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  • What is a BK?

  • General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.
General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.

Moderator: Robert Paniagua

 #278964  by UPRR engineer
 
What is a track BK? Broken traffic Kicker..... Block...... Bad ......
Over heard the dispatcher and maintainer talking the other night, conductor asked me what a BK was. We spent a good half hour trying to figure out what the K stood for.

Is a "track light" the same as an occupancy? Broken rail, switch open, car rolled out, wet ties.

 #279031  by GOLDEN-ARM
 
Track light, yes. It's just an indication, on the model board, or screen, that indicates a train in the block. If the DS is SURE he has no train in there, he will advise the maintainer of the "track light", and he will go chase down it's cause. Broken rail, hung up relay, switch or derail left open, etc., As for BK, that's a new one, to me. I know in Cali, it stands for "Blood Killer", as Crips are sometimes known............. :-D

 #279117  by thebigc
 
How about Burger King?

We call them TOL's on NJ Transit; Track Occupancy Light.

 #279133  by pennsy
 
Hi All,

Generally, when you hear two letters it signifies a tower, switching tower, etc. The origin is from Morse Code, and the telegraph. I learned this by accident one summer when I delivered telegrams, on my trusty old Schwinn Black Panther. The store I worked out of was in Brooklyn, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area, and our call letters were PK. It was a quick and easy was to identify us, and route the telegrams to our receivers. Similarly, we sent out telegrams with the initials PK as the opener. That way the place of origin was known. Switch towers, some manned and some unmanned have similar initials or call letters. I would imagine as they become more and more automated and computerized you will see them known only by their "call letters".