Incident with N&W 475

[NW Mailing List]

Blue flags protect mechanical forces working on equipment who may be out of sight of others (e.g. under a car). As a blue flag means do not move or operate any of the controls on the protected equipment, use of a blue flag is incompatible with the equipment being operated by its assigned operator or crew.

I am a volunteer at the Illinois Railway Museum. As is typical at a museum, a lot of us wear different hats at different times. And as such, it’s important that I know the proper way to protect myself depending on the circumstances. Let’s say I’m the conductor of a locomotive powered train but when I show up, the cars are there but not the locomotive. But I want to start doing my pre-service work. Since the locomotive is not there, those cars are not yet a train so any work I do is as a carman or similar, not as a member of the train crew as there is no train yet. So I put blue flags on the cars and go about my work. Eventually, the locomotive shows up and we want to couple to the train. I then remove the blue flags and attach to the crew of the locomotive. Now I’m part of the train crew. We couple the locomotive to the cars and become a train. Now I need to go in the foul to couple the air hoses. Do I put up blue flags? No, because I’m part of the train crew, not mechanical forces. I protect myself by asking the engineer for three-step protection. But only members of that train’s train or engine crew can ask for three-step. If someone else not part of the crew needs to do work on the equipment, they put up their own blue flags.

Now on another day, I might be working with the Track Department. Let’s say we’re replacing ties. We have the tie inserter out and obtained permission to take that section of track out of service. Do we protect our work area with blue flags? No as then we couldn’t operate the tie inserter. But we do put out track flags marking the out of service area and when possible, we line and lock switches away from our area, even if that means lining the switch opposite its normal position per the timetable. Or if its an area where we’re working but trains can pass, we mark the area with track flags which mean the operator of a train must obtain permission from the person in charge to pass through the area.

-- 
Larry Stone
lstone19 at stonejongleux.com





> On Nov 7, 2022, at 2:16 PM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Gentlemen (& turnip growers)…..
> Thanks for the responses that explain situations where the “blue flag rule” (Rule 26) would apply. Since the posted videos showed that the excavator was active with an operator inside, I thought Rule 26 would have been in effect to protect the MoW crew. 
> Thanks for the clarification. 
> Herb Edwards 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Nov 7, 2022, at 3:30 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Herb,
>> A blue flag means that there are people working in that track and not to enter.
>> If a track is out of service, a MOW person would have locked the switch and a bulletin put out to that effect ((no blue flag).
>> 
>> Jimmy Lisle
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
>> 
>> 
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