Working on the railroads (Part 5) Safety First
A role in the running trades; as engineman/driver, conductor, brakeman, trainman and switchman is fraught with danger. While there is no end in recorded railway history of accidents, mishaps, catastrophes, fatalities and other related events it is a great career and rewarding in many ways. True, there is shift work aplenty, fatigue that drapes the railwayman and woman at times like a parachute enfolding over them.
Occasionally, there are indignities and crude behaviour to be witnessed. There are crappy bosses and work rules, rites and decrees that don’t make sense. There is a kind of poetry, though, a timeless feeling as your train winds its way through the canyon on a moonlit night or across the broad prairie as day breaks. Sometimes you connect to the national dream. There were days on the railroad I felt joy, the good vibes and goodwill of fellow employees. I thought it the best job ever on sunny, warm days working outside. The work was good, even in the cold. You get to meet and work with fine people, some become friends for life.
It’s been a great working life and I wouldn’t change it for anything. I’ve had the blessed experience of working in the rail industry on two continents, Canada and Australia, and while there are considerable differences between the two in culture and mode the object of the game is the same. I will try to explore some of the quirkiness and traditions of the railway life with a portion dedicated to safety and prevention of harm.
I have known many a good railwayman who has lost an arm or leg as the result of a significant accident on the job. Those I knew who returned to work in different roles continued to contribute a good work ethic and sharing of their knowledge despite harrowing life-changing experiences. I have also worked with and knew far too many souls who have lost their lives on the job. This story is dedicated all of these good people.
Tragically, on Monday, June 1, just this past week, a young switchman was killed on the job in Thornton Yard, located in Surrey, B.C., a place I worked for many years. His death has left a young widow and child to go on without him.
God knows I have had my share of close calls and I have thanked my lucky stars for escaping serious injury during my career. I sustained a lower back strain injury and a few scrapes and bruises, know what it’s like to fall flat on your face and chronic bursitis in both shoulders which healed once I stepped away from active physical railway service and that’s it. Most of the time I was in a hurry or trying to take a shortcut. What the hell for, I asked myself later? As a young family man I wanted to have life insurance for my wife and our children. It was incredibly pricey simply because of the risks on the job. I’m retired now after nearly 46 years in the game.
On numerous occasions I would hear this: “The Rules are written in blood.” This annoyed the hell out of me for the longest time but there is a certain plain raw truth to it. So many rules and instructions have been developed as the result of accident and injury, and worse.
The industry has evolved and much of the equipment; motive power (locomotives) and rolling stock has simply gotten bigger and heavier and in the case of locos, much more powerful.
Consider the saga of the brakeman; a job as dangerous as any and where so many fatalities and serious injuries have occurred through the years. They were exposed to the weather elements, running atop moving train cars and on command of the engine whistle signal from the hoghead or hogger (engineman) began with their hickory stick (when provided) applying hand brakes on individual wagons. Trains had no air brakes in the early years.
In time, the hand brake contraption was improved. Initially, it was a horizontally configured wheel attached to a vertical stem which was secured to the end of the car with a chain at the bottom, which when turned and applied, would pull brake shoes or blocks against the wheels. Before there were air brakes throughout a train consist the individual handbrake on each car had to be applied when a reduction in train speed or coming to a stop was required.
In the frames above we see that the hand brake apparatus has been lowered and placed closer to the ground. This was mandated throughout the industry beginning in the late 1970’s and greatly improved safety. As a new employee starting in 1972, I well remember climbing up to the inside of a boxcar to apply one of the old stem-winder type hand brakes. Today, you would see them only in a railway museum.
In the last two rows photos we can see that the crew member on the left is using safe and proper technique in applying the brake. She would have climbed onto the car using the step sill and ladder on the outside of the car and then swung and shifted her body position around to the end of the car. With her left hand on the railing and both feet securely placed and with her right foot on the brake platform she can begin applying the brake. He right hand grasps the outside of the wheel rim and she can pull it towards her keeping some flex in her knees while taking care not to strain her back.
The crew member in the second and bottom right image, however, is doing it all wrong. First, she is attempting the procedure while standing on the ground. Her right hand is on the coupler and quite vulnerable should be there an unintended movement of the equipment. In this scenario she could suffer serious injury if there was a contact and possibly lose her hand. Next, she appears to have both feet inside and between the rails and she could trip over and/or be trapped if she had to egress quickly. Her left arm and shoulder and back, for that matter, could also incur injury or strain with this stretched attempt to apply the brake. If, for any reason, the brake wheel disengaged/released and spun counter-clockwise she could also sustain injury.
In the photo at the top left of this sequence, you can see two brakemen or switchmen standing on the roof of a boxcar. This was a standard practice even in the 1970’s and I remember clearly shoving/propelling a string of 30 or more loaded wheat boxes out to the grain elevators situated on the south shore of Burrard Inlet on the Vancouver Waterfront. Buckerfield’s, United Grain Growers (UGG), Pacific and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool were just a few situated on both sides of the inlet.
The field man (helper) would be “high” on the leading car being pushed by the loco, the foreman would also be on the roof and somewhere along the middle of the consist relaying hand signals and the pin puller, or junior helper, would go high on the end ladder of the car next to the loco and from that perch relay these signals to the engineman. It was necessary to do this because Roger’s B.C. Sugar Refinery, aka “The Sugar House’, obscured a direct view from the leading car to the engine around the left hand bend in the track.
Walking or jogging along this running board required skill, balance and a bit of savvy, particularly when jumping from one car to another. Doing this in the rain or snow added an element of treachery and risk, of course, we would have to steady ourselves to get a good hand grip on the top rung of the ladder as we either climbed up or descended from the car. In time, this practice was banned. The introduction of hand held radios made this possible.
Air brakes were developed and introduced by a genius from New York state named George Westinghouse (1846-1914). His air brake design was patented in 1869 and revolutionized the industry. Numerous modifications and improvements have been made in the years since. He invented about 400 other devices during his lifetime.
Release Control Retainer Valves are a critical feature of the train braking system. They were designed to retard the amount and rate of air pressure being released from individual cars within the train consist when the engineer places the automatic brake valve into release position. Train brakes cannot be recharged unless the auto brake valve is in release. The retainer is a device which requires manual setting by a train crew member and they are set on a specified number of cars by decree or instruction prior to trains negotiating a long steep decline in track grade. There are three positions; Direct Exhaust (normal operations), High Pressure Retain and Slow Direct, and these provide an element of train braking control and safety in order to prevent trains from becoming a runaway.
In the photo sequence below, middle image in the top row we see a brakeman from a bygone era setting a retainer from the roof of the car. This is a highly dangerous activity given that if undertaken while the train is moving any slack occurring between cars if the train is “bunched” (slowed) or “stretched” (sped up) may jolt the crew member down between cars and most likely to his death. This equipment has also been relocated at lower and safer places on rolling stock.
The coupling and uncoupling of rail cars is one of those key and essential tasks on the railroads. Cars are switched and shunted and marshalled constantly in making up or breaking down a train consist, spotting a customer siding, switching the repair tracks (rips), shunting a bad order car from a train once en route in through freight service and so on. It’s a never ending activity in rail yards.
The free-shunting of rail cars is banned throughout Australia and these must be propelled and brought to a stand and secured against unattended movement before being uncoupled.
There are proper and improper ways to do it. Here’s a bit of background:
Coupling & Uncoupling Rail Cars — safety effective tutorial from YouTube
Coupling Rail Cars — done unsafely (crew member poor technique in coupling air hoses and cutting in air brake — in very vulnerable position, should have turned body with left leg up tight against air hose before opening angle cock, if hoses under charged air pressure had parted could have resulted in serious injury)
Handling and lining switches and points — a key element of the job of a railroad employee is handling switches. There are many kinds, hand throw, dual-control, and remote control.
Here’s a personal story. I was 18 years old. In my first week on the job in Vancouver in October, 1972, I caught a transfer job from Port Mann Yard (later name-changed to Thornton Yard) to Vancouver Main Yard, actually the adjacent Glen Yard, a rather compact staging yard for grain deliveries to the waterfront. We had 58 grain loads, if I remember correctly as there was a rather steep grade descending into Glen Yard. The car limit was imposed for safe train handling purposes account the gross weight pushing the movement down the grade. We had three 4200 or 4400 series locos, maybe it was five, no longer am I certain. They had “long hood leading”, with the operating cab set back near the rear of the locomotive and I will stand corrected on this but I understood that the unit was configured this way to provide an added of protection for the train crew in the event of collision.
Anyways, it was a late evening job which I accepted off the Spareboard, where all new employees were assigned. I enjoyed the Spareboard because it provided so much variety all around the sprawling Greater Vancouver Terminal. The engineman and I were ordered for around 2200 hours and we both would have taken the call to work by telephone. Of course, I was green as hell but I managed to guide our locomotive consist by lantern signals from the shop track to the track where our transfer consist was stored. This was the time before radio coms on yard and transfer crews. Once we got our train together and air brake tested and made arrangements with the Fraser River Bridge Operator (It’s a swing span) and the BN (Burlington Northern — before BNSF days) Dispatcher located in New Westminster, we got underway.
I think the trip into Glen Yard takes perhaps a half hour or so, typically. We travel through New West, Burnaby and into Vancouver en route as we approach the big hill down into Glen Yard. If I am correct the falling grade is somewhere between 1.5 and 2 per cent. I remember the engineer telling me we had to take care running down the hill as the train could get away on us. He had also consumed a few beers I could tell. I was a bit concerned, to be honest. Truthfully, that was not unusual in those days. Enjoyed a few brews on the job myself back in the day.
The main track veers to the right at the bottom of the hill with a hand throw switch located a few hundred feet from the bend. This switch provides the diverge into Glen Yard where we would stable our train. There have been instances where the engineer overshoots this switch and this is really a nuisance and requires a very time consuming alternative method to getting the train put away. The engineer said to me, “Better get ready to run, kid.” Up I leapt, switch keys in hand and with the correct key singled out (we were assigned different keys for the three main railways operating in Vancouver) I opened the door on the left side of the cab and made my way up the running board to the front of the locomotive and climbed down on the steps.
I could move quickly in those years and I hit the ground running and sprinted to the switch as though my life depended on it, opened the lock, lifted the switch handle and pulled it across the quadrant and down again just as the locos went by me in the dark. I put the lock back in its loop atop the handle and climbed on the trailing end of the leading locomotive as it rolled by. The loco towered over me and seemed like it might topple over on top of me if I had been one second later getting the switch points over. The track is also banked on the curve so the train “leans”. The engineer said something to me like “Way to go, kid.” I aged about two years in those few minutes. I didn’t particularly like being scared to death but I had such fun on the job, I loved it.
Train Orders — I got my first taste of train order operations in 1980 when I first moved to Prince George, B.C., as a trainman, from Vancouver where I spent the previous eight years of my railway career. Down on the Lower Mainland (aka Vancouver), CTC (Centralized Traffic Control) was in effect on CN, Canadian Pacific and BN (Burlington Northern) lines and this signal system is the modern replacement for train orders method of operation.
Train Order Operation described the superiority of trains where time table, class, direction and scheduling of trains prevailed — in other words, you had better be the hell clear of a “superior” train such as the passenger if you were operating in the opposing direction or ahead of in the same direction and running on its time, and by not less than five minute. If you were running ahead of a superior train and unable to get clear a crew member drop off their train to provide flagging protection to the rear.
Being ultra vigilant about the correct time and passage of time was absolutely critical and railway employees had to check and compare time with crew mates before going to work.
On my first trip west as a brakeman on the Nechako Subdivision, westward out of PG, the conductor gave me a sheath of train orders, complete with clearance, asked me to look through them and if I thought they were all in order. I replied to the effect, “Looks good to me.” Wrong answer. The bastard had removed one of the orders and put it inside his jacket. He pulled it out. Lesson learned. Check and check again. The train clearance docket accompanies the orders and lists them as a sort of covering page.
I was at first a little overwhelmed at first by this mode of train operation but eventually got the hang of it, it was important. Train Order Operation was in effect for about 150 years and I believe the curtain finally fell on it about 10 years ago in North America. CTC and other modified codes are now in effect. There were so many train order locations across the network, each with their own residence and office and they were occupied by operators or agents who copied and delivered the train orders from train dispatcher to train crews.
One day in PG, I was working as the foreman on a 1400 yard assignment called the Huble Turn. We would deliver loads of wood chips and empty boxcars for the Northwood Pulp Mill to the interchange yard about 10 miles away heading east on the Fraser Sub. near the siding named Shelley. Anyways, I remember having this mighty sheath of 36 train orders to travel merely 10 miles requiring us to protect against so many regular time tabled trains and I went to the General Yardmaster and told him, “We aren’t going to get away from the yard today, there are just too many trains out there we have to stay clear of.”
These photo images are shown following.
If the train order signal was green and the armature vertical you shot through, all clear; if it was at 45 degree angle and yellow the crew would receive orders “on the fly” and if red, or horizontal, the train would stop and the crew receive restrictive orders at that point. It was kind of neat to feel the “thoop” from the hoop on your arm as it went through the hoop and collected up the delivery from the operator.
I feel fortunate to have had this experience of working with train orders in my railway career before it vanished into obsolescence.
We know that accidents happen. In every industry this is so and the railroad is no exception. Sometimes the employees err, other times the plant fails, occasionally Mother Nature gets angry and blows her stack. Tragically, lives can be lost and great damage to property may occur.
There is humour and sarcasm aplenty on the railroads:
Thank you for reading, it’s appreciated. Next up — Hand Signals and Jargon