Speed and trains ticketed

[NW Mailing List]

Speeding "issues" aren't limited to mainline railroads - a business friend  
who was a native of Cleveland told me a story from WW II - it seems 
Cleveland  Railways had, for reasons I do not remember, a rule that late evening 
runs had  to be back at Public Square by midnight.  One motorman on a long run 
was  having problems getting back on time, until a friend of his in the 
shop  volunteered to reinstall the field taps on the motor controls for the car 
he  usually got assigned.  Apparently that class of cars had originally 
been  bought for some interurban runs that could benefit from the higher speed  
capability, but as those routes had been cut back during the Depression, 
the  field taps were removed.  (Anyone needing a more detailed technical  
explanation of all this please contact me off line.)  All was going well,  the 
motorman was completing his runs on time with room to spare....until he got  
clocked going 65 mph on Euclid Avenue!
 
Dave Phelps
 
 
In a message dated 2/24/2011 8:31:05 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

I doubt  this was the FIRST time an engine/engineer were ticketed for
excessive  speed by the local g'd'armmes.

I have read of Southern Railway being  cited around 1900 for excessive
speed and the engineer and train were held  pending some sort of
disposition. That date is NO error for I have read it  in local
newspapers and suspect this was not the first. I can't vouch for  the
N&W and other RR's, but suspect that if some local cop had an  issue
for whatever the reason, it was acted out even at this early date  and
the railroad and train and engineer appropriately cited.

Bob  Cohen

>

I had a somewhat similar radar speed check experience during  the
82-day clerks' strike against the N&W in 1978. During the strike I  was
assigned as engineer between Bellevue, OH and Buffalo, NY, a  248-mile
run on the old Nickel Plate main line, and I eventually logged  almost
11,000 miles at the throttle during that time.  The  double-track line
through Lakewood, OH, west of Cleveland encountered 21  residential
street grade crossings in just two miles! The track speed  through here
was 35 mph, and several times my "picture" was taken by the  local
police with hand-held radar guns. Luckily, I was right on the money  in
terms of speed each time.

>

> Gordon  Hamilton

>   ----- Original Message -----

>    From: NW Mailing List

>   To:  nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

>   Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011  1:47 PM

>   Subject: Pokey engineers

>

Story told to  me about my friend G.S. Flower, pokey engineer, late 40
to early 80's; In  the early 50's the Sheriff dept. and Virginia
Highway patrol had adapted a  new traffic tool, the radar speed check
system. Flower, who was a nuisance  to the Tazewell Sheriff, had a
repetition for a heavy throttle hand and was  clocked going through
North Tazewell Depot , freight in tow, at 45 MPH. I  assume that the
first ever speeding ticket for a Rail Road Engineer was  sent to the
Bluefield division office.

>

>   Gene  A.

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