Derail Operation -- *Pittsburgh Traction* Video shows this nicely!

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

Dietrich, Robert J. wrote:

> I am in possession of a video with some footage that Bill Vigrass took of
> the signaling.  If I were to describe it my interpretation would be very
> close to Professor Holland's, without his eloquence of course.  The only
> difference on Bill's video is the delay between cars, closer to 5 seconds
> than 5 minutes.

	Let me rephrase that  --  there were two different *scenes* of cars
approaching the derail and these two scenes were about 5-minutes apart
in the video - this has nothing to do with the derail operation itself -
just that the two cars were about 5-minutes apart in case anyone was
looking for those two scenes.

>  -----Original Message-----
> From:   Jim Holland [mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net]
> Sent:   Friday, February 25, 2000 6:43 AM
> To:     PRCo -- WP -- JTC -- The Big *3*
> Subject:        Derail  Operation  --  *Pittsburgh  Traction*  Video  shows
> this nicely!
> 
> Greetings!
> 
> On 1999.12.16 at 09.31 AM Eastern time, John Swindler said:::::::
> 
> > As for derail signal, center was red, but impression is that upper
> > signal was white.  Would feel more comfortable if someone could check
> > an old operator's manual rather then trying to rely on memory from
> > 30+ years ago.
> 
>         The video shows two different cars going thru the derail within
> about 5 minutes of each other.
>         The center light appears red.  It appears as though once the car has
> passed thru the switch contactor while the motorman was depressing the
> track switch toggle, the red light remains on while the light below it
> comes on.  Colors are not easily discernible on video unless head-on and
> this is somewhat from the side, but the intensity of the bottom light is
> quite strong and appears white.
>         John had previously indicated that there was a time delay before the
> switch set.  Within several seconds, both the red and white light go out
> and the top light comes on; this top light *might* be green.
>         As soon as the front truck is on top of the derail, the top light
> goes out and the red light comes back on.  When the trolley pole passes the
> contactor on the far side of the derail, the derail sets again for the
> *turnout-to-nowhere* - ie, derail!
> 
> James B. Holland
> ------- -- ---------
>         Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of 1953
>     To e-mail *off-list,* please click here: mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
> N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/

James B. Holland
------- -- ---------
        Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of 1953
    To e-mail *off-list,* please click here: mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/