May 26, 2010

• Awwww c'mon boss, it is Hump Day after all!

   

   

  On the way to the Southbound 23 Flea Market weekend before last, I saw this odd looking line of railcars setting on a siding in Portsmouth, Oh.

  

  What caught my attention was the stairways and the dark grey boxes.

  

   The cars appear to be living and sleeping quarters for a work crew of some sort.

  And by sleeping quarters, I mean just that!

  I wonder if this is a coed work crew?

  

  LOL!

  They seem pretty serious about it, here's a reminder, in red even, as you go inside.

  

  These guys need a union!

  

  I figured the grey boxes were sewage containers, but there's Porta Potties lined up alongside, too. Hmmmm.

  Oh, and the only thing we saw of interest at the flea market, were these guys.

  

  Big crowd, huh?

  You seriously can have no concept of just how lousy these guys were. Sat and had a Coke, listening in stunned disbelief to these locals butchering Merle Haggard and gospel tunes.

  

  The guy in the black hat appeared to have forgotten to bring his teefers, too! Had me wondering if I had crossed the border over into WVa somewhere along the way!

  Stopped at a nasty little roadside flea market on the way back. Didn't spend too time looking at the junk offered for sale, but did pick up a brand new Trivial Pursuit game that has never been out of the box for two dollars!

  

  It's the Master Edition, too.

  

  Figured maybe one of the kids would want it, but no takers so far.

  Anybody need a new Trivial Pursuit game?

  The price is right!

  ***************************************

  I Googled it!

  Explanation of the railroad term "Do Not Hump"

   

  I am saddened to report that DO NOT HUMP does not have any of the off-color

  significance that seems to give many of the Teeming Millions their principal

   reason to go on living. It refers to a common method used to sort freight cars

  known as "humping," which involves the use of a man-made hill, or hump. A track

  heads up the hill and branches into numerous parallel tracks on its way down the

   other side. To make up new trains, a switch engine pushes a string of cars to the

   top of the hump, where the cars are uncoupled one at a time. Having determined

   the car's destination, a worker in a nearby tower pushes buttons or throws levers

   or whatever to get the track switches (you know, those things where one track

   divides into two) lined up properly. The car is then given a nudge, causing it to

   roll down the hump and onto the right track.

  The advantage of humping is that it's a lot faster than having switch engines shuttle

   back and forth all day making up trains. The disadvantage is that it's sometimes a

   little rough on the freight cars and their contents. Occasionally a car derails going

   down the hill, meaning the crew has to stop working and try to get the wheels back

   on the rails, which is not much fun, particularly in the middle of winter. What's

   worse is the possibility that the car may roll down the hill too fast and crash into

   the car in front of it, jostling or damaging both the cars and what's inside them.

   Special gimmicks on the rails called "retarders" are supposed to slow things down

   and prevent this, but they have been known to fail. Accordingly, cars with

   especially delicate contents are marked DO NOT HUMP, which tells the yard

  crew to set the car aside for special handling. This applies particularly to the tank

   cars used to haul hazardous chemicals, many of which have DO NOT HUMP

   stenciled permanently on their sides.

  ***********************************

   

   

  • 5:05 pm
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