not have to stop (to flag across) at unguarded crossings.”
– Nelson Beaudry
“I have seen the Commonwealth Railroad here in Suffolk VA
push more than 10 cars quite a long way.”
– Bob Langer
“I watch the shortline railroad here a fair amount! Cars are
brought into the interchange track by NS, then the shortline
railroad picks up (and yards) the cars … Pulling the train, they
head south dropping off any cars that need delivered or picked
up from a siding going in that direction!
“When they reach the end of the line they do a runaround
move and at this point they do push their train about a half-
mile into a (runaround) siding at the end of the line. Then
they head back north following the same procedure. Halfway
through the run the line splits heading yet in another direction.
“Here they perform another runaround move in order to pull
their train rather than push it. They take only the cars needed to
be delivered, leaving the others behind to be picked up on their
return trip. At the end of this line they do yet another runaround
move to pull their train back where they pick up the cars they
left behind. Heading north once again they go back to their start-
ing point, the interchange track where their day ends!
“I am sure there are examples where a train is pushed a fair
distance rather than being pulled but it seems from my obser-
vation that whenever possible they choose the latter!”
– Mark Kroll
“The Rochester Southern (Rochester, NY) runs an engine at
each end of one of their locals down to Pavilion, NY. There is
not a runaround track available and the switch into one of the
industries is a facing point move. I’ve seen the trailing engine
sporting an EOT device.”
– David Napper
“I know long shoves like that are avoided as often as possible,
but sometimes it is just the easiest solution.
“In Glendive, MT, the regular yard switch crew is also respon-
sible for switching out industries in the area, some of which
are several miles away. Usually they have a Geep facing either
direction, and they’ll split the power to get it on the other end
of the train if they can, and if it is convenient.
“Most of the time, however, they drag a caboose out of the
yard with them and use that as a shoving platform to get the
train back to the yard when they are done. The farthest indus-
try is about four miles from the yard, with a couple of public
(road) crossings. This is all 10 mph track.”
– James Ogden
Questions, Answers & Tips - 4
MRH-Aug 2014
