (572 cars...wonder why the strange quantity). Today we're in Ludington; I'm hoping to find some interesting equipment at the Marquette Rail yard in a few minutes.
James
The Butler Was a little surprised at the shipwrecks of Lake Michigan car ferries video they played on the voyage.
Was a little surprised at the shipwrecks of Lake Michigan car ferries video they played on the voyage.
Holy Molely!!
AgentKid The Butler: Was a little surprised at the shipwrecks of Lake Michigan car ferries video they played on the voyage. Holy Molely!! Bruce
The Butler: Was a little surprised at the shipwrecks of Lake Michigan car ferries video they played on the voyage.
Dan
The Badger still goes between Ludington and Manitowoc; it's not operated by CSX, nor does it handle railroad equipment--just passengers and motor vehicles. In fact, my daughter's family will take this as a shortcut between summer cottages later this month.
I'm surprised they had footage of any of the ferry wrecks! The wreck of the Milwaukee was in 1929.
Sorry to hear about Dick Will's passing away. Met him and the Dovers in Cincy several times in the 80's.
I don't think I met Mr. Will in person; I did meet both Don and Dan Dover at an EMD open house once. And when my first version of the C&O Diesel Review came out, back in 1981, I received a congratulatory--and highly complimentary--call from Don (those weren't easy to come by!).
Since there are no railroads close to us, we decided to drive to where we could find some. Ludington afforded a bunch of Occidental Chemical cars in the MQT yard. I had expected to see DOWX cars there, for the massive Dow Chemical facility in Ludington. And I did, in a way. All of these OCCX covered hoppers and HCPX tank cars were ex-DOWX! I suspect that the plant is no longer operated by Dow. Covered hoppers are 5250-cubic-foot, and the tank cars are probably used for calcium chloride (perhaps the covered hoppers are used for that as well, in solid form).
Then we went to Baldwin, where there were two attractions: Jones Homemade Ice Cream (same spot for nearly 70 years!) and a quilt store that Pat hadn't been in yet. On the way in, however, we discovered attraction #3: strings of stored MQT box cars! So, after quilting material, some wi-fi and good-sized waffle cones, I walked over to where they were. I didn't find any no-trespassing signs to disregard, but went right in, braving the mosquitoes and sand-burrs, and collecting data off 30 to 40 MQT 50-foot box cars. Got prior numbers off nearly all of them, by using every trick in the book: under the old paint, on the underframe, stamped on the side sills, chalked in various locations, on the truck sideframes, and even on ACI labels. Of those, I needed 23 cars in varying degrees (some I'd seen before, but without all of this info).
So today I biked over to the Silver Lake Whippy-Dip (nearest wi-fi hot spot), and am thinking about bringing Pat a whippy-dippy surprise in a few minutes.
Speaking of surprises, Nance let on to me that she'd had a birthday recently...either yesterday or today. I can't send e-mails in spite of the wi-fi, so I don't know which.
Back to civilization in three days or so.
Thanks, Carl! It's today. Good thing I didn't have a cake, as the fire dept hates having to do stand-by for such occasions.
Glad you are getting some fun stuff in! Do enjoy your R&R, even if it's a little light in the RR dept!
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