The dangerous railroad art of shunting wagons with wooden sticks - Poling 

:D👍

i KNEW that tune was familiar! Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is where I first recall hearing it, it was driving me nutty until i scrolled down.

Ah! I knew I recognized that song! Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! What a well-done reference~

one of dick van dykes best musical bits

(slow clap)

The whole video reminds me of _The_ _General..._ When I was a child, there was no Internet, but I read about The General in an encyclopedia. It even had a still image from the film. I was into trains (and movies) and was so very, very eager to see that film. When, many years later, I finally did, I wasn't disappointed.

@@VideoDotGoogleDotCom same as I. Also, the real Texas locomotive is still around today. The actual locomotive had to chase The General in reverse which angered the driver of The General. Including that the Confederates used 2 locomotives to pursue them. The union soldiers who took part in the raid also recieved the Medal of Honor.

@arturochambers27 Rarely does Yonah and Catoosa get any credit for taking part. Texas didn't have a choice.

@@arturochambers27 The General is being housed at Big Shanty now.

I'm reminded of the "flying switch," another practice that's both an obvious time saver and obviously hazardous.

@@MrBirdnose what is this 'flying switch' you speak of?

@@Reiver-93 It's A strategy for switching a car onto a facing spur without having to run the locomotive around the car. The locomotive and car start moving on the main line, then the car is cut loose and the locomotive accelerates to open a gap. The switch is thrown between the locomotive and the car and the car coasts onto the spur. It's effective and time saving, but also a dynamic maneuver where a lot can go wrong if your timing is off.

A~feared it would become trapped..."down under".

Yeah, some brazilian ALCos, early EMDs and Pullman Standard built cars had poling pockets but they were never used because kicking cars was already widespread.

Poling policies differed among railroads, but it pretty much stopped around the 1960s and if you look at equipment built before then almost all of it has poling pockets. Interestingly the ICC and Contemporary FRA don’t seem to have anything outlawing it.

It was common enough practice that rolling stock and locomotive manufactures provided the pockets. A number of railroads included poles as a part of their book of standards, complete with the general make up, dimensions, and sizes of "official poles". Switching locomotives often even had racks installed for a pole to be stored. Neither the ICC, CFR49. AAR handbook, or the FRA actually have anything 'outlawing' it.

Propping, as it was known in the UK was strongly discouraged but not banned in the UK due to the number of accidents and injuries caused by doing it.

I can guarantee at least half the trains there have a dimple or ring for poling. Lol. Most of the trains at the National Railroad Museum do

I think it was 2015 that the FRA mandated any rail cars with poling pockets have to be retired or have the pockets cut off. Even though the practice was outlawed 35 years prior there was still a lot of cars with pockets.

@The 101st Dalmation...As an "Original Transcon RR" enthusiast, I find it fascinating how railroading was done before automatic couplers became the standard in America. Injury and death apparently was common, as modern automobile accidents are, and exploding boilers yet another hazard. The modern replica locomotives: #119, and Jupiter, of Promontory Summit fame, have one piece boilers. Thanks for your details. Darrell. 🙂

I've always called it shunting here in NE Pennsylvania where I have lived for fifty years.

Sounds JUST like something some fool came up with for an idea that wasnt thought thru at all, like what happens if there is "slack" and the pole falls down on the track? like what happens if the pole snaps in half, how fast will the projectile pieces slam into the nearest guy's chest?

Do you mean an Atlas car mover?

They were called pinch poles in England.

@@ronselliers6951 Yes. Didn’t know that they were called that in english.

perhaps

One of the first rules is never stand in the gauge unless your current task requires it. Drifting cars can be disturbingly quiet and you may never hear them coming before they squish you.

Here in Switzerland (and I think in most of Europe as well), Shunting Yards are almost fully automated today. Arriving Trains get split up manually, and Then a (oftentimes radiocontrolled) Shunting Locomotive pushes them over a small Hill. Once over the Top of the Hill, the Waggons then roll off on their own down the other Side, where the fully automated Network of Switches and Brakes let the Waggons roll into their new Train. The new Train then gets pushed together via automated pusher and manually reconnected. Then Locomotives get hooked up and take the new configurated Trains to their Destination. I don't know why nearly everyday somewhere in USA Trains derail at almost no Speed. Derailments are nearly unknown here, as Rails and rolling Stock are Inspected regularely and our Trains all drive at Speeds between 60-200Km/h depending on the Line...

@@samuelbhend2521 First, you described exactly what a hump yard is. You push rolling stock over the hump and then switches and gravity arrange them. Second Switzerland is a tiny country (no offense). West Virginia which is a very small state in the U.S. is 1.52 times as large as Switzerland. Switzerland has 3,241 miles of track vs. The U.S. having 160,141 miles of track.

​@@Cragified I take no Offense :) I know we are just a dot on the Map. But I'm always baffled seeing US Videos of anything Public Infrastructure related, how Bad in a State most of it is. Sometimes down to 3rd World Country Level... (I'm used to 15yr. old Stock being scrapped as "too old to refit" to the new restrictions/technical gimmicks and 20year old Bridges/Tunnels/whatever getting major overhaul, for public Safety "because it's already 20years old!") ou Safety and all other restrictions get replaced/new configurated every few Years... Switzerland is built upon and depends on it's Tightknitted federal and stately public Transportation System with matching up Timetables down to the very Minute, whilst Public Trasportation in the US is something only People from big Cities will vaguely know what it is... Our federal and the 26 stately Gouvernements spend Billions/Year to maintain and expand Public Transport even more. By Law every Village over 300 Inhabitants must be connented to Public Transport and also two major European Freightroutes go trough Switzerland.

@@samuelbhend2521 safety for american railroads have very low standards due to the freight companies who own all the track there prioritising profit over everything else, not a good way to run trains

It's the simpler salutions that work best

You'd think by now a robotic pole could be used... Seems everyone forgot about this.

The tool kind of comingled into the common shunter's pole; what was basically a hook on a stick to uncouple wagons safety from the sideline instead of standing between the wagons. The other end of these poles commonly ended with a prybar to get wagons rolling by hand. Especially brave yardies would jam the pole into the brake rodding and physically stand on the pole and ride the rolling wagon down the siding, leaning on the pole to apply the brake as needed.

​@@45calGunslinger you wouldn't use your shunting pole to hold down the brake lever unless you wanted to break it. For braking in the early hump yards you needed a brake stick. This would be about a yard long half of which would be of square section about 2 inches thick went between the frame and the brake lever and the other half was a tapering round handle.

I think you're thinking of a Johnston bar, an American device for shifting railroad cars. You jam one end in under the tyre of one wheel and pull down on the other end of the 6 foot long lever and it shifts the car in accordance to the laws of the level a small distance.

@@neiloflongbeck5705 the Americans probably had similar practices and tools, but I was referring to UK shunters

@@45calGunslinger and so was I, you use a braking stick for braking, shunter's pole for coupling and uncoupling and nothing else. I've not come across a British shunter's pole that could be used for the movement of vehicles.

In the UK we certainly did parallel shunting mainly using ropes. I've never heard of polling being done but it could have been.

@@neiloflongbeck5705 Some locos on the North Eastern Railway had poles permanently mounted on the footframing. It was common on colliery lines in the north east to use poling.

@@nicksayajirao1730 I'm not aware of the NER using that method of shunting, but it was habit for shunter's poles to be lodge, quite often on the buffer beam, o locomotives until the 1980s. This should not be confused with beams if wood used for poling a wagon. These shunter's poles were 6 foot sticks with a hook on one end for uncoupling wagons.

@@neiloflongbeck5705 no, these are not just resting on the buffers like a shunters pole. . They’re about six inch diameter and solidly hinged to the footframe near the dragbeams. Some E class had them as well as i think some of the earlier locos. All gone by WW1 as it was considered unsafe even then.

@@nicksayajirao1730 thanks, I'll look into it.

Good point

I've seen a picture of a British 0-4-0T with built-in poles that swung out from hinges at the front and rear of the running boards - a much better solution than a seperate pole that might break, fall or similar.

Because locomotives come in and out of service a lot more than regular rolling stock. It’s a lot easier and cheaper to have a dedicated poling car then to install a bunch of poling mechanisms on a bunch of locomotives.

@@Stoker58 Doubt that was the reason. More likely they just prototyped it on an abandoned wagon, and with the whole process being in decline anyway, it never progressed. If the idea had remained in use, there is nothing stopping them having made a quick release fitting to swing the poles off the loco when needed, and drop them off when they weren't.... Kind of like the pockets but physically attached to the loco.

I was seeing if anyone was gonna mention that. I absolutely love that film.

@@MadMax-sc1su One of the best!

I live in Scranton, Pennsylvania and will have to look next time I am over Steamtown, which is walking distance from my house.