Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Speaking as a train buff and rail fan, what's the best way to learn about lantern and whistle signals online?
This is the rule book we work under.a href="http://www.trainweb.com/gcor/toc.html" rel="nofollow"http://www.trainweb.com/gcor/toc.html/a It's very basic though.The whistle signals are standard though.For lantern signals that's something we teach to the new guys.The basics are in the GCOR but there are many more.Some are just variations of the standard signals.For instance a back up signal is made with a circular motion of the lantern.An easy sign to slow down is the circular motion done slower.For every easy sign we are supposed to decrease our speed by half.When you get close to a stop the trainman will give you an easy and keep the lantern held over his head and slowly wave it back and forth then go to a stop signal.Ahead signs are done the same way except that ahead signs are vertical up and down motions with the lantern.Hand signals are becoming a lost art for sure.Guys used to be able to almost talk using hand signals.If i had you in front of me i could teach you a bunch of signals,but in words it's hard to explain.A guy could tell you to shove the main to clear and hang 5 cars go to the house track and get 2 cars,go to 5 track and get 3 cars and double them to the main all without ever saying a word to you.Those days are gone as everyone depends on radios now.Up til the mid 80's we did it all with hand signals.If they tried that now the railroad would grind to a screeching halt lol.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment