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A switchman (North America) or pointsman (British Isles) is a
A switchman (North America) or pointsman (British Isles) is a rail transport
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...
worker whose original job was to operate various railway switches or points on a railroad. It also refers to a person who assists in moving cars in a railway yard
A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...
or terminal.
History
Working in railway yards or along sidings, during the pioneering years of rail transport, switchmen as a group suffered large numbers of grievous bodily injuries, including in particular crushing injuries and amputations, owing to their work in close proximity to moving trains. An early issue of ''Switchmen's Magazine'' recounted the work process for a general audience:"The vocation is the most dangerous of any of the different branches of railroading, and thatToday's switchman often works as part of three-member switching crew consisting of a Locomotive Engineer, Foreman and Switchman. The Foreman, in charge of the loading of rail cars, is responsible for giving direction to the switchman in order to ensure cars are lined into the correct track and blocked correctly with like cars scheduled to a similar destination, with the engineer in charge of moving the locomotive.ome Ome may refer to: Places * Ome (Bora Bora), a public island in the lagoon of Bora Bora * Ome, Lombardy, Italy, a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Brescia * Ōme, Tokyo, a city in the Prefecture of Tokyo * Ome (crater), a crater on Mars Tran ...live for years is only due to their extreme carefulness. The least misstep will often result in crippling a man for life. Their hours of work are long, and the labour very hard, and rain or shine they have to be at their posts. There is no protection for them from the rains of summer, nor the freezing winds and snows of winter. On their efficient work, the great commercial interests of the country largely depend, and only a little carelessness on their part may result in immense damage to the goods in transit, and an error in delivery sometimes causes the loss of an entire consignment of freight, if it happens to be perishable.""Old-Time Switchmen," ''Switchmen's Journal,'' vol. 1, no. 2 (June 1886), pg. 49.
See also
*Railway signalling
Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormo ...
* Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association
The Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association of North America (SMAA) was a 19th-century fraternal benefit society and trade union in the United States of America. Its members included the operators of railway track switches and those who coupled train ...
* Switchmen's Union of North America
The Switchmen's Union of North America (SUNA) was a labor union formed in October 1894 that represented the track switch operators and people who coupled railway cars in railway yards in the United States and Canada. It became part of the United T ...
* United Transportation Union
The United Transportation Union (UTU) was a broad-based, transportation labor union that represented about 70,000 active and retired railroad, bus, mass transit, and airline workers in the United States. The UTU was headquartered in Cleveland, ...
Footnotes
{{rail-transport-stub Railway occupations