{"id":1804,"date":"2019-09-08T10:38:48","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T15:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/?p=1804"},"modified":"2019-09-08T10:38:48","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T15:38:48","slug":"switching-cars-at-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/2019\/09\/08\/switching-cars-at-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Switching Cars at Night"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In January of 1943 Jack Delano spent a night in Calumet City, Illinois observing an Indiana Harbor Belt crew at work in the yard. A cooperative crew member demonstrated a few basic signals for Mr. Delano to document with his camera. The switchman is using a fusee (which most non-railroaders would know as a flare). These produce an intense red light, making it highly visible in the dark, especially during rain or snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Fusee<\/a>
This first signal means Go Ahead<\/strong><\/em> (forward) . . . a simple up and down motion, usually done several times.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Fusee<\/a>
This signal means Back Up<\/em><\/strong> . . . a circular motion, usually repeated several times
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Fusee<\/a>
And this signal means Stop<\/em><\/strong> (that’ll do<\/em> in railroad parlance) . . . a back and forth swinging motion repeated several times.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are several other signals used, but these are the three basic ones used for movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these fusees are very bright and easy to see, it is perhaps more common for the switchman to use a lantern for his signaling, as it will burn for many hours and is more economical. But the fusee can’t be beat when conditions are really bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In January of 1943 Jack Delano spent a night in Calumet City, Illinois observing an Indiana Harbor Belt crew at work in the yard. A cooperative crew member demonstrated a few basic signals for Mr. Delano to document with his … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photos-i-like","category-railfanning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1804"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1812,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804\/revisions\/1812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}