prototype switching?

[mikemike]

my mom's dad is gone, and i can't ask him -- he was gone before i was born -- about some particular points of operation of US and Canadian freight trains?

here's my specific problem -- in Trainz, with a point to point of coal from mine to power plant, how much time is realistically given to turning the engine, the train -- particularly little things like how is the caboose swapped in a small yard or simple collection of spurs, with no other caboose available?

if it's not an issue of rapid turn around -- would it have ever been, in the 1930's say? -- and the schedule ran to the next day? would that much driver-pay and coal energy been consumed to run the caboose around? is that how it was understood that that's the way to run a railroad... that things took some time to set up -- factored into the operating costs against pricing structure? that the railroad worked because 'that's how it worked'? or, later, 'didn't work'?

i've found it's difficult to find accounts of day to day yard operations pre-1940's. can someone clarify this one 'caboose' thing and maybe point me to some literature of prototype accounts of actual operations?

thanks.

 

[SantaFebuff]

You could put a caboose at both ends and then simply use a non-roundhouse turntable to reverse the locomotives and drive back...

That's my guess, you should wait for more experienced members to pipe up.

Joshua

 

[Dap]

mikemike,

If you really want to learn how it was done in the past, I recommend two books. The first is Let's Operate A Railroad" by L.E. Roxbury published in 1957. This book is long out of print. The best price I've seen lately is $75.00 on Amazon.com

The second and my favorite is "Freight Terminals and Trains" by John A. Droege first published in 1925 but is available as a reprint from the NMRA.
Kalmbach Memorial Library

In answer to your specific question, I'm sure the crew would take the time to run around the caboose. And I'm not sure there were any point to point single load trains at that time. Everything was pretty much general freight operations with few execeptions. What you are running is a unit train. I don't think that unit trains were in use until the late 1940's - early '50's.

 

[mikemike]

thanks very much for the references -- i really appreciate them and i'd not even heard of them.

about the 'unit train' -- that had occurred to me, but one other thing i thought of was branch line coal shuttles -- like on the clinchfield? would that just be that the engine would back up from the mainline and just pull the car out? but, i think there were bigger operations -- i've seen pictures of coal mines. and, what about the lake michigan ore railroads? running up to the mine and back? i've got books on them but none really talk about operations at that level.

"a southbound ore extra departs from Rust Crusher Rard near Hibbing with 180 loads for Proctor. Conductor on top of the caboose is giving the high-ball to the engineer." but, that big an operation would be any big yard operation and the turning or even adding from a caboose pool would be a practical part of it all?

thanks again.

mikemike,

If you really want to learn how it was done in the past, I recommend two books. The first is Let's Operate A Railroad" by L.E. Roxbury published in 1957. This book is long out of print. The best price I've seen lately is $75.00 on Amazon.com

The second and my favorite is "Freight Terminals and Trains" by John A. Droege first published in 1925 but is available as a reprint from the NMRA.
Kalmbach Memorial Library

In answer to your specific question, I'm sure the crew would take the time to run around the caboose. And I'm not sure there were any point to point single load trains at that time. Everything was pretty much general freight operations with few execeptions. What you are running is a unit train. I don't think that unit trains were in use until the late 1940's - early '50's.

 

[TSwenson]

In the first half of the twentieth century the caboose was a vital piece of operations. In addition to being a place to monitor the rear of the train, it was the conductor's office as well as a place to carry extra crew members. In the days before hand held radios, switching could use a large number of brakemen in order to relay hand signals around obstructions. The actual composition of the crew varied from run to run as well as over the years. As the conductor's office the caboose was a place where the conductor completed his en route paperwork as well as supervising the rest of the crew. In as much as reasonably possible, during switching, the caboose was handled directly by the locomotive. It is my understanding that the caboose was not a unidirectional car and simply had to be placed at the correct end of the train, as opposed a steam locomotive which would be turned around.