Track keeper
A linesman or signalman , as a distance runner, track goers or distance goers / designated -geher, is the name of an employee of the railroad , whose job it is to all his assigned section of a railway line departing regularly and to control. Line walkers are also used on cable cars.
In Switzerland, for example, the Swiss Federal Railways and the Rhaetian Railway continue to use route runners, otherwise the profession has largely died out. At the Deutsche Bundesbahn there have been no longer distance runners since 1988 and at the Deutsche Reichsbahn after the merger with the Deutsche Bundesbahn to form the Deutsche Bahn AG in 1994. Responsibility was transferred to the railway infrastructure company DB Netz AG .
Track keepers often lived in track keeper's houses . From there, the track keeper had to check the section up to his neighboring track keeper's house on a daily basis. On the Gotthard route there was a keeper's house about every two to four kilometers.
Duties of the track keeper
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The main task of the track attendant is to check the route section assigned to him for changes and damage to the track such as broken rails or lane changes and to initiate the necessary measures. Any changes in the condition that can be corrected, such as track fastenings that have become loose, are corrected immediately by the line manager himself using the tools he is carrying. Defects that cannot be corrected immediately must be marked, entered in the log book and immediately reported to the responsible railway foreman. In urgent cases, the route attendant must ensure that the route is closed and, if necessary, stop trains.
In addition to the superstructure, the route attendant controls barriers, telephones and, especially in the summer months, ensures that combustible objects are cleared from the area around the tracks, not only on routes used by steam locomotives .
Originally, the route sections were checked up to three times a day. With the progress of the superstructure technology and the consequent lower maintenance requirements, the intervals - with continuously welded track to one week - were stretched and the sections to be checked were extended to up to 20 km. In some places were rail bikes or track vehicles used for control.
Equipment and security
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The marshal's equipment includes a wrench and other tools, a signal flag, a bugle and bang pods to stop trains. In addition, the track keeper must have a correctly showing clock and a current timetable.
Working on the track harbors considerable dangers for the track runner. To keep this to a minimum, there are a number of regulations. The route runner must report to the responsible dispatcher and view the service book in which any operational schedule deviations (delays, driving ahead, traffic of special trains) are entered. He must report to each route telephone.
On double-track lines, the track runner always has to walk on the track on which the trains come towards him. In Switzerland, this is usually the right track. If a line is equipped with track changing operation, the normal direction of travel may only be driven after the line runner has been informed. In Switzerland it is a requirement that in this case the normal direction of travel is recorded in the signal box as soon as the route runner has registered with the dispatcher. Train journeys in the opposite direction are no longer possible until the direction of travel is canceled.
Whereas there is no such way of maintaining the direction of travel, a route runner must be informed of a timetable deviation. If this is not possible, the train driver of the train concerned must be informed that he must drive with caution over the relevant section of the route. So he must be able to stop his train within sight. While in the Swiss driving regulations this process is referred to as "travel on sight over the [...] secured route section", in the operational regulations of Deutsche Bahn the whole thing is described as "lowering a train after following a cautionary order ".
replacement
With the development of new superstructures as well as the use of regularly running track measurement railcars such as the 725/726 series , ultrasonic rail test trains and other devices for measuring the rail surface , the use of line walkers in Germany has been pushed back more and more and is now only necessary in exceptional cases. Distance runners are only used today in special circumstances, such as avalanche hazards or floods. The Deutsche Staatsbahnen employed just under 300 distance runners until 1988, but they were then transferred or retired. In East Germany, the profession has almost not been represented since 1995. As one of the few remaining track keepers, Peter Guth, the track walker of the Höllentalbahn , stayed on duty because of the special features of the track. Between Bad Doberan and Kühlungsborn , Uwe Bellstedt has been working every two weeks since 1999 as a line manager on the 15.4 kilometer stretch of the Molli bathing railway , on which the use of a test train does not make sense for economic reasons.
In Switzerland, on the other hand, the track runners are still being held in spite of track measuring vehicles and the like. The reason is that modern electronics recognize cracks in the track much more precisely, but are still unsuitable for recognizing changes in the track bed.
Others
The lonely profession of distance walker (distance runner) has also found its way into the film. In his debut film Waller's last course (Germany, 1988), director Christian Wagner tells “sensitively but also excitingly the story of a line walker (portrayed by Rolf Illig ) on the railway (…) whose line is shut down.” Waller's last course became Bavarian Awarded the 1988 Film Prize , the 1989 German Film Critics' Prize and the 1989 Federal Film Prize.
Previously, family members were obliged temporarily as temporary workers to take over the tasks of the track guard when this by disease unfit for duty was and could not provide spare himself.
Regulations
- DRG : DA Ba-Schra - service instructions for the railway and barrier keepers from April 1, 1932
- DB : DS 814 - regulation for the barrier and route keeper service (VSS) of May 28, 1972
- DR : DV 816 Th.1 - Service regulation for the inspection of the superstructure and the track systems, Part 1: Duties of the track attendant (from March 1, 1983)
Web links
- Wörnitz-Franken-Express: Eugen Friedrich, who runs the route
- turmsegler.net: Track walkers, distance walkers (April 17, 2007)
- Railway romance: Of track construction trains and track runners (episode 018, first broadcast on June 28, 1992, length: 19 minutes)
- The show with the mouse: Distance runner (2004)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Victor von Röll : Bahnwärter (lexicon entry). In: Encyclopedia of Railways. 2nd edition, Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1912–1923. 1923, Retrieved April 3, 2019 .
- ↑ Swiss Driving Regulations (FDV) A2016 Federal Office of Transport (FOT), July 1, 2016 (PDF; 3 MB). R 300.12, Section 3.4.5 Transmission of reports
- ↑ a b c Hamburger Abendblatt : The Last Distance Runner, Hanna-Lotte Mikuteit, May 11, 2002
- ↑ The last walker in: Die Zeit , issue 40/1993, accessed on October 12, 2012
- ↑ prism : Waller's last course