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FRA committee holds emergency meeting on hazardous materials
Boxes for the reverse levers?
Yeah! In the roundhouse. Because the lever’s standardization to the standardized control stands, give each engine driver two…they’re plastic and one broke during a dutch drop…thrill ride.
“A sufficient number of hand brakes to hold…” Is the AAR arguing that reporting securement to Dispr’s will occupy 5 hrs 20 mins of a dispatcher’s 8 hour trick, instead of defining for Johnny Conductor and Eddy Engineer a specific number, needed at that specific location for that specific train of hand brakes to set…To have and to hold, from this day forward, a stable and static train.
Have them set what management says is needed for that incident. Management can set up a desk that would have diagnostic technology that could deliver a number of brakes to set----tonnage per operative brake, location, grade, set 'em on the rear-end or head-end, compensation for the locomotive hand brakes which are marginal on grades nearly 1%, and on and on…
When talking to the securement desk, the cell phone ban would unnecessarily clog the Dispr’s channel. So…a separate DS’s securement channel or cell…IPhone…
Of procedures, a crew taking a tied -down train could/would be told the securement state of the train.
For that is there an app for that?
Boxes for the reverse levers?
Yeah! In the roundhouse. Because the lever’s standardization to the standardized control stands, give each engine driver two…they’re plastic and one broke during a dutch drop…thrill ride.
“A sufficient number of hand brakes to hold…” Is the AAR arguing that reporting securement to Dispr’s will occupy 5 hrs 20 mins of a dispatcher’s 8 hour trick, instead of defining for Johnny Conductor and Eddy Engineer a specific number, needed at that specific location for that specific train of hand brakes to set…To have and to hold, from this day forward, a stable and static train.
Have them set what management says is needed for that incident. Management can set up a desk that would have diagnostic technology that could deliver a number of brakes to set----tonnage per operative brake, location, grade, set 'em on the rear-end or head-end, compensation for the locomotive hand brakes which are marginal on grades nearly 1%, and on and on…
When talking to the securement desk, the cell phone ban would unnecessarily clog the Dispr’s channel. So…a separate DS’s securement channel or cell…IPhone…
Of procedures, a crew taking a tied -down train could/would be told the securement state of the train.
For that is there an app for that?
None of the facts are in and the investigation is still ongoing. Yet those least qualified to make decisions about railroad safety are making decisions. Why are they least qualified? Think about it. Odds are none of them have ever worked on a railroad. Yet they seem to think their pseudo-intellectual university degree in underwater basket weaving makes them qualified and far more of an expert in train operations than anybody working with the equipment every day.
Of course, as always, Anthony Fox, like all good socialists, takes credit for what the train crews are doing to achieve safety. Never mind he would probably be first in line to drive around a crossing gate if the opportunity was available.
It is very troubling to hear of these meeting before the facts.
All these emergency meeting and issuing of rules are being conducted before these folks even know the facts from the scene of Nantes and Lac Megantic. For example: rules have been made regarding First Responders as if they did something wrong. They seem to have followed their training. The head unit was shut down by the MM&A trackman pushing the off button, and he said he assumed the hand brakes were set. He was not trained to do that job, and did not check the brakes. So where was the Train Master (was there any?) or other management? The MM&A crews were never trained to test the application of the hand brakes with a power tug even though it was a Canadian law. Trains parked at Nantes had for months been parked in the same manner with only a few cars hand brakes applied. One call was made to the Rules Examiner to tell him that a train was found with only one hand brake applied and no one acted upon that safety complaint. Supervision did not check these crews. The engineer hearing of the fire on his engine, called the dispatcher from the hotel and offered to go back to check the train, and was told to continue his rest. The WB empty oil train tied down to the east was inspected the day later and found to have insufficient hand brakes applied and that engineer also was fired.
Involving Government Bureaucrats in anything nearly always guarantees failure, incompetence, and wasted time!!
Who is Robert Lusby?
Who is Robert Lusby?
Who is Robert Lusby?
Correction to my piece: The FRA administrator is Robert C. LAUBY, not “Lusby.” My error in transcription. The letter in question is still signed by Thomas Herrmann on his behalf.
As for Mr. Guse’s criticisms of the qualifications of the committee, they are unwarranted. The committee was formed of railroad and railroad labor executives, many of whom in their remarks demonstrated a working proficiency in railroad operations and mechanics. There were none of the cliche Washingtonian political bureaucrats in attendance, save for a few Congressional staffers relegated to an audience section along the sides. Several of the people I saw in suits and ties I have also seen over the years repairing private passenger cars, riding track geometry cars, and/or handling railroad operations in a “hands-on” fashion.
This is a positive step towards dealing with the transportation of a\hazardous material on the rails. Let us hope that this turns out to be a full investigation that leads to more attention in this area. It looks to be a good beginning.
This is a positive step towards dealing with the transportation of a\hazardous material on the rails. Let us hope that this turns out to be a full investigation that leads to more attention in this area. It looks to be a good beginning.
Appears to me to be typical Spin Doctor 101, overcoming government inertia by forming a committee and making some rules, send out a press release or two.
If you have ever enjoyed being part of upper management in a private or government entity, you know where all committee members are from…/You get a phone call or someone comes by your deck and informs you to be somewhere for a meeting. When you arrive for meeting, thats when you find out about the subject… The way our OBUMA government works and the results that are emerging from it REFLECKS back to the above…
If you have ever enjoyed being part of upper management in a private or government entity, you know where all committee members are from…/You get a phone call or someone comes by your deck and informs you to be somewhere for a meeting. When you arrive for meeting, thats when you find out about the subject… The way our OBUMA government works and the results that are emerging from it REFLECKS back to the above…
Seriously guys, can you knock it off with the irrelevent politicing?
There’s been a major disaster involving what appears to be a cascade of manifestly stupid errors from a cash strapped railroad. You’d expect the regulator of that railroad to take an interest and be pro-active in proposing safety messages in the interim between the accident and the full details coming out.
Some of you are pretending this is government overreach: it isn’t.
Some of you are pretending that the industry’s experts are being excluded from the decision makers - you’re being willfully dishonest.
Some of you are pretending that there’s not enough information to make decisions: we know the train was parked on the main line, that it - for reasons unknown - didn’t have enough braking power to compensate for a loss of airbraking, we know that it was left unattended, we know that the engine was in a known state of disrepair, and we know that the oil tankers themselves were of a previously identified unsafe design. Those are all enough facts to make temporary decisions concerning safety procedures until the various safety investigation agencies have completed their reports.
Knock it off with the knee-jerk anti-government garbage. This isn’t a Tea Party meeting, and those in positions of responsibility are doing the job they’re responsible for doing - any other action would be grossly irresponsible.
Thanks, Paul Harrison. You hit the nail on the head.