Switcher tow-rope?

Willing to bet it isn't just a plain "rope", but a wire braided cable with a loop at each end. Probably used to pull a rail car that they couldn't couple into.

HOT WATER nailed it as usual! THANKS!  ☺

Are there not any photos of that "cable" being employed in that book? It certainly would be safer than using poling pockets!

Most likely used for pulling a car into a dead end siding, so the locomotive doesn't get trapped.  Depending on the track layout, the car could be pulled the entire way, or started to roll and drop the cable before the diverging track gets too far away.  It could be for pulling cars around very TIGHT curves as well.

The military had small locomotives that actually had sliding couplers or double jointed articulating couiplers in order to move cars around tight warehouse complexes as well.

Yes, its not "rope" but wire rope cable.

The cable sound like a "safe" alternative to performing a "flying switch"!    "Salty Rails"

My late maternal grandfather worked for a famous wire rope (cable) company in Brooklyn, NY called Broderick and Bascom, and he was a talented splicer or rigger. When I visited the Cable Car Museum in San Francisco in 2000, sure enough, there was a B&B cable reel on display! It made me proud to think of my grandfather's association with that famous company! And yes, they called their cable, Yellow-Strand Wire Rope, and NOT "cable"!

We used cables with hooks every day at the electric furnace plant,  (ferro alloys), where I worked in the 70's. Also used big ropes with a hook on one end, attached to a winch, to move hoppers over pit for unloading.

Wire rope for moving equipment was/are used with "roping staples"  that were attached to the side sills of freight car.  

They're still made today:  

 If you look you can see flat roping tabs welded on car side sills also.

Number 90 posted:

Salty Rails posted:

The cable sound like a "safe" alternative to performing a "flying switch"!    "Salty Rails"

It's an alternative, I'll agree, but to me, it sounds like an unsafe alternative to making a drop, which Eastern railroaders used to call a flying switch.  Dropping a car into a track only requires that the locomotive pull the car to get it moving, then give enough slack to enable a ground employee to operate the uncoupling lever, then run away from the car, stopping the engine when past the clearance point.  The employee who uncoupled the car rides the car on the handbrake end while a second ground employee lines the car into its track after the engine has passed.  The problem with dropping cars is that, these days, there are often only two employees on a switch crew and the engine is remotely controlled.  Without three people, including an Engineer on the locomotive, you can't safely drop a car, and that's why railroads forbid it.

But this cable and hook has its own safety problems.  When applying and tensioning a cable to move heavy railroad equipment there is always danger of the cable whipping if something breaks.  Then, how would anyone safely disconnect the cable and hook from a moving car?  The cable can't just be allowed to go slack as the car passes the engine, and then violently be re-tensioned as cable slack runs out.  You can't keep the car from running over the slack cable as it passes the engine.  I see lots of trouble just waiting to happen.

But this is an industrial railroad, not a common carrier, and employee injuries are covered by Workman's Compensation insurance, not by the Federal Employer Liability Act, as are common carrier railroads.  So they might use this cable in ways that common carrier railroads would never even consider.

You are NOT familiar with logging operations? Moving a rail car of determined weight/mass via cable is a "piece of cake" compared to dragging out logs over rough terrain.  You sound very suburban and sheltered from the industrial sector. -Salty Rails-

Salty Rails posted:

Number 90 posted:

Salty Rails posted:

The cable sound like a "safe" alternative to performing a "flying switch"!    "Salty Rails"

It's an alternative, I'll agree, but to me, it sounds like an unsafe alternative to making a drop, which Eastern railroaders used to call a flying switch.  Dropping a car into a track only requires that the locomotive pull the car to get it moving, then give enough slack to enable a ground employee to operate the uncoupling lever, then run away from the car, stopping the engine when past the clearance point.  The employee who uncoupled the car rides the car on the handbrake end while a second ground employee lines the car into its track after the engine has passed.  The problem with dropping cars is that, these days, there are often only two employees on a switch crew and the engine is remotely controlled.  Without three people, including an Engineer on the locomotive, you can't safely drop a car, and that's why railroads forbid it.

But this cable and hook has its own safety problems.  When applying and tensioning a cable to move heavy railroad equipment there is always danger of the cable whipping if something breaks.  Then, how would anyone safely disconnect the cable and hook from a moving car?  The cable can't just be allowed to go slack as the car passes the engine, and then violently be re-tensioned as cable slack runs out.  You can't keep the car from running over the slack cable as it passes the engine.  I see lots of trouble just waiting to happen.

But this is an industrial railroad, not a common carrier, and employee injuries are covered by Workman's Compensation insurance, not by the Federal Employer Liability Act, as are common carrier railroads.  So they might use this cable in ways that common carrier railroads would never even consider.

You are NOT familiar with logging operations? Moving a rail car of determined weight/mass via cable is a "piece of cake" compared to dragging out logs over rough terrain.  You sound very suburban and sheltered from the industrial sector. -Salty Rails-

OK, so just how much exposure have YOU had to logging railroads, and logging operations? Back in 1962/1963 I  worked with the Georgia Pacific logging railroad 3-truck Shay, which went "off into the woods" from the Buffalo Creek & Gauley RR, in West Virginia. Truly an eye opening experience to "out in the woods" logging operations, plus with a 3-truck Shay.

If you look at the trucks on the switcher you can see two rerailing frogs. The cable was used to pull the car up the frogs and (hopefully)back on the rails.

Thanks, all!  Figured it was a cable and not a "rope" but all the answers were great.

I would NOT trust a typical cable (a cable light enough to be handled by man power) to withstand the needed force to get a derailed LOADED car up over a rerail frog. I've had wheels SLIP on 125+ ton 4 axle engines trying to accomplish that. No way. In all the industrial/yard derailments (dozens and dozens)  I've been involved with over the decades, we NEVER used a cable. ALWAYS coupled either to the derailed car, or the first available car with a coupler that will line up.

Andre

Mining operation, empty ore cars,flanged wheels and lots of debris between rails. The picture says it all.

Pictures will also show push poles, long gone.  Also very dangerous. 

PRRrat posted:

Thanks, all!  Figured it was a cable and not a "rope" but all the answers were great.

PRRrat posted:

Thanks, all!  Figured it was a cable and not a "rope" but all the answers were great.

Well, technically, what we loosely call a cable IS a rope:  a Wire Rope.  A "cable" can be made out of many materials and even chain.

When I get out in the more distant parts of North & South Dakota, several times I've seen short strings of hopper cars being pulled on the load-out track by a thick snatch rope (generally used to pull combines out of the mud) and a medium sized tractor.  They make do with what they have.

Once in Iowa I saw someone at an elevator pushing a couple of empty grain hoppers with a Bobcat.  There was a kid on the brake platform.  The track was level where they started but then came to a very slight down grade--almost imperceptible.  When the two hopper hit that they took off like a pair of rabbits!  At that point they were run-aways.   The kid began turning the brake wheel as fast as he could.  Meanwhile the track leveled out as it approached the elevator and stopped.  The kid caught a brake.  (pun intended.)

Kent in SD

Years ago, Due to a lack of seniority, I was working the Abilene, KS to Superior, NB night local. We had to switch the elevator at Concordia, and the car we tried to couple up to was on a very tight curve. The coupler on the our GE, just couldn't swing over far enough to couple to the loaded hopper. The only thing we had was a knuckle chain, so we hooked it into the sides of the two couplers. I had five units, and there were several loaded cars were coupled up together. The air was bled off, and hand brakes released, but those heavy cars on that tight curve were not wanting to move. I had it in R-1, and kept backing off the independent trying to detect some movement, not wanting to stretch the chain too much. Things tightened up, but still no movement, pretty soon, still in R-1, the engine and the car jerked to the right, both hard against the inside of the curve, and finally started to roll back just a few feet until we were finally able to get the chain off and couple up. It was a big thick heavy chain, but I think it was maxed out, and wouldn't have taken much more.

Any of you have experience with draw bar straps??  Just saw a video where they were pulling a car with one.

"Used to tow railcars with damaged drawbars and couplers and to remove bad drawbars from car body. Ratchet action handle provides ample leverage. Limit towing to a single rail car. Weight 15 lbs."