Nostalgia & History > Is this structure for real trainorders?? 4-25-15

My wife and I took a little drive down to Albany, OR yesterday, just to see if anything was going on. So needless to say not much. we parked at the nice Albany depot and i wondered around and thought i would take this picture right outside the depot and thought how long this has been there--and if it was used for flyby trainorder pick up??



Thanks for looking
J. Dean Sheldrake
Silverton, OR 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/15 17:52 by Fallbridge4449.

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Looks like a delivery stand for train orders

Its a "HighSpeed" delivery stand. The top was for the engineer, middle passenger and bottom for the caboose. These were wood dowels mounted into a spring mechanism that fit into holes on the mast. The dowels had a hook on top and bottom, that held the string..
The operator would bend the dowels down to a 45 degree position, place the orders between a two slip knots and pull them tight. The string was placed on the hooks and then top and bottom would form a sideways "V" as everyone has seen. The string would be tucked under a steel clamp  in the center. Here is where an operator screwed up once or twice. When he hangs the orders, "THE CLIP HAS TO FACE THE ONCOMING TRAIN". If it isn't, the string will catch on the clip rather than slip out, break and the orders would be scattered from hell to breakfast. Then you had to stop and the head man had to go back and get them or go to the station and get new copies. At King City the speed limit was 60 so you were almost at Welby by the time you stopped. Usually if  you knew the conductor he would tell you to highball if he got his set okay. He would let you know what they said down the line in bits and pieces so nobody was knew what was up, beside the operator. And he isn't going to say peep because it was his fault. The only thing I didn't care for was when you had an old F unit on the point, the fireman or head man had to come over, open the door and lean out to get them.


Nudge

Amazing that thing is still standing there.

MarkMeoff Wrote:
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> Amazing that thing is still standing there.

Considering that CTC has been in since the mid sixties

WAF Wrote:
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> MarkMeoff Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Amazing that thing is still standing there.
>
> Considering that CTC has been in since the mid
> sixties

It remained there for the SP so the clerk could "hand up" lists for trains that had work at Albany (pick-ups). What is interesting is that it has survived this long after SP sold the yard and branches to the P&W as there is no longer a clerk there to hand lists up to trains.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/15 19:44 by Railbaron.

Does the light still work? Now that would be funny.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

Of course it was real!  And here it is in action from 1975...  Photo 1-2: SP agent Clyde Testorff puts up some orders for the 1st Northsider, which the headend grabs a short time later. Photo 3: Later that year, another Northsider sails by as the rearend gets their copies.

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Not surprising that the order stand is still there--railroad equipment was designed to last "forever", as long as it's not in the way of new construction and doesn't get taken out in a derailment.  Here in the LA area, we had a Santa Fe block signal in the middle of the 210 Freeway on the west side of Arcadia.  The track was lifted around 1999 or 2000, but the signal stood there, until it was removed a few years ago for the Gold Line Foothill Extension light rail project.  From time to time, someone would ask on TO about salvaging the signal, thinking it would look great in the back yard.  I had to caution them that even if you got permission from the appropriate entity, a block signal is not something you and your buddies load into your half-ton pickup and drive off with.  You'd need some serious lifting capacity and something more that a garden-variety light-duty truck.

DNRY122 Wrote:
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> Not surprising that the order stand is still
> there--railroad equipment was designed to last
> "forever", as long as it's not in the way of new
> construction and doesn't get taken out in a
> derailment.  Here in the LA area, we had a Santa
> Fe block signal in the middle of the 210 Freeway
> on the west side of Arcadia.  The track was
> lifted around 1999 or 2000, but the signal stood
> there, until it was removed a few years ago for
> the Gold Line Foothill Extension light rail
> project.  From time to time, someone would ask on
> TO about salvaging the signal, thinking it would
> look great in the back yard.  I had to caution
> them that even if you got permission from the
> appropriate entity, a block signal is not
> something you and your buddies load into your
> half-ton pickup and drive off with.  You'd need
> some serious lifting capacity and something more
> that a garden-variety light-duty truck.

and if ya think those nice looking silver metal T-boxes are lite enough for one person to carry and load into a pickup ... you'd also be mistaken ... those suckers are heeeaaavvvvyyyyy ...

Posted from Android

Railbaron Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WAF Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > MarkMeoff Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Amazing that thing is still standing there.
> >
> > Considering that CTC has been in since the mid
> > sixties
>
> It remained there for the SP so the clerk could
> "hand up" lists for trains that had work at Albany
> (pick-ups). What is interesting is that it has
> survived this long after SP sold the yard and
> branches to the P&W as there is no longer a clerk
> there to hand lists up to trains.

I was thinking that was the reason its still there for switch lists and bills

Thanks for the step back in history.

 Some operators referred to them as an "Iron Man".

By agreement, SP switchmen had rights to control all switches within yard limits in Oregon. So when CTC was put in, there were islands of non-CTC territory at Salem, Albany, Eugene and Klamath Falls. Albany was in one such island. This lasted at least until the 1980s.

Best regards,

Rob L.

DNRY122 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not surprising that the order stand is still
> there--railroad equipment was designed to last
> "forever", as long as it's not in the way of new
> construction and doesn't get taken out in a
> derailment.  Here in the LA area, we had a Santa
> Fe block signal in the middle of the 210 Freeway
> on the west side of Arcadia.  The track was
> lifted around 1999 or 2000, but the signal stood
> there, until it was removed a few years ago for
> the Gold Line Foothill Extension light rail
> project.  From time to time, someone would ask on
> TO about salvaging the signal, thinking it would
> look great in the back yard.  I had to caution
> them that even if you got permission from the
> appropriate entity, a block signal is not
> something you and your buddies load into your
> half-ton pickup and drive off with.  You'd need
> some serious lifting capacity and something more
> that a garden-variety light-duty truck.

On the Gold line there still is a tell tail standing from the UP days coming into Pasadena. I would like to get that donated to LALS. Anyone know who do I contact?

Regarding the teIl-tale on the west side of the Gold Line near the Pasadena-South Pasadena boundary.  I had a discussion with someone about this relic of the UP Pasadena Branch some years ago. Access would be difficult, and the old tell-tale would be  an awkward load.  If anything went wrong and it fouled the Gold Line inbound track there would be the proverbial hell to pay.  My answer to that earlier inquiry was that it would most likely be a lot easier to construct a replica from common pipe.

It belongs in with a RR museum so it can can demonstrated how it worked...