The other day as I was cruising around town I saw a big shiny roadunit BNSF Dash8 doing switching duty (!) at the local Brewery in Irwindale. This is a branch line now, all that is left of the old Santa Fe ROW that used to go all the way to LA before the Metro Goldline was built so I know it wasnt just parked. There were two older beat up units with it and they were pushing cars at the brewery siding off the branch line. My question is:
Do engines get “punished” and relegated to switching duty if they are “bad” little engines just like on “Thomas the Tank Engine”? I can see road crews being reassigned for infractions, but engines?
Just how are engines assigned to tasks? Dont switchers have a lower gear ratio than road engines? Wouldnt a big shiny Dash8 be too highy strung for lowely switching duty? or too big for industrial sidings (i can just hear those wheels squeeling)? Is reality as strange as fiction? Will “Thomas the Dash8” ever get back onto the mainline on Sodor, I mean Los Angeles???
the answer is tonnage and need. a dash 8 will do the job but it is slow. engines are by need if that is all that is around that is what you use. there are restrictions on industry tracks but. all it takes is the cheif or superattendant to say use it and all rules are thrown out the window.
As Henry James and Gordon learned no engine is too big for small jobs.Csx has used a variety of engines when switching here in Defiance.Labor Day 3 years ago they had 7 engines parked in the yard.
stay safe
Joe
From what I know they need certain locomotives depending on the load that they are swiching out. Last Thursday I saw a BNSF dash 9 doing yard switching!
We use the “Big Dogs” or “Supertoasters” (GEs) on NS for locals or yard jobs all the time. 6 axles can lug a lot of cars. Problem is those @#$&%^*! electronic brakes make switching tough. Also, it is tougher to kick cars with those big engines as thew computers automatically slow the throttle response.
Probably was the nearest thing lying around at the San Bernardino yard. The motive power clerks in Ft. Worth just saw it as “another number/ another available locomotive” on their computer screen and reasoned “why Not?”
In the past, have seen UP switching Cheyenne with DD40AX’s (roadmaster must have died if he saw that thing attacking yard switches!), so nothing is that unusual.
Yeah, it’s a real treat to hear the appealing sound of flange squeal as those 6 axle units go around some tight curves in smaller yards. Almost as lovely as the sound of nails on a chalkboard!
I see the SD70’s only on coal trains thru here. But lots of Dash 9’s hauling freight and even just short trains of freight - ie possibly from a couple of elevators.
When they need power to run an extra hump job in Proviso, anything is fair game…foreign power, C44ACs, SD70s, you name it! This is not without its own set of problems, though, as the plows often won’t clear the retarders.
I know on CSX where i work with the srew up in motive power assignments we have we just take what they give us. I have had 2 GP-40’s and a GP-38 on road trains. One day I had two AC4400’s on our 25mph branch into Canada that con barely hold up a four axle and even seen six packs on switching jobs.
CSX uses heavy six axle power on a reguler basis to marshal loads of coal in the yards at Grafton Wv.In years past it was realy a thrill to stand on the bridge spanning the yards and listen to the howl of an SD45 passing back and forth right underneath of you.
I have seen many high horse power mainline units doing switch duty. It depends on what is availible at the time the swithching is needed and what is availible. I have also thought that it is probably cheaper to use personal who is in the yard to run the trains and make use of them because they are being paid any way then to call a crew to do the switching and then have to pay for both crews. They just make use of the resources availible to them.
The other day as I was cruising around town I saw a big shiny roadunit BNSF Dash8 doing switching duty (!) at the local Brewery in Irwindale. This is a branch line now, all that is left of the old Santa Fe ROW that used to go all the way to LA before the Metro Goldline was built so I know it wasnt just parked. There were two older beat up units with it and they were pushing cars at the brewery siding off the branch line. My question is:
Do engines get “punished” and relegated to switching duty if they are “bad” little engines just like on “Thomas the Tank Engine”? I can see road crews being reassigned for infractions, but engines?
Just how are engines assigned to tasks? Dont switchers have a lower gear ratio than road engines? Wouldnt a big shiny Dash8 be too highy strung for lowely switching duty? or too big for industrial sidings (i can just hear those wheels squeeling)? Is reality as strange as fiction? Will “Thomas the Dash8” ever get back onto the mainline on Sodor, I mean Los Angeles???
the answer is tonnage and need. a dash 8 will do the job but it is slow. engines are by need if that is all that is around that is what you use. there are restrictions on industry tracks but. all it takes is the cheif or superattendant to say use it and all rules are thrown out the window.