Huron N Eastern Railroad Vans at crossings.

[railnut0571]

What exactly do the guys do that go around to most of the crossings in the white Vans and trucks with the Huron and Eastern Logo's on the side of the trucks? Are they just Flagmen, or do they give the crew a ride back when they tie an engine down somehere? I just met one when I was chasin a trin to pigeon tonight. He seemed concerned that I was some kind of fed or someone inspecting their operations. But after I explained I was just chasin the train as a hobby we had a short talk, and then he took off. But I never got a chance to ask him exaclty what they do. Any info greatly appreciated.

[SD80MAC]

Could've been a trainmaster, track maintainer, crossing maintainer, car man, conductor, who knows.

[Saturnalia]

If he was following the train, he was likely the conductor throwing switches and coupling cars.

But someone in a company car could be doing a list of things, as SD80MAC stated.

[GreatLakesRailfan]

It's been a few years, but I remember chasing the train from Croswell to Applegate one night back when the conductor was driving a blue pickup truck (with the company name on the door), while the engineer ran the train. When they tied down in Carsonville that night, they both got into the truck and took off, probably headed back to Bad Axe to finish up.

It seems like it would be a lot easier if you needed something (especially in the Thumb) to have one guy running the train and one guy driving a vehicle than to have two guys on the train waiting on somebody else to make the trip out from Bad Axe or Vassar if they needed something very far away from the tracks...

[hoborich]

Huron and Eastern generally only has an engineer running the train. The other guy in the truck is a conductor/switchman/utility man. He follows the train, throwing switches, uncoupling cars, and assisting with any switching or spotting cars. Sort of a conductor. Just not on the train. I watched them doing some switching last summer, east of Saginaw. When they were done, the guy got in the white pickup and drove off, and the engineer left alone with the train.

[railnut0571]

Yeah that males total sense. I guess I always thought they returned the train to the main yard for some reason, instead of having the conductor come pick them up in a seperate vehicle. I have seen it done where the conductor just rides on the train with the engineer most of the time. Thats why I was wondering about the Huron N Eastern Trucks, and their purposes. Thanks for fuilling me in guys. Sincerely Railnut0571.