Propelling From Salisbury Junction To Shaw Mine Irl?

Hi

Just finished U877-A on Sand Patch Grade, which is coal empties from Cumberland to Shaw Mine, reversing at Salisbury Junction. I chose the AC4400.

As I had two locos on the front and none on the rear, I was expecting to run round the train somewhere. But then looking at the map I realised that the branch was single-track throughout with non run-round loop at the end. So I'd be propelling one direction or the other.

Was quite happy to 'sim' propel 3 miles up the branch, but I can't help wondering whether American railroad practice allows this in real life. For example, how could an engineer doing that see whether the line and crossings were clear? Or are the trains topped and tailed?

Just for my own curiosity really, does anyone know?

 

Spotter riding the "lead" car with a radio.

 

Or a Caboose being used as a shoving platform.....

 

Thanks for the replies. I can see that either makes sense; I just couldn't see how what the sim did (nobody at the front) could work in real life.

 

At least to date, TSW doesn't model crew aside from the driver (except an idle secondman who just sits there)

 

There used to be a loco that lived on the branch to add to the end of your train which you could pretend was the caboose they use in real life, but they took that out recently because it didn’t make any sense having a dead loco on the end. It was confusing people.

 

Ah right, that was before I'd got / played SPG so I didn't know that was what used to happen.

 

I didn’t know that’s what you were supposed to do lol, I actually brought it online and used the main locos as helpers, and then used it as a helper running back up to the mainline. I’m glad they added extra power to the head end for that service though.

 

In the old days as a kid I would go to the local station with my dad and the switching crew would have the engineer and the brakeman, I believe he was called (as well as a caboose!). The brakeman would ride the last car of the cut and be the one to throw the needed switches or set couplers as the switcher performed the yard duties. In TSW the player (engineer) gets to do the work of both crew.

What I usually do when reversing a large cut of cars is switch to the rear car view and control the action based on that view. In my mind this is simulating the second crew member that would be on hand with the radio at the rear of the train guiding the engineer as the train moves.

 

Good tip, and yes that's exactly what I did when I drove the route in the sim.

 

I've always assumed everybody did this when reversing a train. How else can you see what you're doing through switches, signals etc.? I never back up, even a couple of locos, without using the external camera view, or at least switching cab view.