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  • Train ride with an Alp45DP

  • Discussion about railroad topics everywhere outside of Canada and the United States.
Discussion about railroad topics everywhere outside of Canada and the United States.

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 #1411668  by philipmartin
 
Train ride on the North Jersey Coast Line. It leaves my station at 7:50am weekdays. I justify my putting it on this forum because it shows how an Alp45DP is operated and the Alp is put together with parts from various places in the world, assembled in Kassel, Germany. This is a Railway Age video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPIHGURkg1w" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here's a Wiki on this locomotive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALP-45DP" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1411713  by johnthefireman
 
My wife and I got a cab ride on a Zambia Railways General Electric type U20C last week, aka a South African Class 33. Initially the driver just invited us up on the footplate while he was shunting. After a while he asked us where we were heading afterwards. When we said into town, he set off and dropped us at the level crossing in town before returning and resuming his shunting duties. Things are a little informal there!
 #1411817  by philipmartin
 
No, we have no intention of joining the rest of the world. We are very happy living on Mars. My last name used to be Martian, but I anglicized it.
Actually some of my Venezuelan ancestors may have been involved in throwing off Spanish rule; I would have been on the other side, (the Spanish side.)

To show how up to date NJ Transit is, we now randomly screen passengers for explosives. http://www.fios1news.com/newjersey/nj-t ... EsGbSMrIy4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1419163  by philipmartin
 
At the end of this video we see the conductor on the ground, lining up the switch for the train's yard track. When I worked there in 1957-58 we had switch tenders to iine the railroad. "R" tower was there, the east end of Sunnyside Yard. It threw switches to put trains on the various leads, but switch tenders lined the switches off the leads for the individual tracks. "R" had loudspeakers attached to the building, and the operator used them to instruct the switch tenders. "Q" at the west end of Sunnyside probably had the same arrangements.
WA5 in Newark also had that arrangement. Kearny tower in Kearny also had a loud speaker but no switch tenders. I used it to call the maintainer when I neede him.
 #1424681  by philipmartin
 
John - a switch tender is a man who throws the hand switches (points) at a specific location. In my experience, they have been men on the conductor's roster. Block operators (signal men,) my craft, can also do that, or they can direct the switch tenders.
 #1425001  by ExCon90
 
And much more common in the U. S. than in some other places, including at major passenger stations. For many years Dearborn Station in Chicago (used by six mainline railroads) had no interlocking in the throat (and there were plenty of double slips); everything up to and including the Super Chief had to stop before entering the throat and await a hand signal with flag or lantern from a switchtender before proceeding. The switchtenders received oral instructions from the tower by "squawk boxes" mounted on posts at various locations in the throat indicating what route to line up. A green flag meant proceed away from the station (for departing trains), and a yellow flag meant proceed toward the station.