colorado hirailer posted:Another posting, "Caboose", reminded me of misspent? youth hanging out at a RR station and watching train orders passed up by a wooden hoop with a handle, which receiver quickly tossed back from train. Another style of "hoop" was a forked stick like a divining rod, but held by the long end, with a string fastened in a triangle around the fork; string with orders attached caught in elbow of trainman, and "hoop" retained by stationmaster. Anybody model order passers? I need to remember to model that...sounds like an "accessory" station where a guy runs out to a passing train as tripped by a contact.
It's been around a while but Railroaders has a nice scene of hooping up orders on the Canadian Pacific in the 1950s:
https://www.nfb.ca/film/railroaders/
Much like Espee's This is My Railroad and New Haven's A Great Railroad at Work, a throwback to the days of wooing men for a good job on the RR.
