Re: About those rings, and old things in general

James Wrote:
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> hank Wrote:
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> There's no point anymore, it's obsolete
> technology.


Speaking of obsolete things, I see that proper use of hand signaling has increasingly fallen by the wayside. On the shortline I worked for back in 1980's, radios were a luxury that was out of reach. We used the hand signals for switching and for train crew safety. All crew movements on the ground had to be done on the engineer's side of the train and no train movement was done without visual confirmation of where my Conductor was. There was never a cut or coupling made with the guy on the ground standing on the fireman's side, or out of sight of the engineer. It worked well for us, even when we were storing boxcars on the unused portion of the line. Hand signals from 20 cars back can be a little straining for the eyes, which is why I wear glasses now, but waiting for proper signal to move the engine worked as no one got hurt and we had no derailments or damage to cars in those long strings we moved. JMHO.