TV has been talking up a caravan of central American refugees, traveling up thru Mexico, riding on the roofs of boxcars, heading for the US border. Hoping to be granted refugee status in America.
Question. How did all those people get up on the roofs of the boxcars? In America, the Federal Railway Administration decided that allowing railroad workers on top of cars was just too dangerous. They ordered the roofwalks and the ladders removed. Back in the dawn of time, before the invention of the Westinghouse air brake, railroad brake men used to run along the tops of the cars, tightening up the handbrake wheels when the engineer whistled for brakes on. This hasn't been necessary for the last hundred and something years, the engineer now pulls a brake lever in the engine cab, and compressed air puts the brakes on, thruout the length of the train.
Anyhow, about 1970, on American railroads, new cars were purchased without roofwalks or ladders giving access to the roof. By now, no freight cars in the US have easy access to the roof. I assume the Mexican railroads follow US practices since they interchange cars with US roads, and vice versa.
I assume that an athletic 20 something can climb up on top of a boxcar without ladders. But what about women and children? Surely not all of those refugees are athletic 20 somethings?
No comments:
Post a Comment