Not Quite.
N&W had some onerous Labor Agreements in the yard.
Trainmen did not have a seat in the cab of the small switcher engines,
There were accomodations for the Engineer and Fireman only.
In light of this, the Trainmen had to ride outside the cab and some allowance was made for the Trainman to hang on especially at track speed...exemplified by the lad below....

Also, these engines were light in weight. When coupled to several cars and switching, the wheels would slide and allow the cars behind the engine to shove it to very violent couplings, one very good reason why, that while they are mounted on the engine, the foot boards were almost never used.  

Can fat guys use the front door?

If the slack ran in, that was to prevent you from being flung off the rear of the unit.  That's always been my understanding.

A switchman's place is on the ground, switching cars.  Actually, I never heard the word switchman on my part of the old N&W and it was an old N&W terminal, where I started.  They were yard brakemen and yard conductors.  Don't know about any seat agreements for yard jobs, actually.

I worked, a long time ago, in an N&W yard where road power was used almost exclusively, except for one job that went over a weight-restricted bridge. It generally had an Alco T-6.








-- Edited by Cy Valley at 20:58, 2008-08-03

Snippy wrote:

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A T6 would move the earth if it had a drawhead on it.

And kill all the mosquitos.

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We have a few engines like that here.

None of those old ass ones, but a couple old former GN switchers that pull anything...

 

Briz, we have a few of those old, old Sante Flush units (sd-40's) for switching. They have a hard time staying running when your kickin'. Gotta restart 'em constantly.


VELOCITY!!

The hump at Balmer still uses an old SD-9 [built in 1959] solo for shoves over...

The trim job is usually a RCL Geep. Most, if not all flat switching in Seattle Terminal's yards are done with Geeps. RCL Geeps.

I knew that. I mean about the flat spots...