Siding (railway)

“ Is it possible for one man to attend to all these things without losing time, without endangering his life, or exposing the rolling stock to great injury? When he has waggons to take on at a station, he will most likely leave his brake van and part of his train standing on the main line while he goes into the siding. Here is the danger: the engine-driver may be backing into the siding too fast, through not being able to see the guard’s signal, either on account of the dullness of the night or otherwise. ”

“ A siding may be a hundred or a hundred and fifty yards from the signal-box. On a dark, and perhaps foggy night, the usual way of performing shunting at the present time is, for the signalman to depend upon the man in charge to show him a white light by hand lamp, or give a signal on a gong worked by electricity, when the main line is all clear for another train to pass. Now the former is a very dangerous system, for where shunting is taking place, the guards and the men in charge have each lights in their hands; there are also lights on the engine, and on the train which is being shunted. ”

“ No wagon or car shall (under a penalty of 1s.) be moved by hand on to or along the main line, except by special arrangement with the engine-driver; and the term “main line” shall be understood to include every part of the railway not being a siding or within a terminal yard.
6. Hand shunting of vehicles on sidings shall be done carefully, so as to avoid injury to the rolling stock; but no vehicle shall be moved at all except by an authorised person. ”

“ Other outgoing shipments, consisting principally of boxes, containers, and household goods, are also made. The siding is a flag station for three passenger trains, two eastbound and one westbound daily. ”

“ The sagging makes the mechanical resistance but little more than is experienced in hauling a train of the same weight along a rigid track, while the use of flexible rods enables the road to be built much more lightly and hence much more cheaply than if stiff rails were used. On curves, sidings, and sections for loading and unloading, however, it is found better to employ the stiff rails, which are supported by posts thirteen feet apart. The form of
Fig. 2-A Telpher Train at the Railway Siding. ”

“ An arriving goods train is first drawn out of the main-traffic lines into one of the shunting lines, and then handed over to the staff of men in charge of the sorting operations, who at once mark the waggons according to the number or designation of the particular siding into which they have to be placed. A suitable engine is generally set apart for this work, and in a very short time the entire train is divided out by one or more waggons at a time, and distributed into the various sidings, representing different sections of the line, or groups to be handed over to neighbouring railways. ”

“ Great care must be taken to prevent the sidings from becoming blocked by crossing a wrong point. Where two or more engines are operating over a complex siding this may easily be done, and a delay of several hours will be the result. ”

“ The station-yard itself should, however, be on the level, or as nearly so as possible, for the convenience and safety of marshalling or shunting carriages or waggons. No siding should be laid on such a gradient as would render it possible for vehicles to start into motion during high winds. Carriages and waggons having good oil axle-boxes will start themselves on a gradient of 1 in 300 under the influence of a moderately strong breeze, and a slight push will start them on a gradient of 1 in 400. ”

“ It is contended that, regardless of the fact that the order of the Commission provides only for a switch connection with the siding of the coal company, the siding must be regarded as an extension within the meaning of paragraphs 18 to 21, because, under the law of Illinois, all tracks which cross highways are deemed public tracks, and this track crosses highways. ”

“ If a train is waiting for a connection, with a siding switch in rear, the facing point switch should be opened, so that if the incoming man loses his air or misjudges distances the train will not be hit. ”

“ By means of this system, while the large outlay required for laying down rods to work the points is avoided, all the security of interlocking is retained. A simple frame of levers is provided for working the signals, with a number of keys. If a certain siding is required to be used, the key which applies to that siding is withdrawn, and this has the effect of mechanically locking all signals for the road with which the siding connects. ”

“ A medium-sized travelling-crane is a most useful appliance about a railway station; it has a much greater range of utility than a fixed crane, but it is not always appreciated as it should be. It merely requires a line of rails laid down parallel to the rails of siding, and may be placed either on the same level as the siding, or on the level of the loading-bank. Being laid flush with the roadway, the rails do not present any obstacle to the passage of carts or movement of merchandise. ”

“ Now, every railway man knows that when one thing goes wrong on a railroad, two more mishaps are sure to follow; so, when the rescuing crew heard over the wire that the train they had left on a siding, having been butted by another train heading in, had started back down grade, spilled over at the lower switch, and blocked the main line, they began to expect something to happen at home.
However, the driver had to go when the old [Pg 95] man was in the cab and the G.M. with a whole army of engineers and workmen waiting for him at Pee-Wee ”

“ They are therefore kept in a kind of siding, and are only temporarily connected with the main line for the purpose of replenishing a passing current. In the case of a railway the service of a pointsman is often needed to connect and disconnect a siding; but in the case of the telegraph the connecting link between the replenishing battery and the main line is made self acting. ”

“ It is usually understood and provided that, when trains meet, those having the right of track shall keep the main track, with sometimes an exception to this in favor of trains which cannot go on the siding without backing. Where this latter provision exists it renders it unnecessary for either train to pass the switch in the face of the other when they are to meet at a siding open only at one end. It is sometimes, however, necessary to put a superior train on the siding for a train that is too heavy or too long to go on, or for some other reason. ”

“ Late in the afternoon the time freight, or some other train, came along, and the special was once more set in motion eastward, but at dinner-time it was again side-tracked, eighty-odd miles from its destination, and once more at a desert siding where there was no telegraph office. The car was still standing on the siding when Blount went to bed. ”

“ Each was firm in the belief that he had seen a ghost, but he would never tell it,—not for his job.
The officials in the special train felt the resistance of the engine when the engineer shut off and reversed, and the general manager, turning to the superintendent, asked, with surprise: "When did you put in that siding?"
"What, back there? That's Coyote spur, and has been there for six months," was the reply.
"I know very well," said the manager, "where Coyote spur is, for we waited there fifteen minutes for No. 8 going down the other day, but we just passed a siding on the north." ”

“ Every few miles, to the accompaniment of shrieking brake shoes, the train would slow to a stop, and rumble onto a siding at some little flat town, to allow a faster train to hurl past in a rush of smoke, and dust, and deafening roar, and whistle screams. Then the wheezy engine would nose out onto the main track, back into another siding, pick up a box car or two, spot an empty at the grain spout of a sagging red-brown elevator, and couple onto the train again with a jolt that threatened to bounce the cars from the rails, and caused the imprisoned horses to stamp and snort nervously. ”

“ I said, "Isn't this Flimdunk Siding? We're supposed to stay here until a train picks us up."
He said, "Yes, but this car has no business inside the fence; this is the old ice-house freight siding. They should have left you standing out near the main line."
I said, "Yes, but this car has something to say about it, too, and it wouldn't stop, so here we are. Don't blame us, blame the car. That's the way it is with railroads, they don't care about anybody's rights." ”

“ Matilda Pitman RILLA and Jims were standing on the rear platform of their car when the train stopped at the little Millward siding. The August evening was so hot and close that the crowded cars were stifling. Nobody ever knew just why trains stopped at Millward siding. Nobody was ever known to get off there or get on. ”

“ We wait patiently upon a long siding until everything else has been moved—through fast expresses heavily laden with opulent-looking Pullmans, jerky little suburban trains, long draughts of empty coaches, being drawn by consequential switch-engines in and out of the train-shed of the passenger station. Finally a certain semaphore blade drops, we cross over to the important main line and begin pulling on a sharp curve, across the river, clear of the station with its confusion, through and past the city to a busy division yard. ”

“ The man is crazy, thought the operator, but he would try. As he rushed from the office a light engine was just pulling out of the siding to take water. This locomotive belonged to the crew of a work train, but the train had been left in the siding. The operator sprang into the cab, and shouted to the engineer to pull out and catch No. 8; "lap order," he added, and that was enough. The driver, without waiting for his fireman who was some yards behind, tugging at a stiff switch in an effort to close it, pulled the throttle open and bounded away up the steep grade behind the passenger train. ”

“ To see what CTC does, you’ll first have to imagine a stretch of railroad way out in the country, thirty miles from any station. There’s just one main track, with sidings where trains running in opposite directions can pass each other. Each engineer has his train orders, so he knows whether he’s supposed to go onto the siding or continue straight through. But unexpected things can always happen. If a train is late, it may not get to the siding on time. ”

“ Every now and then, however, a man climbed the ugly fence and dropped down on the other side. Then he ran for the shelter of the long lines of cars standing on the siding. A crew of men recruited from the office force of the railroad was trying to make up a train. The rabble that had gained entrance to the yards were blocking their movements by throwing switches at the critical moment. As Sommers came up to the fence, the switching engine had been thrown into the wrong siding, and had bunted up at full speed against a milk car, sending the latter down the siding to the main track. ”

“ Dudley returns one member to Parliament; whose politics must, it is supposed, be those of the holder of the Ward estate.
Returning from Dudley through Walsall to Bescot Bridge, the rail pursues its course through a mining country to Bilston and Wolverhampton. On the road we pass in sight of the Birmingham canal, one of the finest works of the kind in the kingdom. An enormous sum was spent in improving the navigation, in order to prove that any railway was unnecessary. ”

“ On working days few men are to be seen, they are in the pits or the ironworks, but women are met on the high-road clad in men’s once white linsey-woolsey coats and felt hats, driving and cursing strings of donkeys laden with coals or iron rods for the use of the nailers.
On certain rare holidays these people wash their faces, clothe themselves in decent garments, and, since the opening of the South Staffordshire Railway, take advantage of cheap excursion trains, go down to Birmingham to amuse themselves and make purchases. ”

“ At the hour mentioned, the Railway passenger-yard is vacant, silent, and as spotlessly clean as a Dutchman’s kitchen; nothing is to be seen but a tall soldier-like policeman in green, on watch under the wooden shed, and a few sparrows industriously yet vainly trying to get breakfast from between the closely packed paving-stones. How different from the fat debauched-looking sparrows who throve upon the dirt and waste of the old coach yards! ”

“ No man who has a taste for studying the phases of life and character should fail to travel at least once by the Parliamentary.
The large cheap load having rumbled off from the south side of the station, about nine o’clock preparations are commenced for the aristocratic Express, which, on this line, is composed of first-class carriages alone, in which, at half the price of the old mail coach fares, the principal stations on the line are reached at railway speed. ”

“ When Government inspectors were first appointed by the Board of Trade to examine and report upon the working of railways, they were alarmed by the number of trains following each other at some stations, in what then seemed to be a very rapid succession. A passage from a Report written in 1840 by Sir Frederick Smith, as to the traffic at “Taylor’s Junction,” on the York and North Midland Railway, contrasts curiously with the railway life and activity of the present day:—“Here,” wrote the alarmed Inspector, “the passenger trains from York as well as Leeds and Selby, meet four times a day. ”

“ We looked and saw a headlight in the east.
"That's 55."
"Where do they meet?"
"55 takes the long siding in from the junction"—which was two miles east—"and she ought to be on it right now," added the dispatcher, anxiously, looking over the master-mechanic's shoulder.
Neighbor jumped as if a bullet had struck him. "She'll never take a siding to-night. She's coming down the main track. What's her orders?" he demanded, furiously. ”