TRAIN ORDERS for El Capitan

A creative thinking station agent can now become a real trickster and raise havoc with the engineers. This was how train crews and agents communicated before the railroads had radios. Such is the case with 1939 El Capitan powered with a “shovel nosed ” E unit and new streamlined cars. The high level all chair cars came latter. Our train order rack has three places to string orders. The bottom is for Brakemen, middle for Conductors and the top for Engineers. I used a piece of cigarette paper tied with thread and attached it to the wye. This could be done with the other lower two but why. They all can be swung out or in as their independent to each other. When an engineer sees orders swung out for hand pickup, the agent has a situation card in a rack on the edge of the layout for him to read. It could read something like this. “Prepare to stop at New River Bridge as track crew is at work”. As a station agent, and you don’t have orders, swing the arm in.

This is a project you have to make for yourself as I don’t think any manufacture has one to sell. A little brass tubing, wire and lamp shade is all you need. The platform and steps were made with wood scraps and Campbell stair stringers.

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