End of the year quiz #3 - Shaffers Crossing Hump - History

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Lest someone be misled by all this modern "mode" lingo, let me interject that there was no such thing as "modes" on the Shaffers Crossing Hump prior to the installation of the computer and the new Hump Offices in 1969. (It was at this time that the Yard Master was relocated from the North Hump Shanty to the second floor of the "Scale Office" building at SX.)

Prior to the installation of the computer at the Hump, there was only a Time Table Special Instruction that said something like "An engine must not move west out of the classification yard without a Trimmer Signal." 

The "Trimmer Signals" were lights (yellow, if I recall correctly) located on the corner of A Tower (again, if I recall correctly.) One governed movement on the North Hump Lead, the other on the South Hump Lead. As I recall, the signals faced both east and west.

The purpose of the Trimmer Signals was, of course, to prevent an engine moving west out of the Classification Yard while cars were being humped in its direction. 

Setting up the movements for "Trimming" was the responsibility of the Yard Master, who issued instructions to the Hump Conductor and the Tower Operators on the "round robin" telephone line, which was represented by a loudspeaker in each of those offices. The essence of the protection was the Conductor on the proper side of the Hump (north or south) stopping movement by setting his humping signal to Stop (red.) 

It was possible for the south side of the Hump to be "in Trim" while the north side of the Hump operated normally. And vice versa. 

A comment on the origin of the words "Trim" and "Trimmer Engine." After The SX Hump was rebuilt in the early 1940s, a crew called the "Trimmer Crew" was stationed at the Hump and was used to "trim up" or "straighten up" the yard when humping was nor being done. That is, to start off cars which had "hung up" without rolling completely into a track, move mis-classified cars to the proper track, etc. The Trimmer crew normally laid in the clear on either the North Trimmer Track or the South Trimmer Track while humping activity was being done, and until it was sent into action to "straighten up" the yard. I think I recall hearing that originally there had been a Trimmer Crew kept on both sides of the Hump (i.e. both north and south sides.)

I have paid attention to the published railroad journals of the era and found that the words Trim/Trimmer were not unique to the N&W. Other railroads used the same. But some railroads called such crews "side crews." 

At some point (and I could never get clear on just when,) the "Trimmer Crew" ceased to be dedicated to "trimming" service, and became just another one of the hump "pusher" crews. All of the hump crews would hump cars over the apex, trim up the yard, switch the ice house, and do whatever other duties were required. 


In its halcyon days (by which I mean well into the late 1970s,) there were three hump crews around the clock at SX. The Trimmer Crew reported "on the hour" (i.e. 7am, 3pm, 11pm.) The West Hump Crew reported at 7:30, 3:30, 11:30. The Hump Crew reported at 7:45, 3:34 and 11:45. 

And in those same good old days, three crews always worked at the 15th Street end of the Classification Yard. They were called the 840 Crew, the 940 Crew and the 1040 Crew. The really old heads told me that these names came from the day when Class W engine #940 was assigned to the "make up" (east) end of the yard, and the job came to be called by the number of its assigned engine. When a second crew was added at that location (probably around 1940,) it was given the moniker "840," even though old Engine 940 and all the other Class W engines were no longer used there. When a third crew was put on at 15th Street, it was given the name "1040." The Yard Master assigned duties to these crews as he saw fit, but usually the 840 and 940 crews worked the mixed freight on the north side of the yard and the 1040 "switched the coal" in the high numbered track (south side of the yard.) I have also seen (very occasionally) an extra fourth crew worked at 15th Street, during times when coal traffic was very heavy, and it was called the 1140 Crew.  Working that many engines off so few ladders and through so many crossovers in such a limited area  set up the conditions for conflicts and sideswipes, and the Yard Master and the crews had to stay alert to the dangers at all times.

One final remark, and it concerns something called "the Middle Yard." Occasionally in the old literature (Time Tables, N&W Magazines,) one runs across the mysterious term "Middle Yard." Fortunately I asked the 1926 men about this term and they told me it was the old name for what came to be called the "Retarder Yard" or (still later) the "Classification Yard." I think the switch in terminology was probably made at the time of the early-1940s rebuilding and enlargement. 

One post-final remark... Prior to the early-1940s rebuilding/enlargement of the SX Hump, the Hump Signal at the apex of the hump was a Semaphore signal worked by a mechanical linkage from the Hump Shanty at the apex. There were no "repeater" signals strung westwardly through the yard. If the engineman on the hump crew could not see the Hump Signal at the apex of the Hump, the brakemen "went high" and relayed the signal's indication by using hand signals. And of course, there was only one lead over the hump at that time. 

Somewhere I have the 1940s instructions on operating procedures for the Hump.  I will have to find and scan them, and post to the List.  They speak to a long-gone way of life.

I am attaching a scan of a 1940s photograph of the area, scanned from one of the Farrington books.  Some years ago I added identifications to this image for Ben Blevins.  The image may help those who are not familiar with the area.  One of the Trimmer Engines can be seen laying in the Wreck Train storage tracks, between the Ice House and B Tower.

-- abram burnett
obsolete, superannuated brakesman, now just an old turnip farmer :-)

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