Knuckle man Wrote:
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> Why would you walk the train for a broken knuckle?
> Just set it on the ground with someone and pull
> the train forward until the broken knuckle car is
> next to the person with the knuckle, then put
> person and knuckle on last car and back up the
> train to second half of train. Sorry I'm lazy and
> those things seem heavy...

Wow! I guess you all don't run with any air in your train! On MY railroad, WE use air and the CONDUCTOR (or BRAKEMAN if you're lucky) walks back to the break, closes the angle cock, then rides up to the point where the new knuckle was placed on the ground by the engineer or conductor. After either replacing the knuckle (if it was on the last car) or placing it on the rear step platform, he then rides back to the rear portion and puts everything back together again. If he was real quick about it (and we have room for a 6.6), the train can back up to pick him up on the head-end. Otherwise, it's a nice walk back up the head-end.