The there’s this 1:04 video of one gone wrong, captioned as “Train VS Fire Hose in Maine - Must see for All Fire Departments”. The TV anchor’s narration explains it pretty well. Some of the comments are funny, too:
Here’s another video of a BNSF fire train, captioned as “BNSF Fire Train (Very Rare)”. The good part of the 3:04 video is from 0:10 to about 2:34 - what’s after that is pretty unusual - I have my doubts about it’s safety:
Unwittingly cut a fire hose outside Richmond CA with a work train in 1989… Nobody on the railroad side had been alerted to the local FD attacking a brush fire just off the R/W. Took 'em a while to get the hydrant turned off. Ironically, the work train was shuttling water cars.[:$]
When I was a kid we lived in Pittsburgh for several years. Recall the lead in to one of the TV stations evening news show was a film clip of a B&O passenger train running along ‘the river’ at speed and slicing through five or six fire hoses, releasing great cascades of water. This was in the early 50’s and such things as radios on the B&O did not exist.
I did a presentation a few years ago to the county firefighters association. I emphasized notifying the railroad of any fire operations near the tracks, nevermind running a hose over the rails. Fortunately, there’s only two railroads, and one is a shortline that might run once a week… I would not be shy about checking with dispatch to see if the RR had been notified if I was aware of an incident on or near the tracks.
I also pointed out the need for lookouts.
The fact that we don’t see a lot of traffic on the line through the county (CSX, soon to be CN - see the news wire) means there could be those who think the tracks are basically inactive.
The hose through the car windows shots (there are more) are legendary, almost to the point that a firefighter would welcome the opportunity…
Fire trains are more common that some may think - theyjust sit in the back of the yard, waiting for the occasional call to action. They probably go out less often than the rotary snowplows.
There were a number of them on the NYC Adirondack Division, including one based at William Seward Webb’s private station. Forest fires were such a problem that the only oil burning steamers on the Central were those that ran in the Adirondacks, account a state law banning coal burners.
In the video from Maine, the engine seems to snag the hose, not cut it.
What do you figure it got caught on? The hose was too low to be grabbed by anything in the pilot area. Could the wheels have pushed the hose along, like a crosstie gets pushed along for ballast spreading? That seems extremely unlikely to me, at that speed.
But what did happen?
Yep, it helps to call the right railroad. [#oops] When in doubt, live a little and call two.
That’s either 4" or 5" large diameter hose (not always easy to spot without some sort of reference). The minimum clearance above the rail for a pilot, snowplow, etc, is 3".
I was thinking that it might have been the “watermelon seed effect”, the way you shoot a watermelon seed across the room by squeezing it at one end, similar to what you mentioned about the crosstie. The smooth steel of the rail and the wheels might have squirted it forward. But after looking at the clip with a lot of start-stop, it looked like the first set of wheels rolled over the hose and the second set pushed it forward. Also, it looked like the hose remained intact, which means the first set of wheels rolled over it without cutting it. It’s not clear enough to tell for sure. Maybe those hoses are a lot tougher than I thought. In other words, I dunno.
This little incident cost a Detroit area FD probably in the neighborhood of $250 K+ for their aerial truck ! [:'(] No idea what the damage to AMTRK was?
I do believe it’s been found that the LDH doesn’t like catalytic converters very well… Why someone thinks that can drive their Rolls Kanardly over the top of it simply amazes me.
I suspect that, locomotive pilots not withstanding, the hose might survive a car or two rolling over it. It’s plastic with reinforcement molded in. If there is a sheering force involved, of course, it would cut it.
Assuming it was totaled, even 10 years ago a new FD aerial or tower was $1M to $1.4M depending upon whether it was a basic model or a more equiped model and also whether it was an individual purchase vs. part of a fleet purchase.
As I recall, it was a rear-mount. It was totalled. News stories gave the value of the truck as $600K, but the million dollar figure isn’t far off the mark for a replacement.
If I had to get by there for some compelling reason - only access to a derailment or injury, for example - I’d raise the flanged wheels - each axle separately in this instance, because the crossing surface is also beyond - while going over the hump.
On ‘open track’ or with less crossing beyond, wouldn’t try it - too much risk of derailing while the flanged wheels are up in the air (whether intentionally raised in advance, or from going over the hump).
In any event, safer and better to find another place to ‘put on’.