The recent thread on order hoops & forks inspired us to do a little experiment in "reenacting" during our run day at VMT today. Hopefully we will have some video available tomorrow.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fb ... =1&theater

Yep!!!! THAT seems REAL familiar!!!

If only that was done today. I wonder where I can could get one of those forks.. I'd like to get one (reasonably priced, even if it was a replica).

It was June of 2002 when Steve Lee of the UP asked me to fire for him on the 3985 as his regular fireman were out for health reasons. I spent the entire trip with Jack W. firing for Steve and Bob K.

One day, we were in Iowa and had just come around an Engineers curve. The next curve was a fireman's curve. Standing track side was this little old guy holding up a hoop with orders. I looked over at Steve, but he did not look at me. I whistled at him and shrugged my shoulders......he could not see what was going on.....he shrugged his shoulders back at me as to say....."what the hell, over?"

I stretched my tiny 5'-8" frame as far out the window as I could and looped my arm into the hoop. I opened the orders and the note went something like this;

[paraphrased] I hooped the last set of orders on steam on the Iowa ------ (can't remember which line or even the city location) and thought that I would never do it again. Thanks for bringing the 3985 to Iowa, have a great trip.

It was so cool!

I walked over to Steve and handed him the orders......he looked at me like...."what is this?" He read the note and jumped from his seat and came over to my side of the cab, smashed me in my seat and waved at the old guy as we finished the curve. He thought it was cool too!

Anybody know who that old boy was? I wish I knew the "rest of the story......"

I still have the orders in a box under the train board down stairs.......I think?

Kindly,

JohnE.

Nice job Gary, seems familiar:



The fork was a loaner. I'd love to get my hands on one to keep here at Bridge 60.

This is all cool ... Every now and then when there's an extra to be run, I'll forego the easier register process, sign on as dispatcher and fire off Form 19's. It puts a smile on the crews' respective faces and helps us to dust off the cobwebs.

Hooping orders was an everyday thing on the LIRR until very recently. The Form 19 Trainorder was retired only a few days ago as well.

I'd contact one of the many railroadiana sellers/buyers to see if they have a train order fork in their inventory. Then, contact the Railroad Collectors Association (RCAI) and put in a want ad in their magazine.
http://railroadcollectors.org/

Thanks!

Guilty, Dave. Your FB shot was sort of an inspiration. Several of our members have forks & hoops. On the next run day, we may have to forego the track warrant and hoop them up on the fly on the first trip. It was a lot of fun

Dave Crosby's photo shows the a problem with forking up orders. If the fork hit the engine before the engineer (or in this picture the fireman) snared the loop the string would pop off the fork and the with no orders being delivered meaning the train would have to stop and back up and many not so nice words would be exchanged. If the agent/operator held to fork too far from the train the crew could not reach it. I've had crews give me hand signals to move the fork closer or away or higher or lower as the train rushed at me.

It was always nice when the orders were for the local freight and the crew would come in and get them.

There was a lady that used to volunteer with us, who much earlier in life was a train order clerk in the mid-West. There were two main tracks at that location. There were two "rules" they were supposed to observe: 1) Don't delay any trains, and 2) Don't stand between the two mains when passing up orders.

So, one night, she has orders for a west bound and an east bound train, both due to come by at the same time. She obeyed Rule #1, and violated #2. Really scary, she said, but she was successful in delivering all the orders.

Next morning, her boss is looking at her paperwork. "I see you OS'd both trains at the same time," he said. "How'd you do that?....Ohhh... Never mind."

Marty -

Ran across this photo:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 9&nseq=100

Another example of the problem crews had in picking up orders on the fly.

Les

A Richard Steinheimer photograph of a woman trainorder operator on the SP getting one of its stands ready is the lead photo in this posting at TRAINS Magazine:
Women and Railroading

The Southern Pacific stand was placed much closer to the track. And the operator did not have to be standing next to the train -- he/she could be standing a comfortable distance back.

Are there any preserved railways or museums out there still using Timetable/Train Order operation? I know the Durango & Silverton still runs its regular trains by the timetable, but the train order has been gone there for years, supplanted by a sort of home grown "Track Authority" system. It seems like using train orders could be a unique preservation opportunity, preserving skills that were commonplace until relatively recently but have all but disappeared now. I doubt, though, that most museum or heritage operations are busy enough to really practice the system to its historic extent.

Steve, Strasburg still uses timetable, block register and dispatcher rules. The register simplifies things in that an extra can sign on prior to a timetable train, thereby assuming priority in time though not by right. Timetable trains are able to sign on to the register and then enter the main without a clearance form. Just utilizing the register triggers restricted speed when an extra is signed on though. As I noted above, every now and then we'll seat a dispatcher, spread a new train sheet and get the paperwork (and trains) flying. You are correct about "busy." With our maintenance, T&E and contract schedules, there doesn't seem to be the opportunity to find the time to expose crews to the time-honored system.