Last Westward Extension of Roanoke Yard... When ? - TRIMMER TRACKS

[NW Mailing List]

Other Old Gray Beards may have already answered Mr. Carl Barna's question. (I receive the N&W List in Digest Mode, which means I get it only once a day, usually the day following a posting.)

Historically, a "Trimmer Crew" was one which laid in the clear until the humping of cars was stopped, then sprang into action, "straightening out the yard" by moving any cars which had been sent to the wrong track, starting off cars which had not drifted far enough to couple to cars ahead in the track, gather up cabooses, etc. Historically, the Trimmer did this "straightening up" work while the hump engine was getting in place behind the next track to be "brought on the hill."

There is a sufficient number of mentions of "Trimmers" in the railroad trade literature to be certain that this is the way early humps operated. (Witness publications of AREMA, the Americal Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association circa 1903, awards and findings of the Railroad Labor Board over the years, etc.)

And, by the way, the long-gone Honey Pot Yard at Nanticoke, Pa, on the Sunbury Division of the PRR, appears to have been the first yard built for the switching of cars by gravity. Honey Pot was built for handling loads of Anthracite mined in the Wilkes-Barre area. The exact date is not certain, but it was between 1888 and 1891.

To "trim" is a term not unique to railroading. Sailors "trim the sails," and even aircraft pilots have a function by which they "trim" the aircraft to its proper heading. On a steam engine, the engineman "trims" the engine by adjusting the reverse bar, with the intent of adjusting the admission of steam to the cylinders, so as to give the most efficient use of steam, coal and water, as speed and work load change. Shoemakers trimmed shoe leather, and tailors trimmed cloth. Barbers trim hair. The idea is always the same: to adjust something to its proper form and function. Etymologically, the word comes from the Old English verb "trymmen," which meant to adjust.

My father told me that before the big expansions of the 1940s, the Shaffers Crossing Hump was operated with one Hump Crew and one Trimmer Crew. (On most other railroads, what the N&W called a "hump crew" was called a "pusher crew," which engaged in pushing cars over the hump.)

After the big expansion of the 1940s, the Shaffers Crossing Hump was operated with two Hump Crews and one Trimmer Crew, per shift. In reality, however, all three crews did the same work: shoving trains over the hump. "Trimmer" was just the hold-over of an old name.

Like most all railroad humps, Shaffers Crossing Hump had a place for the Trimmer Engine to get out of the way while cars were bring humped. As a matter of fact, there were two Trimmer Tracks: one on the north and one on the south, called the North Trimmer Track and the South Trimmer Track, respectively. I worked at Enola in the early 1980s, and there were two Trimmer Crews per shift on both the eastbound and the westbound humps (each of which crews had an Engineman and a Brakeman.)

As a kid, I saw Class Z engines and Class Y3 engines working the Shaffers Crossing Hump and Trimmer jobs. And three of the same class engines were used at 15th Street, on the "make up" end of the Classification Yard. What a great place to see real railroading !!!

Erat quod demonstrandum ???

-- abram burnett
Our Turnips - A Nightmare for the Deep State !