Take an overnight trip in the cab with John Springer and experience railroading as it was in the early 1970s, when crews worked sixteen hours and safety and efficiency depended on alert teamwork and intimate knowledge of the road.

http://thetracksidephotographer.com/202 ... he-drop-2/

Edd Fuller, Editor
The Trackside Photographer
http://thetracksidephotographer.com/

Very fine story and photos from the time when our hog law limited us to sixteen hours on duty, I'm sure glad it was only twelve hours in my time (except for Guatemala, which had NO hog law). What I'm wondering about is the meaning of the phrase "head pin", which is used several times in this piece. Would somebody please enlighten me ?? It must be east coast RR slang, which is foreign to me.

And thanks to Mr Fuller for all the fine features that have appeared in "The Trackside Photographer". It will be missed by many of us no doubt.

I get the impression that what is semantically meant is that they 'drop' the car by 'pulling' the pin at the 'head' end of the dropped car.

Then they go back to the standing cut and 'make the joint' to re-form their train.

That could be wrong, but it's how I think you'd say what's going on. I'm from the Northeast, very close in fact to NYNH&H territory, and I never understood 'dropping the pin' [more precisely letting the pin drop, as the actual 'joint' would drop it by gravity] to refer to anything other than coupling up, certainly not uncoupling.

Maybe neither one of us have this quite right, but if I may offer one tidbit, it is that the pinpuller stays with the engine. To drop a car, the engineer would bunch the slack, and then the pinpuller would pull the pin on the engine to make the cut. Then the engineer speeds up and the field man lines the switch so the loose car will go where they want it to... in Colorado RR slang.

The Drop refers to the train making "drops" of cars at each smaller yard or set-off point.

A "flying switch" or "drop" would not be made in that territory, because if anything went wrong, there'd be no covering it up, and plenty of passenger train delays would result. New Haven to New York was and is a very busy railroad.

Howard P.

Sammy, they're not talking about a "drop" in context of a 'flying switch', 'dutch drop' or any other colorful term, simply using "drop" as to mean set out. "Head pin" is just their term for pulling the pin at the head end of their set out, thereby uncoupling the power.

Thank you gentlemen for clearing this up. One nit I might pick is that no matter where it happens, there is no covering it up if a drop (as in flying switch) goes wrong -- at least in my time. All it takes is a rock in a switchpoint. Yes, it's worse if we lay out AMTRAK, or UPS. I guess with one man switchcrews (the kind with unmanned remote controlled locomotives) this must not happen anymore....

It belatedly dawned on me that, being pre-radio days, they likely had an informal lantern signal that the man riding the point could use to signal the head man that he was where he needed to be and it was OK to cut off and head back to the train. The name of this informal signal was likely 'head pin', as that's what it told the head brakeman to do; pull the head pin.

Even in radio days, most of us grouchy old bastards prefer to use hand or lantern signs because the radio always works fine when they tell you to back up, but it all too often conks out when they want you to STOP. In busy territory, there are often a number of train crews, officials, operators, dispatchers, and carmen on this same channel.

I only know the hand sign for making a cut: Extend one arm straight up and the other straight down, then change positions instantly with the hands brushing each other midway. That means "cut". Next. slap your butt. That means "behind". Then, hold up one of your hands with the number of fingers extended to indicate the number of cars you want to hang on to (Two hands if more than five cars). For example, "Cut/behind/three". More than 10 cars, the engineer probably can't see it, anyway. Of course, in the old days, bigger switch crews used to PASS SIGNS.

My model railroading buddy and my first "real" railroading mentor, "Johnny O.", taught me that the "Head Pin" was "Head"-end crew member responsible for pulling the "Pin". In other words, the brakeman at the head-end of the train.

Regards,
Bob M.
- J.N.O. (1943-2020) - Rest in peace, my friend!

Very well written story of railroading back then.

My Pop started with the NYCRR in 1941, and worked Lines East out of Buffalo to Syracuse NY, later to Selkirk NY under Conrail.

He told of the "locals" knowing how to close angle cocks (on the West Side of Rochester NY around Ames St.) to "park" the TV trains so they could "help themselves" to the goodies inside. The train crews refused to "go back and fix the angle cocks" and insisted the local police do their job and clear the area first.

The dispatchers learned to hold the trains outside the "City/Jungle" until they could run them straight through Rochester without stopping in areas where the locals could easily "poach" the train.

Was not limited to the NYC / New Haven / Boston area.

Cheers, Kevin.

On the Maine Central in the 1960s-70s, the head pin was the trailing coupler on the trailing engine which the first car of the train was coupled to. Sometimes cars would be carried on the head pin because they needed careful handling (such as milk), or so they could be easily set off at intermediate stations. I don't ever remember hearing "head pin" being used as a verb to uncouple a cut of cars as in this article, but suspect that it meant pulling this same "head pin" to uncouple cars from the trailing engine.

CSX defines "Head Pin" the same as the "Head Man:" ine brakeman in cxarge of the head end of the train.

Phil Mulligan

A blast from the past, eh?

https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/ ... onary/?i=H

Well, that settles it. Head Pin means Pinpuller or Head Brakeman in Colorado RR slang. Thanks to all of you fellas for taking the time to answer this question for me.

Anybody remember Zippy?