At No time have I posted that I moved a Shunt loco without being signaled by the Shunter or on my own volition whilst anticipating the movement.

You inferred that, only God knows why, and still spout it in every post so I'm guessing you are a Democrat and/or a close relation of Adam Schiff. :)

from my initial post....Re: Kicking Cars @ SP’s Desert Yard 1990
>
Interesting take....we learned to anticipate the Shunter's move and regulate the move accordingly, once you knew the vagaries of the various Shunters and their foibles, sweet. Same with the men on the ground, they learned the habits of the Shunt Enginedrivers, whether he be old and cranky or young, new and learning to adjust just when they changed their signalling to the locomotive.

We didn't have knuckle couplers but a vertical Hook into centre Buffer and it took some balls to step in and lift the hook when the loco shoved in for an ease-up, 40 or 50 wagons down. You[the Shunter] really wanted to know your man[Driver] then.

Reverse was the guy's who took several attempts to life(sic)[lift] the hook, the savvy Enginedriver knew who those guys were and moved accordingly careful not to knock the Shunter off his feet.
Fast runners got waved down earlier than slower Drivers, some just never caught on and bumbled their way through life, applied to both the traffic branch on the ground and the loco branch in the cab.

I could relate a few instances but you probably wouldn't understand our lingo.

Chris
in New Zealand


Dr Zarkoff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hold on a little bit. You are conflating thinking
> about what you perceive as about to happen and
> actually acting on those thought processes. To put
> it another way, you can anticipate what the ground
> crew is about to do all you want, but you better
> not take any actions on those thoughts until they
> give you the go ahead to do anything because their
> instructions might dictate movements which are
> diametrically opposed of what you were expecting.
>
> You're also conflating the details of control
> manipulation (throttle and brakes) with the
> signals the crew give you, which confuses the
> situation.

It is apparent you are easily confused. Since it was you who wrote a text book answer that has no variance for anything, like gradient of backshunt, wet/greasy rail condition, wind strength, disproportionate load or other than EMD power....nor clasp brakeblocks vs single brakeblocks.

> DRZarkoff wrote

How to kick cars (in the US): switchman gives kick sign, E opens throttle to run 8 and releases engine brakes; switchman gives stop sign, E applies engine brakes (fully) and shuts off throttle. With double and triple cutting, you can switch out on the order of 300 cars per shift using this type of control operation (as they say, BTDT many times, occasionally using the 2686)


> You're more than welcome to expound on and boast
> of your train railroading skills, but don't expect
> me to be impressed because I'm not.

Changed your tune somewhat eh! Why don't you use your real name huh?

>And BTW,
> "railroad" and "railway" are essentially
> synonymous, unless you're picking nits.

Hint: I was being Sarcastic :)
>

>
> I railroaded for over 40 years, beginning in 1969.
> One of the key skills to learn was how to follow
> along with the work as it progressed: what are we
> going to do? switch out some cars. The
> anticipation: going back and forth, stopping,
> kicking cars, dropping cars, etc. When is each
> particular move to be made and how? follow the
> signals.

>


> > just like the Iron Ore roads in Northern
> Australia that came hunting our Drivers back in
> the 70's, and still do today :)
>
> Rio Tinto & associates have had great difficulty
> retaining Aussie drivers because of the remoteness
> of the Pilbara (for our readers: it's pronounced
> "PILL-bra"), so they look to other countries.
> Turnover has been high.
>

Although you would like to sound like you know what you're talking about, even with inserting pronunciation, you are wrong.
Mount Newman came looking for NZR Drivers first port of call while they were building their iron ore line. One of the ED's from my first Depot went there. And they came back again some years later. One Reason only: because of the excellent train handling skills of the Kiwis vs the rest simply because of our freight buffer/hook drawgear slackage. Not because of unable to keep crews, that excuse came later.

>
> >Chorus girls eh, cough cough! Ahem, I'll never
> get that image out of my head from now on.
>
> Well at least I've made at least one lasting
> impression. It's a term I picked up from
> Scientific American.

Pity you didn't pick up on the comprehension tips. But you have made a lasting impression for sure.