I use toothpicks instead of skewers to uncouple..The other day I'd just lifted up a toothpick as loco was about to side swipe a box car's corner..I held it horizontally in between engine and car..Engine closed in on it and I let it go while other end stayed against box car end on adjacent track and pushed it until it gave clearance for loco..!! Pick didn't even drop to track..I held it as I reversed loco a tad !! I polled a car in HO !! I doubt I'm the first to, but it was just like the real(outlawed) thing... Toothpick uncoupling has become completely engrained (pun intended)..They are so kind to the knuckles..I haven't, but you could stain them and just leave them around here and there as I do anyway..You don't even notice them until you want to... One question though: Is there a way to manually set coupers in their Kadee type car-spotting mode ( where car remains uncoupled while being pushed into a spur)? Or must it be done solely with a magnet ?
I'm ignorant I don't know what polling a car is. PS..There is nothing wrong with ending a sentence with a preposition
Here's a site with a pretty good explanation: http://unionpacificdrawingtrivia.com/2011/11/20/poling-cars-was-dangerous-it-sure-was/
In the old days with 5-7 man crews they were VERY efficient. There were many practices that are no longer acceptable. Flying switches, Dutch drops, poling cars etc.. all these tools were used to make the job faster. Dropping cars by was risky. If things went well you saved a few minutes by letting the cars roll into a spur or siding without running around it and shoving them in with the locomotive on the opposite end . The risk was sometimes the cars just wouldn't roll all the way into the spur, when that happened the engine was trapped, the alternative was to use a pole and shove the cars back out of the spur or adjacent track and try it again. We still use gravity drops . If you need to get your engine on the other end of the cars it is possible to drop the cars on a slight grade, set a hand brake, uncouple the locomotives, run the engine clear of a switch and stop. Line the switch for an adjacent track , release the handbrakes on the standing cut of cars and let them roll past the standing locomotives. When the cars clear the switch stop them with handbrakes, line the switch for the engines and you are on the opposite end of the cars. There used to be many methods of switching but since we do not have as many people on train crews there aren't enough for the more exotic maneuvers. Randy (flying switch) Stahl
Yes, but has anyone else poled a car or cars (Polled ?) in HO as I did again 2 days ago ? I'm more so getting at a 2nd toothpick usefulness..Firstly, uncoupling with them..So, again, is there a way to set Kadee type coupler knuckles in the 'delayed action' manually ? Or, must it be done with magnet only ? The reason being I want to set the delay at an arms length switch and from there loco pushes car(s ) into hard to reach spur..I've completely had it with the back and forth dance with locos over the magnet situation..
I have never heard or read about anyone using a pole in model railroading. But it might have been somewhere. If so, probably quite rarely.
Candy, in earlier steam days they had a thick pole hanging on side of switcher tender .. In yards they would sometimes place it in between loco and a freight car (s) on an adjacent track and so push cars in 2 tracks a same time..That's what those little concaved cup shapes are for on pilot beam of loco and end beam of a box car..It was outlawed as being too dangerous; men on ground getting whacked in the head...Some old steam photos show them polling...
Here is a short clip of a caboose being polled. The Pennsylvania RR had polling cars to switch yards, so an engine could work three tracks at once. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUb8PeeT2WI Gene S.
I think steam operating rules at least still permit a pole to be carried. I seem to remember seeing one hanging on PM 1225's tender as it did in the 40's.
