Monday, August 20, 2007

Westbound BNSF freight train passing through. Riverside Illinois USA. July 2007.

A lovely summer morning finds a westbound BNSF freight train passing through west suburban Riverside Illinois. The train is seen passing through the Riverside Illinois Metra commuter rail station. The device on top of the last cars coupler is known as a F.R.E.D, wich stands for Flashing Rear End Device. They serve as a marker light, and also to read the air brake preasure to the locomotive crew. F.R.E.D's largely replaced cabooses on road freight trains during the early 1980's, and are todays industry standard.

4 comments:

Tom Gill said...

FRED, huh? Sanford??

Fred G. Sanford, and the G stands for

"grade crossing"

Eddie said...

Ha ha ha!
Thats what I like!
A person who learns his railfan
lingo from watching TV Land.
Thats how it would have sounded
like if the late Redd Fox's
character Fred G. Sanford on
the 1970's TV show Sanford
and Son,would have been a railfan.

I wish that TV Land would show
the Petticoat Junction re runs.

Thank You.
Eddie.

Anonymous said...

As you probably know, railroaders whose jobs were replaced by F.R.E.D.s have a slightly different definition of what the "F" stands for.

Tom Gill said...

Now what could the "F" stand for...

Fired? - no
Find another job? - no
Forced out? - no
Fuming? - no
Furious? - no
F%@#? - oh... yeah,that must be it!