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.