Question for you guys who actually do this for a living:
On average, how much of your shift do you actually spend pulling freight (in motion) versus sitting in some siding waiting for other trains to clear, so you can get under way?
If you don’t mind, specify if you run a local, Yard, or between cities, and if the information is from previous times, give the years that are applicable
And don’t forget the railroad, I think that that would make a BIG difference…
Good point, especially if they are one of those poor Amtrak trains in UP territory, [:D]
They send relief crews on the same train when going onto UP property now, don’t they? (just in case)
Hard to answer that question, depends on the territory and the train that you’re on. If you’re on a hotshot intermodal train, you’ll spend most of your shift running across the road, even on a single track railroad, but if you’re on a expendable boxcar train, you’ll spend a lot of time stopped. We’ve got twelve hours to get from Point A to Point B. It is so variable, depending on traffic, crossline traffic at interlockings, dispatchers, decisions made by others that take it out of the dispatchers’ hands, terminal congestion. I could sit down and figure and maybe give you an average but I can’t answer off the top of my head, just today, I suppose I spent a total of 3 1/2 hour setting still, 40 minutes working at an intermediate terminal, and another 30 minutes running restricted speed account catching up with a slower train, this in a total time on duty of 8 hours.
When I was at the UPRR crew change point in Vegas I was speaking to a engineer who was getting ready to take a train WB to Yermo. I asked him that very question & he told me on “average” for the 116 or so miles Vegas to Yermo it will take 6 hours. He further said once he arrives Yermo he is free until the next day when he can be called to take a train EB Yermo to Vegas. The train he was taking WB that day was a racker [:o)]
I agree with ValleyX. There are so many variables. I’ve had trips where I’d get on an interchange train (brought to my terminal assembled and ready to go) and travelled to my away terminal (Butler-95 miles) in under 2.5 hours. I’ve had other trips where I went on duty at Proviso, had to wait for the power, had to put the train together (doubling or tripling the tracks together), got stuck in Yard 9, and not even get out of the yard until I was over 9 hours old, sometimes not even making it to Butler. Heck, I even died in Proviso one day, not even making it out of the yard.
Throw in some weather issues (especially snow) and anything that can go wrong…
Yes when Ii was at Flatonia TX a crews time had expired & they had arranged a taxi to collect them at the same time they backed a work train into a siding & use that crew for the trains whose crew time had expired[:)]
Thanks guys (anyone else who wishes to chip in, please do)
I recognize that there will be variables, and situational factors that make it nigh impossible to condense it all into a “rule of thumb”, per se. I was just looking for general POV from guys who get put in that position. In one sense, getting paid to sit in a siding has got to be easy money, on the other hand, the boredom has got to be frustrating.
What got me to pondering this, believe it or not, was pondering dual versus single track main. Seems to me that the railroads prefer single track with effective signaling over double track, whenever the former can get the job done. Which probably has been part of the strategy where RR’s have actually torn out second mains.
Evidently, the cost of adding the signals, their control links, and their central control is more than offset by the savings in maintenance and operation of the rails removed (seems like there would be a good story for the mag in there somewhere, analyzing the thought process involved)
The down side to such a strategy, would be the possible impact on the labor factor, paying crews to sit in sidings, while their peers whizz on by… etc
If I’m reading Zardoz and ValleyX correctly, it appears that the answer is more tied to the whim of the railroad (aka “priority”) than anything else.
If they assign a train as “hot” enough, they CAN get it through.
[As a side note, I have to wonder how much of the story we hear about choked rail infastructure in America is more rooted on railroad “priority” than anything else? *(keeping that mainline tied up for hot shots carrying loads for demanding customers , such as UPS, and the like). Maybe (in such an example) those pleas for taxpayer subsidy to add rail capacity are more of a subsidy to UPS stockholders, than to railroad stockholders?]
Anti,
The line I used to run on was 50% single track with a few hand-throw sidings, and the rest was double-track ABS (it used to be double-track ABS the entire route). Meets were a real pain and a time-waster, due to the amount of time it would take a train to stop, line the switches, pull in the siding, and then either the conductor stayed back to relign the switch for the train to be met and then walk the entire train up to the head-end, or the opposing train would have to stop at the switch we just lined. So usually the dispatcher just held one train waiting for the other to clear the single track.
Siding time is a great chance for the engineer to nap, walk around, exercise, etc. However, if you just came on duty, and are well rested and well-fed, then sitting on a siding can become rather tedious. A good book helps.
We didn’t have any ‘hot’ trains on our subdivision, except those that had been sitting in the sun too long in July.[8D]
Zardoc (and others):
You work out of Proviso. When you are “called” I assume you are given your train assignment. When you get there, is the train usually ready to go? or do you have to put it together? Also, it seems to me that they wouldnt call a crew if there was no power available. Yet, I hear instances where that happens?
Are the days of the hostler gone? Where he (she) would get the locomotives and place it on the train?
If you dont mind…give us a log of your next trip, dont have to write a novel, but a bit of detail. I hope this doesnt violate the UP directive on another thread.
ed
That helps, thanks…
MP173,
I left the CNW back in '92, so I cannot accurately tell you how things work there today, but from what I hear from my former coworkers, things are mostly the same.
When called, you were told which train you would be operating, as well as the conductors’ name. Trains were identified by their Alpha designation: MPRIT (Manifest, PRoviso to ITaska).
Most trains out of Proviso (or most main terminals) needs to be put together. The individual tracks that the train are stored on are coupled together and air tests have been made. All the crew needs to do is to ‘double’ (couple two tracks together), or triple the tracks together to make up the train, unless there are any “bad-orders” that need to be set over. Last procedure is the "initial terminal air test’ which entails the conductor doing an air test on the very last car of the train.
At Proviso, we would go to the Power Desk for locomotive assignment. They were usually ready to go, but if things were busy, sometimes we had to wait for power. After a quick checkover of the power by the engineer, if ready to go, the engineer calls yard control for permission to leave the diesel ramp. They are then given a route to the yard where their train is.
I think there are still hostlers, but I am not sure, or if they even go by that title anymore.
Once the air test is complete, we call the general yardmaster with our “departure” times. I put departure in quotes, because the yard where we usually get our train is called “Yard 5”. Our official departure is from yard 5, even though we still have to travcerse about three miles of yard tracks, and get permission through Yard 9, to actually depart the Proviso complex.
There have been many trips where I would be on duty for over six hours or more before actually leaving Proviso. It’s no wonder that sometimes the Proviso to Milwaukee trains never even make it to their final destination.
Coal and other unit trains are usuall
As a follow up guestions to the first. What do you do while sitting in a siding, occasionally for hours on end? Read? Doze? Play cards? Stare at the red signal? I was actually thinking about this the other day as i watched out my office window a CSX train sit for 3 hours on the Monroe Subdivision.
A short stop in a siding is great for catching a quick nap. A three-hour delay would get very tedious. I always carried a book with me when I was on the road.
Waiting for a meet is also a good time (for the engineer) to walk around, do a little exercise, etc. However, due to the poor rest one gets when working on-call, the usual activity while waiting for a meet is sleeping. A good dispatcher knows this, and will call a train prior to giving them a signal (although the passing of the train you are meeting SHOULD be sufficient to wake you.