US - UK railway terminology

Some interesting stuff there Chris. However, I'd take issue with a couple of them.

Skates in the UK are small wheels positioned underneath the running wheels of a loco that has siezed axle boxes or traction motors or any vehicle with a severely damaged wheel set. They are used in emergency situations only, (to quote the rule-book,) "...to clear the main line only" at a speed of no more than 10 mph.

I supect the reference to a Signal lineman is meant to be something like a Handsignalman (in 30 odd years on the railway I never heard of a Signal lineman) used in emergency speed restriction situations in the old days, for track circuit or controlled signal failures and for engineering works.

Shunter - in the UK : A Shunter is NOT a driver on the shed or anywhere else for that matter. A Shunter does the dirty work of coupling and uncoupling wagons/coaching stock in a yard, carriage sidings or main line station. Sometimes the Class 08 engine is referred to as a Shunter too but certainly not a driver. A driver on the Shed is called (ironically) a Shedman.

Dummy in the UK is pretty much the same as the US but we also refer to dollies as well. Generally, in the UK, dummies are colour light shunting signals and dollies are the old semaphore disc type shunting signals. Dwarf Signals is not a term I'm familiar with in general UK use. The term used most often to describe those type of signals in the areas I worked in were "Subs." (short for subsidiary.)

Sorry if I sound pedantic. I don't mean to be. Just trying to be helpful.

Cheers

Dave
 
Hi everybody.
Cybordongreen, nice to see you on this forum again as I do not look in here much myself these days. That stated, in regard to your posting at #3 of this thread I am wondering in regard to Shunters if that employment position holds the same “status" as the position does in the British road haulage industry.

In road haulage the yard Shunters in a large distribution centre is a position of good status needing great knowledge of operating a range of heavy vehicles and the coupling/brake arrangements of various makes of trailers. As you state in the rail industry, a Shunters job is moving vehicles around the yard and shunting trailers on and off of loading banks following loading or unloading. A single Shunter can be expected to keep six or seven bays going continually in a large retail distribution centre which involves a great deal of hard manual work usually at night and in all weathers.

Accidents can easily occur in distribution centre yards so a high concentration and awareness leval is required throughout any working shift. That stated a good yard Shunter is "worth his/her weight in gold" to any heavy vehicle distribution operation and that fact is usually reflected in the salary received. However, when a vacancy occurs all to often there are few takers for the position among the regular drivers from which the experience for the job has to come from.

I also enjoyed the use of the word "skates" which in road haulage are the small wheels on the bottom of the trailer landing legs. You don't see them very often these days having been replaced by large metal pads for safety reasons. However, that expression takes me back quite a few years, far too many than I care to recall (LOL)


Bill
 
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- snip - a good yard Shunter is "worth his/her weight in gold" to any heavy vehicle distribution operation and that fact is usually reflected in the salary received. However, when a vacancy occurs all to often there are few takers for the position among the regular drivers from which the experience for the job has to come from. - snip -

So, if you take that literally, if the Shunter weighs 190 pounds (86.1826 kilograms), and gold is currently going at $41.08 per gram (£31.1431 per gram), than that Shunter is worth £2,683,993.33 ($3,883,904) in gold. I'd rather have the gold than the Shunter.
 
Hi Bill. Thank you for your kind words. It's nice to see you on the forum here also.

It does indeed sound like the two jobs (road and rail Shunter) are of similar ilk. Sadly, however, the Shunter on the railway is one of the lower paid grades even though, as you say, they can bring a yard to a standstill if they don't know what they're doing. There are usually a number of Shunters in a railyard or carriage sidings under the control of a Foreman. The Foreman has a list of trains that need to be formed and the times that they will be dispatched. It is the Shunters who then have to go out into the yard and do the dirty work of putting them all together in the right order. It's a dying art though as nowadays most freight in the UK is shipped in "Block Trains," as they are termed, where there is a contracted service with a set number of wagons and they arrive and depart from a yard or private sidings at the same time each day/week irrespective of whether they are full or empty.

Malc, "flagman" is the term used on the shop floor amongst the working staff. Handsignalman is the official term quoted in the rule book (and used more so nowadays where railway employees no longer come from a line of railway families.) In the daytime hours these Handsignalmen use flags and dets (though emergency speed restrictions nowadays are usually covered by Daleks.) At night, obviously, they use lamps.

Cheers

Dave
 
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