Flagman (rail)
 | The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (April 2018) |
On the railroads, a flagman is an employee of the railroad who is assigned to protect
contractors or anyone performing work on a railroad right of way. A flagman is also assigned to protect a train that has stopped on a section of track.[1]
When a train approaches a location a flagman is posted, the train crew will have to get permission from the flagman to pass the area.
Before the advent of automated level crossing gates, and still where automatic gates are not installed, flagmen were also assigned to protect the crossings.[2] The flagman would stop road traffic from crossing the tracks as trains used the crossing.[3][4]
Additional information
Rules pertaining to a flagman may vary depending on different railroad's operating rules. For instance on
Norfolk Southern
there are no flagmen. Rather NS has a track supervisor obtain track authority from the train dispatcher to take the track out of service until it is certain that workers are in the clear and trains may safely pass the area.
References
- ^ Collingwood, G.E. (March 1922). "Train Rules and Kindred Subjects". The Railroad Trainman. XXXIX (3). Mount Morris, IL: Kable Brothers Company: 146 – via Google Books.
- ^ U.S. Department of Commerce; Bureau of the Census (1930). Classified Index of Occupations; Fifteenth Census of the United States. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. p. 160 – via Google Books.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Vaughan, Coleman C., ed. (1917). Laws Relating to Railroads. Lansing, Michigan: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co., State Printers. pp. 46, 101 – via Google Books.
...every company... operating a railroad within this state, shall construct and maintain a gate or gates, or bridge, or maintain a flagman to signal trains at every highway or street crossing...
- ^ Peabody, J.A. (November 1922). "Highway Crossing Protection in Theory and Practice". Railway Signal Engineer. 15 (11): 422–426 – via Google Books.
External links
Media related to Crossing keepers at Wikimedia Commons- Media related to Rail transport maintenance workers at Wikimedia Commons
- "A mounted flagman" Railway and Locomotive Engineering, April 1908
