I'd like to have an honest name here, but given the following, it's probably best that I don't.

The last time I used them was in 1998. We would set them at the ends of yard tracks so we didn't have to watch the shove all the way in. One of us would start the shove, while the field man would set up torpedoes. Then, as the cut would be getting about 15-20 cars in, the field man would start calling out the car counts based on his judgement of speed, etc. at the same time hoofing it over to the next place to work. There was some art to it, but switching hones these skills. About three to five cars from the remembered spot, he'd call out 'easy', listening, then a quick 'That'll do!' a minute or so later as the torpedoes went off. You could set up sequences for a particular track, like one then two then one on spot.

Management didn't think that was very cute.

This was in the not-so-distant past when it was all about 'dash mode', when you did the work and went home, not dragged ass switching being so safe that you cannot possibly focus on the task at hand, for all the mind-numbing self-checking. Think about two old people having sex, and that's how we switch cars now.

The other excellent use for them was in the parking lot often refered to as Cajon. Only one time, but my conductor put two between the axles of the rear truck of the train we flagged in behind that was stopped directly ahead of us. This allowed all three of us to take a nap, being awakened by the train ahead crawling away. This saved us the embarrasment from having to be woken up by the DS wondering why we haven't moved since the guy ahead of us took Lugo 15 minutes ago!

Finally, about three years later, if I recall correctly, someone on another division left a flagging kit between the counterweight and the deck of a pile driver or big hook crane on a bridge project. The torpedoes exploded in the crushed flagging kit as the crane body turned, and there was a minor injury. Somewhere, I still have the Safety Bulletin on that, because the company banned torpedoes after that instead of banning the idiot, and that marked another small event that took away some of the true grit of railroading for me. Now, all fusee holders in cabs and the few cabooses still around are stenciled 'Fusees only'.

They were also good for New Years, 4th of July and practicle jokes.

Torpedoes came in a twenty pound case from Olin Corp. and were hard paper wrapped and wax coated, and colored dark red. The bottom had a sand-like grit applied to help grab the polished railhead. The bands were at one time lead, then later still flat malable steel. The last torpedoes I saw came though on a UP unit about four years ago and were bright orange with pre-formed spring steel bands. Of course, I felt it my safety-minded responsiblity to remove them and put them in a safe place until New Years. They were loud enough to be heard from the cab of an SD-40 at low to moderate speed, but at high speed they sounded not unlike a rough frog or bad rail joint. You're supposed to put them in sequence, I believe two by two, fifty feet apart. This is supposed to alert the crew to immediately reduce to Restricted Speed. I seriously doubt you could hear them from the cab of a Dash-9 with the windows closed above 20-30 MPH. If they were old, they weren't very loud.

They weren't something you wanted to stand next to, but they were certainly not louder than a .357!