Henry, it’s getting old when you keep saying all of today’s railroaders are F-Up’s and don’t care about rules etc. Yes there are some who fit your description, but you know what? There are old heads who worked in the “good old days” who also fit your description. Then and now. Most out here do care about rules, customers, and above all the safety of ourselves and fellow employees.
Dave, you see the railroads through their PR departments or railfan media. They show the railroad in the best light possible. People that deal with them everyday have a different perspective. The image the railroads project is not always the reality in the field. The talk doesn’t always equal the walk.
Get on board a one engine hopper train. Fuel gauge on screen shows 800 gals. Call dispatcher who is busy and tell him fuel and engine status. He says to take off, they’ll worry about it down the road. We leave. Have only went about 3 miles when the dispatcher calls us back. “How much fuel did you say you have?” I tell him again 800 gals and one engine. He asks if we need a fuel truck sent out to us or if we can make Fremont. Taking in weather conditions, summer with no heavy winds, I tell him we should be OK. He says he will arrange to have the unit fueled at Fremont.
About 15 miles from Fremont, we get a signal indication that we are going into the hole at Kennard. We are down to 300 gals. I dial up the dispatcher (now on a different dispatcher’s territory) and the conductor talks to him. Condr asks, “Are you putting us in the siding?” “Why, yes I am.” was the smug reply. Condr then asks, “You do know we are short on fuel and down to 300 gals with only one engine?” Dispatcher, “No, I didn’t know that. Can you make Fremont? Do you need a fuel truck?” Conductor relays that we should be able to make it in, provided we don’t sit for hours. The dispatcher says he’s changed his plans and we’ll get a signal as soon as it times out.
Jim: Banging may not work for you, because people’s ear sensitivities do differ. It might work for one of your coworkers. There are people who can tell a Baldwin (piano) from a Steinway from a Bosendorfer from a Yamaha, even though a good pianist can make them sound identacle to many listeners, even most musicians…
If the dip stick works USE IT. Don’t say “making a big deal.” One time out of a thousand avoiding tieing up a train or a whole line, worth the thousand checks.
I agree 100% with your last sentance. And can say so 100 times as well!
As someone else pointed out it does work for some people. Knew a pilot who could take a flashlight and “kick” the tires and tell within 5 # the tire pressure. He drove maintenance crazy doubting him and then finding out he was right. He explained it was like tuning a drum.
The differences between employees 50 years ago and today are negligable. The real difference is is the number of employees that are a check/balance on any work activity or result. In years gone by there were multiple checks/balance employees on any specific work action before that action became final. With today’s staffing levels, a employee has one chance to do his job correctly and there is no one else that follows up on that employees work until it becomes the final product.
Since I have been playing the ‘real’ game of railroading for 49 years and am still playing it, I have seen and had to respond to virtually any and every kind of operational F… Up and formulate plans to dig the operation out of the results of the F… Up!
Employees today are no more and no less motivated than employees of days gone by. Employees of yesteryear and employees of today take great delight in malicious compliance with a supervisors instructions. Today’'s Supervisors, especially those hired ‘off the street’ have no idea of the power of words written in instructions - and frequently get results other than what they had anticipated because they worded a instruction poorly. Been watching it happen my entire career.
There were railfoads where everyone did work as a team, and where a worker did feel free to tell a supervisor that his instructions might lead to problems. The Denver and Rio Grande Western was one and the Boston and Maine before McGinnis was another.
There’s a lot of truth in what Balt said. I’m friends with a track foreman. A new-read straight out of college- track supervisor was over him. I asked the foreman how the sup was doing and the reply was ‘he’s learning’. After about a year, the supervisor decided he needed more knowledge of his job and stepped down to work with a track gang for a year before returning to his position. Now he speaks their language and understands their job. Makes his life easier too. Hard, some days, to beat hands on experience.
OK Maestro,
Let’s see you do it!
Coal and/or covered hoppers are made of comparatively thin sheet metal. You can very, very easily slap the side of one with your hand and hear if it is empty or not. And, if your arms are long enough, you can even tell very closely how high it is loaded.
Fuel tanks are made of much heavier steel. Much heavier! Then due to internal supports, baffles and the like, they do not “Tom-Tom” like a drum. THAT IS WHY THEY DIP THEM!
Now, take into consideration that companies do not have classes teaching the fine art of tuning wine glasses. In other words, they do not line up a bunch of locomotives with varying degrees of fuel loads and rap on each one to illustrate the different tones of each 500 gal. mark.
And while this could be an interesting discussion, some folks are making too big of a deal out of it. No one wants to get out on the road and run out of fuel and consequently heat. especially in as cold of temperatures as we have had lately. If the proper authority is notified of or a question arises about fuel load and is told to “let 'em roll” then that is what they do. Big Brother knows best…or does he?
I admit I’ve never dipped a fuel tank nor have I relied on banging on the tank, its just not possible to tell how much fuel is in the tank that’s way. Sometimes on hot days you can see the tank sweat and that’s a giveaway.
I have the luxury of grabbing a shop rag and cleaning the sight glasses. Most locomotives have at least a couple of different fuel gauges, I usually compare them and take an average. If I run across a bad fuel gauge I’ll simply change it. If a sight glass is uselessly dirty, I’ll clean it.
I’ve been troubleshooting and working on and around locomotives most of my life, I know what works and what doesn’t.
Did anybody read what I said about the number of railroaders and their close and supportive fraternity? Do so and understand what I read before taking me to the woodshed.
Anyone who thinks banging on a fuel tank is effective has never worked on a locomotive. Steel is too thick to hear anything. Trick I use for when the sightglass is dirty (read: all the time) is to put a flashlight behind it. Helps see the level pretty easily.
I’ve never had any luck banging on the tank. They’re double walled, you know! I found out first hand as a newly promoted engineer on the Southern. I was working the Keysville, VA-Durham local one pleasant afternoon. As I inspected my engine, I couldn’t see any fuel in the sight glass. I took a piece of ballast and beat that tank from top to bottom. It didn’t sound different anywhere. Naturally it was empty, I concluded, drawing on my vast experience. A fuel truck was called. He was able to squeeze next to nothing into that “empty” tank. An hour and a half into our tour of duty, with a very red face, we went about our work!
Were they always double-walled? I wonder if I was drawing on my experience with GP-7’s B&M 1567 and 1568, 1952-1953? I apologize to BigJim and everyone. I did not know they are double-walled. Does make a big difference.
Did CSX have fuel trucks at the time the Capitol Limited ran out of fuel? Do they now? Did they then but couldl not use them because it was Thanksgiving Evening and their crews were not available?
This is the sight gauge on a recent model EMD. It is designed to assist in filling the tank, but only registers from 7/8 to full. Do older models have a more complete scale?
CSX has fuel contractors headquartered in major operational areas that supply locomotives in their contracted areas on scheduled deliverys.
CSX is not responsible for Amtrak. Amtrak must make their own arrangements. From CSX experience, when the need for fuel arises at other than a fuel contractors location, getting a local vendor to come to the rescue is both problematical and expensive, as the vendor does not march to the railroads drum. And even when the need arises for extra trains at the fuel contractors operating location, the fuel trucks can be unstaffed at the time or out making deliveries to the outlying locations of their service area.
I realize CSX “is not responsible for Amrak.” But in the case in the December 2013 issue, CSX did take on that responsibility, delaying one of freight trains to lend power to the stalled Capitol Limited in view of the danger to passengers without heat or light. I wonder if instead they would use a fuel truck today.
Apparently, NS is different in that it has its own fuel trucks.
CSX is responsible for opening up it’s tracks with a dead train occupying them, that is why Amtrak got moved.
In the past 24 hours I have had 3 trains delayed 24 hours or more waiting on fuel trucks. When fueling does not take place at the designated locations, for whatever the reasons (real or imaginary), making arrangements to get those locomotives fueled at non-standard points is a challenge. A bigger challenge when the Mid-Atlantic region’s weather has not seen the temperature above freezing in the past 3 weeks. Reasons proffered for the delay in getting fuel to the trains I mentioned ran the gammut from the truck being broke down, the pumping appratus on the truck being broke down, the pumping appratus at the fuel terminal being broke down. That does not count road safety with the snow the area has received off and on during that span of time. Remember, Mid-Atlantic truck drivers don’t have the winter driving experience of those in the upper Mid-West.
ACD: Did you read the article thoroughly? Once they got the train back to Cumberland, they had opened up the tracks. But the Amtrak crew used tthe CSX power to move their dead units to the CSX fuel rack and back. CXS also showed responsibility for the condition of the passengers as well as opening up their line. Which is normal in the railroad industry. Such as freight trains stopping and picking up stranded drivers on an adjacent highway in a blizzard with dispatcher aqpproval.
Apologies. I also had to re-read the article. No freight train was delayed, since it was work-train power tied up on a sidinig that was used. This was Thanksgiving Evening 1986. The CXS’s concern was totally tthe welfare of the passengers, since no freight was moving on the Divisions involved that evening. CSX could have taken the position: Amtrak, it is your problem, get the train off our line in not more than eight hours. But they did not. They thought it through and did the best for the Amtrak passengers that they could.
