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Re: Does anybody even remember what kicking and dropping are?
Author: BOB2
Date: 06-29-2017 - 18:59
The old 2300's on Alameda Street were fun for doing dutch drops, loaded real fast.....so you could put some distance between you and the car.
A regular drop was like when we would "drop" (cut off and pull ahead, throw the switch, and let gravity more the cars downhill) with about forty cars, on the afternoon Glendale switcher, with the air "bottled" on the first six cars, and three men on handbrakes (you could still go "high" back then), into the top end of A yard from the main or the old "slide". The foreman would open the angle cock and stop them down toward the hump.
Doing a dutch drop, (pull car to gain sufficient momentum, bunch slack, pull pin, pull away and accelerate from the car, to get sufficient distance to throw intervening switch, and stop in the clear, as car rolls by) uphill, with a real slow loading unit can really increase that pucker factor, though...... And, with something like that, what could possibly go wrong.
A dutch drop was kind of like watching a well danced "ballet" to see it done just right, with perfect timing and finesse. But, it also took real balls, and real skill. And, these days, they don't let you operate on "balls" anymore.
It avoided running around the car.
A regular drop was like when we would "drop" (cut off and pull ahead, throw the switch, and let gravity more the cars downhill) with about forty cars, on the afternoon Glendale switcher, with the air "bottled" on the first six cars, and three men on handbrakes (you could still go "high" back then), into the top end of A yard from the main or the old "slide". The foreman would open the angle cock and stop them down toward the hump.
Doing a dutch drop, (pull car to gain sufficient momentum, bunch slack, pull pin, pull away and accelerate from the car, to get sufficient distance to throw intervening switch, and stop in the clear, as car rolls by) uphill, with a real slow loading unit can really increase that pucker factor, though...... And, with something like that, what could possibly go wrong.
A dutch drop was kind of like watching a well danced "ballet" to see it done just right, with perfect timing and finesse. But, it also took real balls, and real skill. And, these days, they don't let you operate on "balls" anymore.
It avoided running around the car.
