WW&F No. 9 - Official Work Thread

[Jason M Lamontagne]

There are two rotary switches in series.  The first is on/off.  The second is a selector for front/ rear head light.  The two switches are different and as such have different knob styles.  We figured this as an advantage as you know which switch you're grabbing in the dark.

See ya
Jason

[Bill Baskerville]

I hate to be the dummy who asks, but is the train signal bell used instead of the large bell or whistle to communicate with the conductor and brakeman?  Or, does it have some other use of which I clearly don't know about?

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

The cab bell is used by the Conductor (via rope running through the coach) to signal the engine crew. 

[Alan Downey]

So that explains the hole in coach 3's vestibules... I'd always wondered about those, so it's nice to get the full story!

[Philip Marshall]

I think it would be fun to try it out sometime, running a line back from No. 9's cab to coach No. 3. (How many railroad museums are there that even have this capability anymore?)

[James Patten]

We did this a number of years ago, with #10.  We'd run a rope through the vestibule hole to 10's bell rope.  Unfortunately with no rope holder in the coach we had to use the clerestory window handles to hold the rope up.  And occasionally we'd forget to disconnect the rope when we disconnected the engine from the coach.

[Bill Baskerville]

At least that is not as serious as forgetting to disconnect the hand rail chains, though it would be hard on the clerestory window handles which are irreplaceable.  Perhaps connecting the end of the rope at each end of each car to a magnate that would disconnect before damage was done would work.  Similar to the way fire doors are held open in hospitals.

[Philip Marshall]

Thanks, James. Does No. 10 have a signal bell as well? I had not noticed that.

[James Patten]

No signal bell on #10.  We attached it to the regular bell rope.

[Wayne Laepple]

Way back, I believe it was more common to use a leather cord to connect the signal bell from the engine to the cars, as well as through and between the cars. There was some sort of clip arrangement to connect between the engine and the first car and so on through the train. The bell arrangement was succeeded by an air whistle in the cab actuated by a valve in any car in the train. (I remember the distinctive "peep, peep" of the cab whistle.) In some cases, an electric buzzer was used. Amtrak has a buzzer system in its trains, I believe.

[Bill Sample]

When I started on the Valley RR as a trainman and later conductor we always hooked up the air communication line but it wasn't used all that much. Hand signals were the norm.

[Philip Marshall]

Buzzers are still used on a number of commuter railroads as well, for example on the Long Island RR and Metro-North RR in New York. They use a simplified version of locomotive whistle signals, e.g. 2 buzzes to proceed after a station stop, 3 to back up, etc. (As an occasional passenger on both of the above roads I think I've heard the 3-buzz backup signal used just once, when the train I was on was forced to make a reverse move because of a track condition ahead.)

[Paul Uhland]

NM Rail Runner uses a buzzer system for its commuter trains.

[Carl G. Soderstrom]

Will the head lamp be wired as in this photo on FB?
Using the handrail as conduit?

Is this why there is only 1 handrail end finial?

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

There is a seperate conduit pipe on the engineman's side that feeds from the turbine to the headlight.  You can see it in the photo of the new running boards, it's just above the handrail.