Railroading Odd Occupation, Odd Language, Hard to explain Part 1 in Tales of the Jointed Track

Railroads in general, you see them, you curse them when held at a railroad crossing. I have been there, mostly on the "railroad" end of the equation.

How many people have you met that are actual railroaders? Engineers, Conductors, Switch men?, we are a rare breed, but there are a lot of us. Me I have been retired for almost 2 years. I railroaded for forty years. Where did the time go? I don't know, I was 19 years old about 3 minutes ago. I am almost 62 now, and retired at 60 years of age.

When I hired out on the Santa Fe, it was in transition, the hours of service changed from 14 hours to 12 hours on duty. It used to be 16 hours, but at this writing it remains at 12 hours, and I have been there many times . You'd think , why does it take that long to get over the road? Many factors come into play, dispatching plays a big part. Trains get finalled into a terminal, and that sparks several events.

On duty call time, direction and crew districts, a crew available?, if not rested, an extra board build up needed? Power, is the inbound consist need to be fueled at the Roundhouse facility, or is there mainline fueling available. Is the power running and performing or are there defects coming in. Have those been reported or at the last minute, problems are now being disclosed. Does the power go through or is it being relayed, meaning a new consist will come into play at the terminal. The train itself, is it a run through or an origination? If a run through is it a unit train or a train that picks up and sets out at the terminal. Are there bad orders, discovered en route, or by the 1000 mile inspection that need to be set out?

Okay power or cars.. who will be doing the setting out or the pick up? Hostlers are they available, or will the new outbound crew, do the power work, ie: go to the DSF ( Diesel Service Facility) and pick up the consist for the train. Is the inbound crew making the set out? Do they have time?

On Paper for? :

On the Santa Fe if there were no crews or no power for a train, regardless of terminal or origination, could be an outside assignment, it was on "paper". Who made that term?, I don't know, but you didn't have the crew and/or the power to operate the train, for scheduled departure.

I have been on both ends of the spectrum. I have been on the end of "one of them non rested crews", and bet yer bottom dollar, we'd get called on rest, guaranteed. Home terminal or the away terminal, warm living breathing, qualified..a locomotive cab near you, is waiting for yer ass to take it away.

On the management end, that too is a nightmare. You plan for availability, you can't plan for layoffs, you're working toward a plan, plus or minus, and how the terminals ( the origination's) operate. You have them or you don't. The priority trains are first, the drags, locals and switch jobs are next. But again, certain locals that turn into Red Ball freights, or cause shutdown conditions for the customer, well another ball game.

Hi Ball:

I have used that term. I still use it today, but those that know me, know that it means go, or do it, or go for it. Where did that term come from?

In the early days of railroading, and where a rule needed to be in effect, there was a "Ball" signal. It was usually where one railroad crossed over another. The ball signaled, the okay to proceed through the route or stop and flag as needed. It was a manual operation. It was situated on a pole, and had a pulley system. If you encountered the ball sitting high on the pole that was a high ball, you proceeded through without stopping. If if was near the ground you stopped, lowered the other ball, raised the ball to the top for your route, waited the appropriate time, which was mostly five minutes, or depending on system instructions or General Order. Most Ball signals were on non signaled train order territory, so you were obligated to be prepared to stop, until the signal was clearly seen.

https://sp3.yimg.com/ib/th?id=HN.608047093055950175&pid=15.1&P=0

Big Hole / Wiping the Clock:

This is a term that means that a train has gone into and emergency air brake application. It was either initiated by the Engineer, ( or the brakeman or now Conductor) either via the automatic brake valve or the emergency brake handle on the fireman's side. Now it is the Conductors side, but hey I am old school. The application of the emergency brake could have come from the caboose when we had 'em or due to a separation of the air hose in the train somewhere.

That can occur to many factors, like a low hanging air hose striking the crossing planks at a road crossing, or train separation, due to draw bar or knuckle failure, or a kicker.

A kicker is when a set is made on the train, and a control valve hangs up and doesn't reduce, along with the drop in brake pipe pressure. Then after the train line starts to equalize, it suddenly moves to the application process. Problem it moves so quickly, it makes a significant reduction, and the drop in pressure is more than 1.5 lbs in less than ten seconds, and it triggers the emergency.

The old No.6 brake valve was the first brake valve for the railroad industry. Some of the old GP-7's, GP-9's, and various switch engines had them. Unless restored and working at a museum railroad, or a rare short-line. They are non existent today. On the back of the "body" of the brake valve was a hole, an orifice capable of making that severe drop of brake pipe pressure.

Hence the "Big Hole". The modern equipment the remaining 24-RL, 26-L, the desk top pneumatic air brake valves and the electric relay computer controlled valves have them as well. The ETD's ( End Of Train Device) has a relay that will open the valve up, so the engineer can apply an emergency from the rear as well.

Wiping the clock, well that is when the engineer places it into emergency from the brake valve.

There were gauges with hands on them. The two prominent were the furthest left had a Main reservoir dial and the Equalizing reservoir. The red hand was the Main reservoir was the read of what your air supply was. You want it between 130 to 140 psi. The white hand was the Equalizing reservoir. That's what you watched when you set your air. So Your operating brake pipe fro freight is what? Oh did you not pay attention? lol It is 90 psi on the engine, so if you make a 10 lbs reduction, you place the brake valve handle to cause a set, and move till the Equalizing reservoir needle gets to 80 psi. There is you 10 lbs set. Why did it no go into emergency? The equalizing reservoir is the main reason, because you have the reduction in that equalizing reservoir, and the brake-pipe follows at a service rate. That is a gradual reduction, not a drastic one. So think of a service application as a steady controlled reduction, ad Emergency as a drastic one ...

The other gauge was Brake pipe and independent air brake pressure. brake pipe was red Independent was white. Plus Independent did what? another quiz !!! That was your locomotive air brake. That controlled the locomotives independently of the train air (automatic brake valve). It responded to the train sets, there was a "bail" feature that removed that set off the locomotive braking. There are times you need to have the train braking, and not the power along with them. It's train handling, territory, signals etc... another story .

So when you wiped the "Clock" The Equalizing Reservoir and the Brake-pipe went to zero. Main reservoir stayed steady. Independent would rise... bail and regulate with the independent brake valve so as not to flatten wheels. locomotive air brake cylinder is higher than the freight cars. Why? cause the freight cars brake on their own in conjunction to the set. Locomotive consists are usually 1500 to 3600 tom, power only with no train behind them.

There was always that "crude" joke with the old head .. about the big hole. I won't relate here but ask in private and I'll relate. Don't want to offend my confused readers... I am technical..and try to make it understandable.

Happy Fourth all my thanks