Nostalgia & History > Handing up the orders on the fly

c.1980
Alan K House is handing up the orders to a westbound L&N(Family Lines) train at Mt Vernon, Indiana. The train was bound for St Louis. Alan was a clerk at the Mt Vernon L&N depot. This photo was in his collection. He was one of those guys that loved his job with the railroad. Alan passed away in 2017.

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Great picture of a common part of railroading that is long gone.

Neither Mr. House nor the gentleman snagging the orders in 1980 look to be kids. If he lived until 2017, Alan House apparently had a long retirement. Good for him.

Thanks for posting. 

RetiredHogger Wrote:
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> Great picture of a common part of railroading that
> is long gone.
>
> Neither Mr. House nor the gentleman snagging the
> orders in 1980 look to be kids. If he lived until
> 2017, Alan House apparently had a long retirement.
> Good for him.
>
> Thanks for posting. 
He lived to be 84 and had a good quality of life up until near the end. He was also a model railroader. 

Excellent look back.
JB

Looks way to dangerous to me.
I am surprised anyone survived a week to say nothing of living to retirement.
What if that stick hit the trainman in the eye ?  What if, what if, what if, what if ??????
(sarcasm)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/24 17:42 by Englewood.

Englewood Wrote:
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> Looks way to dangerous to me.
> I am surprised anyone survived a week to say
> nothing of living to retirement.
> What if that stick hit the trainman in the eye ? 
> What if, what if, what if, what if ??????
> (sarcasm)

Well, just think of how it was prior to those more "modern" "Y" order sticks with the string held order. With the old "hoops" the Train Order Operator had walk down the track and retrieve the two "hoops" (one from the engine crew and one from the caboose crew). No matter what the weather conditions.

Reminds me of one of my attempts to get orders being handed up.  A friend was the engineer on MoPac CUM train at Avondale, CO.  Unknown to me, he had decided to take a picture of me taking a picture of him.  He missed his orders.  Fortunately they were stopping for a meet, so we shagged his orders down to him at the east end of the siding.  Just one humerous moment of the 1970 era.

RR

I saw one of those " sticks" come apart  when the conductor stuck out his arm for the message.  He did not get them and they stopped the train and he walked back and got them.

On the Pensacola Division on the former L&N, old head conductors with an assigned caboose like on a local, spoke of keeping a xtra hoop on the cab and would exchange hoops when getting orders or waybills. Remember old operators telling stories of handing up orders back in the day of steam. required nerves and good judgment.
Steve