Western Railroad Discussion > Switch tenders? (people not locos)

In the early 1990's Metrolink used hired switch tenders on the Ventura County Line to respond out to flip hand thrown switches at sidings to speed trains along. This was before CTC was installed.

Basically from what I understand was the dispatcher would telephone some designated guy at home who lived near the tracks. He would respond and line the switch for a siding. Does anyone know the details of how this program worked. Is there anywhere where this still takes place today? I know not on Metrolink, but how about in other parts of North America.


Todd Clark

The only place I have seen switch tenders in use is in temporary service at manually thrown crossovers on lines where track work was affecting normal train-traffic patterns. For example, before Amtrak bi-directionalized the former New Haven main line between NH and Boston, it was a current-of-traffic railroad with very few powered crossovers, so during bridge or tie projects they'd have a man stationed at the manual crossovers to shorten up the length of the single-track zone. One of my pictures that was used in the 1991 Amtrak book published by Railpace was of one such switchtender hooping up orders to a Shore Line East commuter train. The switchtenders were usually drawn from the tower operators' extra board, if I recall correctly.

When I worked for the Milwaukee in Chicago in 1968, there were switch tenders practically everywhere in the downtown area. Even though I come from a railroad family I never heard of switch tenders until I went to Chicago. These guys were very old heads, as a rule, and would line switches and crossovers for our transfer job as we snaked our way from downtown Chicago all the way to the Santa Fe yard in the southern part of Chicago. It seemed like a good job to me but very boring.

Just be sure you don't confuse a switch tender with a herder. They are two different animals.

steamjocky

When I worked for the CNW/UP in the Chicago area (1995-1997) we had regular assigned switch tenders at the east and west end of California Ave. coach yards and at the M19A (40th St) engine facility to speed up movements of Metra consists to and from Chicago Passenger Terminal. We also had a job that would act as a switchtender at Crystal Lake for a couple hours in the morning before becoming at "swing collector" on a few trains during the rest of the day. The switchtender controlled the hand throw x-overs and jct with the McHenry Branch.

Where I currently work (CSX Keystone Sub), switchtenders are frequently called out in the summertime during periods of track maintenance to handle various hand throw x-overs between Cumberland and Pittsburgh. They will usually be stationed at FO, Rockwood, HK (Ohio Pyle),Lavinia or Smithton.

--jag

One other switch-tender location occurs to me. In Jackson, Mississippi, the Illinois Central main line and the Kansas City Southern's Transcon Line intersect at a hand-thrown junction. While most train crews line their own routes, a switch tender occasionally shows up to establish the route for certain trains. I seem to recall this service being provided in particular for Amtrak and IC's priority intermodal trains, but I haven't spent enough time there to know for sure, or to know if this practice continues.

In the 1960's in the Twin Cities, GN was big on use of switchtenders.

Firstoff, St Paul Union Depot Co (SPUD Co) had scads of handthrown turnouts and puzzles, and each tender was assigned a shanty to keep warm in, and his baliwick included a certain territory of switches. Terminal manager would call him on the handcrank phone and advise him of expected movements, and he was expected to coordinate with adjacent tenders to get trains into and out of proper tracks on time, mostly using hand and lantern signals. I worked on the CB&Q, and whenever within the jurisdiction of a tender, he'd line up the route, then first throw us a 'Q' signal (each RR had a distinctive signal) so we could be sure we were not taking a signal not intended for us, followed by a proceed. Nite signals (given with a lantern) also included a direction for the movement. Tenders used yellow bulbs instead of white in their lamps, to make them easier to distingush from carmen, inspectors, mail personnel, and whoever ever else might be wandering around carrying a light.

Heading toward Minneapolis from SPUD, the first GN tender one came upon was at Third Street in St. Paul. This guy lined switches for both freight and passenger movements, and signalled them thru by hand or lantern. This location also had an outdoor armstrong interlocking of sorts which he used to control the derails on the approaches and certain dwarf signal indications.

Next, at the West entrance to Union Yard (the East entrance, "St. Anthony Park Tower", was a an electro-pneumatic plant, IIRC) a tender controlled all entrances to the C, R, and Q yards, and the junction of the passenger line to the Stone Arch and the freight mains to Minneapolis Jct, D yard, E yard, and mill district. It's amazing this was never mechanized - it was really busy.

Minneapolis Jct. had tenders on at least two of the three legs of they wye - I never took the Northtown route, so can't say for sure about that one.

Several tenders worked on the west end of the GN depot , and the entrance to the Q's coach yard and the CNW (Omaha) freight and passenger yards. I occasionally worked as a tender on the Q's crossing of the freight mains at this point.

Further west, tenders were stationed at the Louie's freight house, Holden Street, and Lyndale.

GN switchtenders used the same hand and lantern signals as SPUD.

Steamjocky made the point that switch tenders should not be confused with herders. On the SP herders were pretty common, and the use of something like a "switch tender" occurred to handle hand-thrown crossovers when a double track line was single tracked for MOW purposes....although I do not remember the use of the term switch tender....maybe flagman. But in MTM's discussion his use of the term "switch tender" sounds very much like the duties of a "herder" on the SP. My guess is there is no black and white here, and terminology as well as duties could vary from road to road. Or is there a clearer differentiation between herder and switch tender.

On a thread above, the Jackson, MS, "switchtender" was mentioned. When I visited this area years ago, there was a 24/7 "switch tender" that sat all shift in a little building [shanty] that did nothing but line the above mentioned crossovers, which are still hand throw switches today. In fact, the shanty is still there and there is a station type sign there that says "switch tender", however, I was there again three weesk ago and there is no longer a position with this title on the IC in Jackson, the person who shows up mainly to line Amtrak into and out of Jackson Union Station is a "utility man" that also helps through trains make pick ups and set outs as well as assisting the yard jobs. This is only a clearification not a knock! Before the recent BNSF Needles Sub CTC project [and actually during] BNSF as well as Santa Fe, always put on switch tender jobs during track work projects that would line trains from the westbound to eastbound mains [and visaversa] during single tracking. Some of these jobs were literally out in the middle of the desert. Also, way back when [up into the seventies, Santa Fe had a swich tender job at Redondo Junction Roundhouse to line sets of power into and out of the facility.
JB

jbwest Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Steamjocky made the point that switch tenders
> should not be confused with herders. On the SP
> herders were pretty common, and the use of
> something like a "switch tender" occurred to
> handle hand-thrown crossovers when a double track
> line was single tracked for MOW
> purposes....although I do not remember the use of
> the term switch tender....maybe flagman. But in
> MTM's discussion his use of the term "switch
> tender" sounds very much like the duties of a
> "herder" on the SP. My guess is there is no black
> and white here, and terminology as well as duties
> could vary from road to road. Or is there a
> clearer differentiation between herder and switch
> tender.


In this part of the country, the only time I've heard of someone serving as a herder was when he was assigned to assist moving engines around the service area - sort of, as in, herding the horses. Yeah, I think very much a regionalism.

On the SP "herders" were generally assigned to line trains in and out of yard tracks to the mainline.

CP/Soo has a 7-day a week; regular scheduled “switch tender” job. The work is divided over 2 shifts, 0700 to1900 & 1900 to 0700. The “switch tender” is on the west end of the four-track Galewood yard, in Chicago, on the Elgin Sub. Furthermore, the Shift starts in Galewood yard but must tie-up in Bensenville yard. In addition to the assignment, the “switch tender” is compensated deadhead time of about 20 minutes to drive his own personal vehicle to Bensenville yard to tie-up at the end of the 12 hour shift.

There's a switchtender at Brighton Park in Chicago. All trains must stop
and then proceed by signal (almost all the indications are from a manually
controlled semaphore) on indication of the switchtender. Probably one of
(if not the) busiest non-interlocked crossing in the country.

To expand a bit on 3rdSwitch's comments about Santa Fe's Switch Tender's:
a Switch Tender was a promoted conductor (not a brakeman). They would be called in pairs to handle switches one on each end of single track. A Herder was a switchman used to handle the switches and derails in the roundhouse and assist the Hostler (fireman) in moving power around the roundhouse and yard. The herder's were not allowed to move anything other than motive power. They did not have to be promoted to do this job.
I spent many a day in remote locations like, Truxton,Az., Peach Springs, etc.. In the days of train orders, we would have an operator at each end of the limits, and would tell you which trains were going to move through next. One usually brought his own vehicle and plenty to eat, as Circle K's were not near in those days. One usually made the job as comfortable as possible, then kicked back and enjoyed the day.

At Richmond, CA, Santa Fe herders, in addition to assisting hostlers on locomotive moves, also walked newly arrived mainline trains draining the air from each car.

When I was cut-off the 'road' board at Los Angeles, and went into the yard, I bid on the "Top-End A-Yard" Herder ... Midnights. This was back in 1980, I made the best of it. I figured if I was going to do it, I'll do it correctly. I could not find 'green' bulbs for my lantern, so I made some. (still have a couple) If I was going to be the Herder, I'll have a GREEN light. The crews told me it was about time that a GREEN light was used, as the 'top-end' of Taylor Yard was a VERY busy place, with white lights all over. Now, they knew who / what / where the Herder was! That was a time, about 2 months later business picked UP, and I went back to the road. I missed being able to do my 'Union Business' (typing safety complaints) between moves. But, farewell to the yard, never worked it again.

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

BTW, forgot to say that I used a Green flag, once the sun would come up. "Green flag by day, Green light by night."

I don't pop in on threads very often but here on the east end of the old N&W the railroad had a regular job called “switch tender”. This job was a yard ground crew (brakemen) job and was bid on just like any other. It was the responsibility of the switch tender to line up for all incoming coal trains along with time freights or whatever. After lining up for an incoming coal train he would have to drive around to the east end of the yard and make sure the rails were lined there for wherever the yardmaster was sending that particular train. He would also ride to the passenger station (head of Lamberts Point Yard) with that train's engines lining up rails as necessary and then making sure the engines were coupled to their train.

Keep in mind this was back in the 1930's through 80's until the coal business fell off drastically here. The job of switch tender is now pretty much a thing of the past as rails are now lined up by whatever brakemen are working the head, and east end, of the yard and happen to be available at the time an incoming train is approaching.