Poling A Car

Poling is illegal now, but I had to do it a few times when I was a brakeman on the P&LE back in the 60s.

When I was a teenager back in the sixties, my uncle worked for the C&O, and he arranged for us (himself, my younger cousin, my dad and I) to get a ride in the cab of a GP7 running a Saturday local freight (it was pretty crowded in that cab!). During that trip, it became necessary to use a pole to clear a car that stalled fouling a turnout during a “flying switch” maneuver. According to the crew, both the flying switch and poling operations were against the rules at that time, but the way the tracks were laid out, there was no other way to get the car properly spotted. Strangely enough, a suitable “pole” was found buried in the trackside weeds, and everything went according to plan. The crew explained at the time, that if anything went wrong that day, the four of us would have to walk home, because our cab ride was unofficial and also against the rules. The railroad knew that the flying switch was the only way to get the car into that siding, but the drop off was scheduled anyway, and that big pole just “happened” to conveniently be there waiting, just in case. Sometimes rules are made to be broken...