In article , Leo
writes:

Jim,

I think I have the answers to your bonus quiz:

Hanging Fire (or Hang Fire) - an old military term used when a black
powder artillery piece did not immediately fire when the priming
charge was lit (could be a few seconds delay before the main charge
was ignited). Still used in this context whenever modern ammunition
misfires.

Also used in connection with cord-fused explosives in blasting for mining,
tunneling, etc. Hang-fires were one of the reasons for the change to blasting
caps.

Doubling The Hill - this one is probably an old railroad term for the
practice of seperating train cars and taking them up a steep hill in
two runs, back when steam locomotives were common. Insufficient power
to pull the entire train up the hill in one run would have
necessitated this practice.

Give the man a cee-gar!

Sometimes the problem was lack of motive power, but there was also the factor
of coupler strength and rail adhesion.

Modern RRs are well-documented enough know that horsepower and train
characteristics are figured out ahead of time by computers.

73 de Jim, N2EY