Those of you that have your 2006 NYCHS calendar have some fine photos.The one that I like is the one on the back cover.I guess that is because of the thirty years I worked on the Michigan Divison. You can see more of Wabash on the RRs of Madison County,Mich. Div. north.I was working the pool to Jeffersonville,In. on this day 6 hrs. on duty southbound with a 3 hr. realease at Jeff and 6 hrs on duty northbound to South Anderson,In. Back to the picture. The picture was taken from the hill on the east side of the cut.This is where the switchman located themselves to give signals to the thru freights when the head end was doubling from the yards to the far track on the left. The engine being on the left out of the picture on the Wabash river bridge.At that time there was not a walkway on the bridge. You will notice the white flags on the engine letting everyone know that it was an extra train.The caboose was one of the two steel pool cabs that was still at Anderson ,the rest were wood. The semaphore next to the caboose was used as a train order signal rule 221A was in effect,(non block).You will notice on the mast above the roof of the cab a small sign,this has 2 letters T O to indicate it is a train order signal.When manual block was in effect this sign had M B for manual block. The tracks from the left was #12 which held about 52-55 cars,next the yard lead and the east leg of the Y. The track where the gon is setting was the track to the freight house,engine house and 2 tracks that went to industries down town.At the rear of the last coach is a track that forms the west leg of the Y.All of this is gone except the main track.Oh what memories. LEW
LEW, glad to see you posting here again. I did not order my 2006 NYCS calendar yet. Your description of that picture is great. Most of us would look at it and see a semaphore, and not even notice the details that you pointed out. With your experience running under those conditions, you noticed things that were natural to you, but probably went over the rest of our heads. Jerry deBene has been conducting classes on diesel engineering on the board. You and he should get together, both for diesel and steam. I appreciated the classes you had for me on the Rule Book.
