Re: Rubber switches

John West Wrote:
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> Kinda as a nostalgic aside, I don't remember any
> spring switches. But I'm going back in the 60's
> when we still had cabooses. Would guess that the
> big impetus for spring switches was when cabooses
> were taken off and there was no longer a rear end
> crew to line behind a train. Now spring switches
> are all over the place.

We had them on most sidings on the IC RR for that reason, even with cabooses. They can be a problem in the winter, though.

When Grand Canyon started putting variables in at the new coach tracks in Williams, the Track Crew thought the company wanted all the switch stands painted yellow, not understanding about Variables .... so they painted all switch stands yellow. As you can guess, the switch crew ran through one of the yellow-painted "variables" first thing and blew the switch stand all to pieces. Non-variables were repainted black right away!

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