Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/12/84; site mit-hermes.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!petrus!bellcore!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!mit-hermes!jpexg
From: jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA (John Purbrick)
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: Re: sanders and sanding
Message-ID: <2452@mit-hermes.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 17-Aug-85 19:20:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-herm.2452
Posted: Sat Aug 17 19:20:55 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Aug-85 13:36:07 EDT
References: <693@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 16

> On our local PCC streetcars, the sand pipes used to freeze up in the
> winter.  I remember once when I was in high school, having to get out
> of my seat so the motorman could scoop some sand from the top of sand
> box (under the seat) to take outside and spread on the rails.

(prescript: I'm a former resident of Mount Lebanon--trolleys on Main St!
My brother lives in Media, Pa., which also has them.)

I've seen a picture of a (steam-hauled) train on the Simla (or Darjeeling?)
narrow-gauge line in the Himalayan foothills showing a man on the buffer
beam actually sprinkling sand onto the rails by hand as the train moved.

Incidentally, loco service facilities usually include a sand-drying 
facility involving a furnace, so that sand can be loaded dry into the
locos' sandboxes or towers.