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Old 11th March 2011, 16:03
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HM181 HM181 is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: The Mill
Posts: 329
THE SHUNT POLE
The first thing I learned to do when going out of the yard loose coupled, was to learn how to use a shunt pole
It was my job to couple all the trucks up and make sure they were all fit for going.
As these wagons came over the hump at HM, they would have been cut on the hump top in blocks of 3.
This meant coupling up every 3rd truck. To do this you had to go under the buffers to lift the coupling onto the other truck.
As railwaymen were a bit lazy someone invented a shunt pole.
This shunt pole speeded up the process of preparing a loose coupled train.
In expert hands you could hook 2 trucks together in a very quick minute.
This saved going inbetween the trucks and the effort that it took.
Some guards used the shunt pole under the buffers, and throwing the shackle onto the hook by manual strength.
My way was to hook on was place the shunt pole on the buffer casing and use that as a pivot to lift the shackle and place it on the hook of the other vehicle
Then with a quick flick of your arm deposit the shackle on to the other hook.
The SP was used for hooking off as well, also you could lengthen and shorten instanter couplings with the SP.
If you look at buffers you will see on the buffer casing a raised lip at the end where the actual buffer comes out of the casing. This lip is used to stop the SP from slipping onto buffer assembly, on some of the newer OLEO buffers there is a pin at the end of the casing which stops the SP sliding onto the buffer.
You see a lot of old steam engines with a shunt pole over the front buffer.
All the 08 350 shunters had a place for the shunter to ride on and a place to stand a shunt pole upright.
All brakevans had to have a shunt pole, a brake stick 3 tail lamps and 2 sets of Track Safety Operarting Clips(TCOC's) and enough coal and paraffin for the journey.
I carried at tin of detonators for years in my guards bag.
They came in handy for clearing the ash and soot out of the BV fire.
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