Hi, Gavin,

Those are very British hand signals! They differ quite a bit from the ones used over here, but they bear a striking resemblance to the ones used in the very early years of railways in the U.S.

There are some places on the web where you can find the signals. Here's a link to an older PRR rulebook which shows the standard hand signals used by almost all the roads in the U.S. (page down) Of course, there are many more ... some of the "outlaw" signals were so common they should possibly have been included in the standard rule books (such as the Hotbox signal, sliding wheels, brakes sticking, location of defects in train, etc.)

http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/rail/prr/Bor1956/rulebook1956.html#signals

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Here's another site .... more signals. This is a sample rule book put together by Wasatch RR Contractors for the new version of the Georgetown Loop. Page down and find "Rule Book Sample" about the middle of the list. Click on it and you'll download a PDF file. In the Appendix A and B sections are day and night signals which are pretty common. http://files.wasatch-rr-contractors.com/

The best description of these signals that I've seen, was in a video (actually a "movie" in those days), that was produced by the UP. It dates to circa 1970, and was obviously professionally produced. The main character bears a striking resemblance to Carrol O'Connor, and had been dubbed the "Archie Bunker" safety video by local railroaders. He is a good actor (or presenter), and is evidently an experienced railroader, although his audio is dubbed.

The video is intended for new brakemen. They do a good job at describing "day signals" (come to me, go away), as well as "night signals" (engine forward, engine back). They also cover a variety of other safety topics, and mix in a fair amount of humor as well.

Finally for the railfan, there is a lot of vintage footage of UP diesel power (primarily yard engines), as well as some nice shots of period freight cars.

Overall, a useful, and entertaining training tool, if you can locate a copy.

I have seen that video ("Getting off on the Right Foot" or something similar....) a number of times in rules training classes. I've been trying to find a copy, as it is not only informative but very entertaining! If you or anyone knows where I can get a copy, please let me know. Thanks!!

I have a VHS copy of "Getting Off on the Right Foot." I use it in the brakeman training classes I teach. It appears to have been copied, re-copied, and re-copied several times, so the video quality isn't very good. I inherited it from the previous training guy, who got it from his predecessor, who got it...... If someone could make a DVD from it, it would probably be better. But then, there is the copyright problem......

Another old UP film I use is "Bottling the Air." It is a great introduction to how air brakes work. Has some good animations of pistons moving, ports getting opened and closed, and brakes applying.

Back to the "move east" or "move west," thing, on our line "east" means toward El Centro, "west" means towards San Diego on the track. The actual compass direction the train moves MIGHT be what was called, but usually it is something else, as much at 180 degrees off!

It is my understanding that on the SP, "east" meant away from San Francisco, and "west" meant toward San Francisco. So a train headed from San Francisco (Oakland) to Portland was an eastward movement, even though Porland is a bit west of San Francisco, and the train was actually moving in a more northerly direction.

Hi, Jim,

I would sure like to get someone to make a good copy from an original tape to DVD .... that's a great film. That's what we have up here at G.C. .... copy of copy of copy ... it's still a good film. I can copy the one we do have, I suppose. I scoured the internet a while back and found mostly dog training videos under that title ... (I could use one of those, too!) Maybe we can talk Greg Scholl into cutting a copy of "Right Foot," - I would think the copyright was long expired now.

One of the videos we used for training was an old ATSF one. I can't recall the title, but it gave an overall safety presentation and was filmed in some ATSF yard in the tiger-stripe era. Very good presentation about getting on and off moving equipment, as well as the various dangers of switching work. It was VHS, and was probably produced in the 1980s.