Railroaders' Nostalgia > Are torpedoes illegal now?

Can somebody with real world RR experience clue me in on how and when torpedoes were used in RR operations?  I know a little bit on the subject, probably just enough to make a fool of myself. 

Part of of the reason I ask is that I bought a CN caboose in the 1990s and it was delivered with about 3 dozen torpedoes in a storage box. That seemed like a lot,  But as I thought about it, I realized I didn’t know squat about how real railroaders used them. So what’s “a lot”?

BTW, if you use them as a rifle target and hit one with a .223 round, they generally ignite, rather than detonating. That strikes me as odd. 

It was the crushing under the wheel that made them explode, they were mostly gone by the turn of the century, but we had a few guys that had a couple, that would occasionally scare the pants off fellow employees. Mgt shut that down!

Torpedoes were used on the track as a warning to reduce speed or be prepared to stop especially in non block territory. 2 were usually placed on opposite rails in case one didn't explode. They had a flexible metal band to attach them to the top of the rail.
Of course some rails used them for horseplay. I bet many stories will be forth coming.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/25 19:19 by SanJoaquinEngr.

march _hare Wrote: > … I bet many stories will be forth coming …

And here’s one now: I heard the story of an engineer who had a brakeman that kept nodding off, going to sleep on him. They were in the wee hours of the morning, of course. And this engineer decided he would fix the situation. He took a torpedo and a hammer and pounded it inside the cab. It fixed the situation, but he decided he would never do that again after he had to pick tiny sand pellets out of his face. Probably a good thing he was wearing glasses at the time…

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/25 20:43 by santafe199.

Where I worked, I don't remember them ever being used for their intended purpose, other than one time when I trainmaster tested me.  Although many years ago, I have seen them put in front of a standing train so the relieving crew would be pranked, in car knuckles while flat switching our yard in Albany, or to amuse the locals on an nice evening run on Independence Day through Independence, Oregon.  On that last instance, we had to wait to traverse the town so we didn't interfere with the local fireworks show and traffic leaving it so we had our own little noise show.  I was working with Dana, by the way, which was almost always interesting.

Three pages of torpedo comments here.  What to do with an old railroad torpedo-https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5413082,5413082#msg-5413082

mapboy

Just before they were outlawed a certain engineer I knew in a commuter district got his hands on a box of them and for a few years scared the hell out of many of his brethen (jokingly) with startegic placement at certain points he knew his friends would be next to traverse.

I was working a job that hauled loaded slabs out of the port of Los Angele three miles up to Watson yard then brought down the empties to spot during a very tight window while the Longshoremen were into lunch and the second half between shifts. This is all the job did so when you spotted the second 37 empties you went home. One holiday, when the Longshoremen were not working, the guard still would not let us in until the normal time. Very irritating. I put six torpedoes on the rails while waiting and when he finally let us in it may be a good thing he was wearing brown pants to start with.
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was working a job that hauled loaded slabs out
> of the port of Los Angele three miles up to Watson
> yard then brought down the empties to spot during
> a very tight window while the Longshoremen were
> into lunch and the second half between shifts.
> This is all the job did so when you spotted the
> second 37 empties you went home. One holiday, when
> the Longshoremen were not working, the guard still
> would not let us in until the normal time. Very
> irritating. I put six torpedoes on the rails while
> waiting and when he finally let us in it may be a
> good thing he was wearing brown pants to start
> with.
> JB

OH those guards were irritating. One time I was waiting to get in to load after lunch, and the crew that pulled the empty cars out left the gate open which kept the warnings activated in the yard. He refused to let anyone drive into the yard for 2 ffff'n hours, even though there was no train in the yard at all. That was at PIer A, not Fries Ave.

Search YT "George Landrock retirement" to see torpedoes being used at Portland Union Station ;) 

Hit many a “gun” back in the day, then go hunting for burning fusses or flags.

Used them in yards and on the road for self flagging and as “switching tools”😁.

Another safety tool gone.

Regards

Posted from iPhone

There  are still used in Mexico!

Chris

Drknow Wrote:
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> Used them in yards and on the road for self
> flagging and as “switching tools”😁.
>
> Another safety tool gone.

That would be useful. Place them near the end of a empty track and shove until you hear the bang and tie down the cut. Better hope you don't get a dud, or use two.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

We the train crew were in our caboose shoving the main line out to an industry....while waiting in siding for a meet...the enigneer snuck back to the caboose and placed a torpedo under a caboose wheel...when we took off we got a start....but of course they had no real purpose in signaled territory so they mostly got used in this way or for general utility...such as was mentioned...marking the end of a track...

So, exactly when were torpedoes outlawed?

EO Wrote:
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> So, exactly when were torpedoes outlawed?


I can't find the exact date so far. I believe the date was around the earlier 2000$. In Canada the rule for the use of torpedoes was taken out of the rule book in 2006.

Posted from Android

Operators on some railroads that had normally clear order boards were required to use them when there were orders on a stop board.

I used one to stop a mail theft just down the track from the tower. Strap it to the head of a hammer, throw it out the window high enough to be sure that it came down head first and on the concrete pavement near the tower where they were ripping off the USPS trailer. BOOM! Bad guys gone leaving brown trail behind for the cops to follow.

TAW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/25 11:58 by TAW.

Now that is called creativity.
I am sure they were used much more recently, but the last time I was present during the use of torpedoes was in the late 1980s on the Southern Pacific. We had a derailment on the mainline near Byron, California and used a pretty fair sized gang of maintenance of way men and machines to restore the track. although the rails were restored and everything looked good it had not been thoroughly tamped down and perhaps there were some other details that needed to be done to finish the job. Even so a freight train needed to pass through. Two or three torpedoes had been fixed to where the slow order flag was placed as a precaution to remind the engineer to pass through at a very restricted speed. which it did but it was still good to have the torpedoes as an additional safety precaution. Once the track crew completed their work and left the scene a new job began with the SP Pipe Line company digging up the parallel pipe line next to the tracks. Once about 100 feet of the line was fully exposed. It was re-pressurized and tested with the jet fuel it was carrying while I hid behind a huge walnut tree lest we had another explosive situation similar to what had occurred previously in San Bernardino, California.
  

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Operators on some rialroads that had normally
> clear order boards were required to use them when
> there were orders on a stop board.
>
> I used one to stop a mail theft just down the
> track from the tower. Strap it to the head of a
> hammer, throw it out the window high enough to be
> sure that it came down head first and on the
> concrete pavement near the tower where they were
> ripping off the USPS trailer. BOOM! Bad guys gone
> leaving brown trail behind for the cops to
> follow.
>
> TAW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/25 12:02 by Westbound.

Apparently not useful any longer so the following examples must not happen
any more due to the superior training and efficiency testing now in place.

Example, due to some defect on a car you must cut away from part of your train
to run ahead with the b/o to the set out track.  Leaving torpedoes in front of the rear
end will keep you from running into your own rear end on return.  A not uncommon type of 
accident.  For the armchair railroaders who marvel that something like that can happen
try hanging on the side of a car, at night, in the rain, with no headlight, with one year on the
railroad in curving territory.

Another use is when awaiting a rescue engine when broken down.  There might be a misunderstanding
as to the exact location of the disabled train and the rescue engine may think he is operating at Restricted 
Speed when he is actually operating at 20 mph. I believe there was such an occurance on a railroad that
operated a tourist type train a few years ago.

Englewood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Example, due to some defect on a car you must cut
> away from part of your train
> to run ahead with the b/o to the set out track. 
> Leaving torpedoes in front of the rear
> end will keep you from running into your own rear
> end on return. 

. . . or hit by another train as in a real close call east of Hiland on the SP Palmdale Cutoff in 1973
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1077953,1078926#msg-1078926 Date: 01/14/06 10:28 Re: More about Hiland and train orders... Author: TAW

TAW