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Re: UP did use a turqouise color on Signals
Author: OldPoleBurner
Date: 04-02-2008 - 22:48
Now that musta hurt.
To misquote somebody really smart (Sigmund Freud), "Sometimes a pole is just a pole".
My grandfather occasionally took me with him out on the line when I was a kid. I once heard his boss (the division super) refer to him and his gang as pole burners. He was a lineman / signalman for a common carrier railroad for over forty years, and for a mine railway before that. I must take after him in many ways, as I also took his profession as mine - now in the engineering end of it - and also pushing forty years.
In the old days, when pole lines were common; linemen (or signal maintainers) had to climb poles to maintain the signal and communication lines. Usually, railroad linemen had to strap climbing gear (spikes) to their boots that would dig into the wood as they climbed. A safety belt held you close to the pole and provided the tension needed to hold the spikes into the pole while you worked.
Unfortunately, this method was far from perfect. Occasionally, the spikes would loose their grip and down you went! With the belt still holding you close - ouch! ouch! ouch! The process was known as burning a pole; and those who commonly did it (linemen and signal maintainers) were once refered to in old railroad slang as "Pole Burners". Some power company linemen also used the term, as it happens to them too.
Being also in my grandfathers profession (though much more modern now), I took up the slang term as my handle, in his honor.
OPB
To misquote somebody really smart (Sigmund Freud), "Sometimes a pole is just a pole".
My grandfather occasionally took me with him out on the line when I was a kid. I once heard his boss (the division super) refer to him and his gang as pole burners. He was a lineman / signalman for a common carrier railroad for over forty years, and for a mine railway before that. I must take after him in many ways, as I also took his profession as mine - now in the engineering end of it - and also pushing forty years.
In the old days, when pole lines were common; linemen (or signal maintainers) had to climb poles to maintain the signal and communication lines. Usually, railroad linemen had to strap climbing gear (spikes) to their boots that would dig into the wood as they climbed. A safety belt held you close to the pole and provided the tension needed to hold the spikes into the pole while you worked.
Unfortunately, this method was far from perfect. Occasionally, the spikes would loose their grip and down you went! With the belt still holding you close - ouch! ouch! ouch! The process was known as burning a pole; and those who commonly did it (linemen and signal maintainers) were once refered to in old railroad slang as "Pole Burners". Some power company linemen also used the term, as it happens to them too.
Being also in my grandfathers profession (though much more modern now), I took up the slang term as my handle, in his honor.
OPB
