Signal aspect deviations - At Cleveland

[NW Mailing List]

Harry,

     While the eastbound main was right along and north of the Rapid 
Transit, the Southside switching lead flanked it on the south. One night 
I "doubled" off a second trick yard job onto one that worked the 
Southside. The Southside got its switching on third track since the 
Rapid did not run revenue trains from midnight to 5. The yard foreman 
(conductor) didn't know me from Adam so put me as headman and had me 
line the engine into the sidings and wait at the switching lead while he 
and his buddy worked the scrap yards and other small shippers. I would 
line them in and get in a position where I could pass hand siganls, if 
needed. (pre-radio days) Needless to say, by 3 a.m. time, tiredness, 
boredom and the circadian rythm caught up with me. But I got a real shot 
of adrenaline when a Rapid Transit work train stopped about 10' from me 
as I stood asleep fouling the track they were on. Fortunately, my crew 
did not see this napping on two feet, so I never became a subject of 
washroom chatter or acquired a nickname I might not have liked to own.

     Harry Cumbo was a creature to fear for me. I only worked with him a 
few times, but when he told me to do something it had to be grasped and 
executed without repeat of his words. The first time I worked a puller 
as headman from E55th to the Wheeling Campbell Road yard via the Erie, 
he rode along with me. We stopped at Belt line Jct to get our arrival 
track destination, and he told me to make the call, but not where the 
phone box was. I got off the engines and staggered around a bit until he 
had to come out and point out where it was. I got the number and  asked 
him how to get us to that track. He said the tracks were bunched off the 
lead in groups, like 1-6 and 7-14, so I could figure it out from that. 
Easy enough, except as we approached the body of the yard I saw a 
caboose track and tracks that might be yard tracks or leads into to 
Republic Steel. Those could have been numbered 1-6. So was I going to 
line us into Republic or choose another route? Which one was 1, so I 
could get us to 6? On the footboard, I got no help from the hogger, as 
he followed the old yard practice of "double units-double slow" and we 
had 4 ALCo C type switchers, m.u.'d so we were barely moving. I could 
have gotten off the engine and walked forward and left the train in the 
dust. But I knew I was not going to make us stop and back-up. So I asked 
again, got a derisive dressing down and he did the work. For 3 months I 
had been able to memorize every track I had been on around Cleveland, 
but I got a mental block from Harry's lecture and always had to get help 
from the other crew members to find my way into - but not out of - 
Campbell Road. And he kept me on a short lease the times we worked at 
E55th. I usually worked the field on those jobs, but he had me pull pins 
only. I had lost his confidence.

     WJPowers

On 2/8/2020 1:41 PM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List wrote:
>
>
>
> No, we're not talking CPL's here.  East of Cleveland on
> the Lake Erie Division, there are three GRS searchlight
> signals that display a flashing green for CLEAR (Rule 281)
> and a flashing yellow for APPROACH (Rule 283), Although these
> aspects don't appear in rule books, they are in Lake Erie
> Time Table #1 eff. 03/01/1981 special instructions.
>
> Why  ?  Because the flashing aspects make a clear
> distinction between N&W signals and those of the paralleling
> Cleveland Rapid Transit.  Item 128(b) in the time table is
> interesting also - " When trains or engines are stopped on
> the eastward track, between 75th Street and Doan Avenue,
> East Cleveland, employees, before alighting from the south
> side, should make sure no trains are closely approaching
> on the adjacent Rapid Transit track. "   That's how close
> the two right-of-ways are. Check it out during the 2020 N&WHS
> convention..
>
> WJPowers -- my selection for "Mr. East 55th Street" would be
> Harry Cumbow.  One day he's in yard service and the next
> day, he''s a Trainmaster.  His wife had to take him to J. C.Penney
> to select a suit, because he didn't own one.  Harry Bundy
>
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