Re: Rubber Switch

North Yard on the D&RGW had a whole lead full of flopover (or variable or rubber) switches.

UP insisted that there was no such thing on the UP railroad and that ALL switches, with the exception of Spring Switches had to be lined.

When UP crews began lining the turnouts from the yard tracks onto the lead tracks in North Yard by hand we were chewed out by the D&RGW track men and told in no uncertain terms that these were flopover switches and that we had to run through them or they wouldn't work. It was their yard. We complied. BUT we couldn't use their train lists. UP has a 40 mph restriction on all bulkhead flats. D&RGW had no such restrictions and on their line empty bulkheads were cleared for 50. There was a lot of train checking going on before the Grande trains left by the UP crews because it was known that the UP "Officials" would be waiting in the weeds once you reached UP rails.

This was in 1982 when all of the D&RGW traffic was being diverted to the UP due to the Thistle Slide.

By the time that the UP got back there after buying the SP, I can't tell you what changes had been made, but I do know that those "Fast, Frequent" freights of the pre-Anschutz D&RGW were great trains to work.

Rick



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2017 10:30AM by Rick Steele.