Any hand-thrown switches on Amtrak?

[Noel Weaver]

Last time I looked 97/98 still stop at Auburndale, FL for a hand thrown switch as it has been since the FEC strike.

I rode 98 and 97 up to Kissimmee from Fort Lauderdale last year and it seems to me that we did not stop for the switch at Auburndale in either direction.
Noel Weaver

[D.Carleton]

Last time I looked 97/98 still stop at Auburndale, FL for a hand thrown switch as it has been since the FEC strike.

I rode 98 and 97 up to Kissimmee from Fort Lauderdale last year and it seems to me that we did not stop for the switch at Auburndale in either direction.
Noel Weaver

Wow. If that's the case then it only took 40 years to install one switch machine. At this rate we should have HSR in this country by 2100... if they hurry.

[Gilbert B Norman]

Three guesses, and the first two don't count, who paid for that upgrade.

I agree with Mr. Carleton; the switches through the SE quadrant of the SAL-ACL interchange at Auburndale were hand thrown until quite late in the game. Those controlling the SW quadrant were power switches since Day One, or when the Silver Palm was inaugurated during late 1982.

[NellieBly]

Just one more. One of my favorite (and most amusing) memories is of a ride on an Amtrak "Cascades" Talgo from Portland to Seattle. Amtrak closed the tower at Portland Union Station and laid off the operators to save money, so our modern, "high speed" Talgo had to hand-throw its way out of the platform track onto the main.

That's right up there with my memory of a trip on the "Potomac Turbo" (aka "Harley's Hornet") when it was on the Parkersburg run. We needed to run "wrong main" on the B&O west from Georgetown Junction outside Washington (the line wasn't CTC then), so the engineer picked up orders at QN. The passengers sitting in the front dome, who could see right into the cab, actually tittered when the engineer slid open his window to pick up the orders. A bit incongruous for the United Aircraft "high speed Turboliner".

[Greg Moore]

Follow up question. Who can throw such switches? Can only members of the train crew, or can an OBS person throw a switch?

[railohio]

What about the sidings on the Chicago to St. Louis corridor? I know they're really slow; are they also hand-throw as well?

[AMTK1007]

I think 7/8 have a hand-thrown switch on the Minnesota Commercial at their connection with CP Rail's Milwaukee Short Line... though I can't imagine MNNR wouldn't line it for Amtrak. On the north end of the Commercial, the connections onto the GN and NP mains westbound are controlled by BNSF out of Fort Worth.

The switch at Merriam Park off the CP to the Minnesota Commercial is controled by the CP River Dispatcher and is a Dual Control Switch. I Believe that the Switches on the Commercial at midway are now radio controled switches so that the engine crew can line them from the cab, but I may be incorect, in the past the train crews had to line the switches before and after movement. One Trainman would ride down on the loco, line the switch and then as the train pulled by, stop the train re lign the switch and get on the rear car.

[Gilbert B Norman]

Follow up question. Who can throw such switches? Can only members of the train crew, or can an OBS person throw a switch?

As I noted earlier, handling switches is the work of the Train, as distinct from Engine, crew. OBS are neither Rules qualified nor covered by Hours of Service.

Now there is one exception that I once learned of, and that was on the Santa Fe. They had a Coach Attendant position requiring the occupant to be Rules Qualified (I THINK such was covered by HOS and was under the Trainman's Agreement on their property), however the primary additional duty was handling checked baggage. I have no knowledge if such a position obviated the assignment of a Head Brakeman (something tells me that on short trains it did).

[JimBoylan]

Re hand thrown switches on Sunset Limited East of New Orleans:
I think that some of the money that the state of Florida wasted to help start that service paid for some sort of locally controlled self restoring switches at the ends of passing sidings, because of a lack of rear end crews on long trains. Were these also "run through" switches, or were they hand thrown to start the movement?
An autobiography in Trains magazine mentioned that Norfolk & Western engineers in Ohio were entitled to extra "arbitrary" pay if they had to get out of their cab and throw a switch because no fireman or head brakeman was included in the crew. Possibly Amtrak engineers could do this when they were still employed by the individual railroads.

[AMTKHawkeye]

What about the sidings on the Chicago to St. Louis corridor? I know they're really slow; are they also hand-throw as well?

The Chicago to St. Louis is largely CTC-controlled; the dispatchers line them for us. The only stretches of ABS territory on the entire trip are from MP 36.7 to MP 62.6 (Joliet to Mazonia on the UP), and from MP 262.1 to MP 275.5 (Wann to WR Tower on the KCS/UP). I have not encountered a trip where we have yet had to use any sidings or crossovers in these ABS Territories. Plus, at Joliet, the UD Tower handles all of the switches in that territory as well.

[C&O 15]

The Birmingham station has a hand-thrown switch from the main line at it's north/east end. Every southbound Crescent has to stop right before the station and let someone off to throw the switch. The northbound has to stop also, right after the station stop, so the person throwing the switch can get back on board. At the south/west end of the station the switches are automatic.

[Jersey_Mike]

Also the east end of the Springfield, MA station complex is all hand throw and also have hand throw derails to protect trains in the "yard" from rolling onto the Boston Line at CP-9(7?). The Vermonter is currently the only train that might have to deal with these.

[Noel Weaver]

How about the Cardinal Route through Indiana?
Noel Weaver

[Tadman]

I don't recall stopping for any hand-throw switches on that ride, but I was half-asleep through Indiana.

Once on #3 a switch had been left open to the yard in Lawrence and the conductor alighted and threw the switch so we could pull into the station.

[chuchubob]

When my wife and I went to Williamsburg, VA, a couple years ago, the train stopped and the conductor complained to us that he was sixty-something years old and had to get off the train and walk on the ballast in the rain and darkness to hand throw a switch.