FlanaryRon-LN249-FirstTrickYdCrew-LoyallKY12-30-1959
A repeat...but my first successful "action" photo. This was the first trick yard crew at Loyall, Ky. on December 30, 1959. It was an unseasonably mild day and the crew was dragging cuts of coal up and over the hump. From there, the cars would be dropped one at a time over the scales, where gravity would take over as they dropped into the appropriate tracks for blocking to various gateways. Switchmen would ride the cars and use the hand brakes to keep the speed within some measure of sanity. Sometimes they would go much too fast, and when the rolling loads hit the standing cars in that track, the sound was like a cannon going off! You could see the cars jump, and much of the load shift over the end. It was a constant job to keep accumulated coal scooped up on the "load" side of the yard. The switchmen, by the way, had already swung off by then and were walking back to the shanty on the right for the next cut of cars to ride. Alco RS-3 No. 249 was barely moving, so my Kodak Brownie's slow shutter speed wasn't an issue. The engineer leaning out was "Puss Eye" Saylor.
FlanaryRon-LN249-FirstTrickYdCrew-LoyallKY12-30-1959
A repeat...but my first successful "action" photo. This was the first trick yard crew at Loyall, Ky. on December 30, 1959. It was an unseasonably mild day and the crew was dragging cuts of coal up and over the hump. From there, the cars would be dropped one at a time over the scales, where gravity would take over as they dropped into the appropriate tracks for blocking to various gateways. Switchmen would ride the cars and use the hand brakes to keep the speed within some measure of sanity. Sometimes they would go much too fast, and when the rolling loads hit the standing cars in that track, the sound was like a cannon going off! You could see the cars jump, and much of the load shift over the end. It was a constant job to keep accumulated coal scooped up on the "load" side of the yard. The switchmen, by the way, had already swung off by then and were walking back to the shanty on the right for the next cut of cars to ride. Alco RS-3 No. 249 was barely moving, so my Kodak Brownie's slow shutter speed wasn't an issue. The engineer leaning out was "Puss Eye" Saylor.