December 15, 2014 11:08AM
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Registered: 16 years ago
Posts: 1,684
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Jeff Ramsey Wrote:
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> Skip Wrote:
> ==================================================
> =====
> > Humbug!
> >
> > "Hand Brakes and Link & Pins Forever!"o
>
>
> Miller hooks are cool too. They seem to work at
> the Midwest Central in Wisconsin, at least on
> passenger equipment. Semi "automatic"?.
Yes, they are ..... if Miller hadn't wanted so much for their platform/couplers and/or the royalties, we might have ended up using them. Only one freight railroad someplace in New England ended up equipping their freight equipment with them. Millers became pretty much standard on psgr equipment, though, including the D&RG NG. Many rail lines made their own in their shops but had to pay royalties to Miller.
Truth is it wasn't the safety of the couplers themselves that was the big thing, it was the fact that the complete platform extended forward to the truck bolsters and with their spring buffers, made a tight connection which in a wreck kept the cars from "telescoping" through each other.
One day I was prowling around the scrap pile up at McEwen when I was with Sumpter Valley and found a Miller coupler. I pulled it out, took home and painted it and returned it to McEwen with intent to have it displayed. Nobody else up there knew what it was. Hopefully it still exists. I brought it out so that Bruce MacGregor could measure and photograph it once, too.
Anyway, I maintain that L&Ps weren't so dangerous in themselves but it was the human factor. Brakies and switchmen (as well as most railroaders) back then drank a lot, worked long hours with little rest, After a while you can get sloppy and your reactions get slow.
But, that's just me ..... "Wooden Cars and Iron Men...."
Skip Luke
Switchman (ret): Grand Canyon Railway;
Engineer (ret): Georgetown Loop RR Inc., Sumpter Valley Ry., Monticello & Sangamon Valley;
Dispatcher(ret): Illinois Central, White Pass & Yukon, Burlington Northern Ry.
Mariner, Musician, Miner
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capchris |
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Skip |
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hank |
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capchris |
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