Half switched

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I work for a lumberyard. We have a lead(?) off of the BNSF main. Our track is about 1/4 mile long. We just got in a carload of lumber last night. Instead of pushing the car the full 1/4 mile up to our dock, the switch crew pushed it half way, and left it.

When our owner called the railroad, someone told him that it was done by a part-time crew (?) and that’s why they messed it up. He did say that the regular crew will come out Friday afternoon and push it in the rest of the way. That would typically be late in the afternoon, as we are the last place to switch before the train comes into town, and back to their yard.

We will be getting a car in late Friday afternoon. Due to Christmas, we will be closed Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Here we sit, looking out the window at a half delivered railcar, and wonder why.

Any guesses why this was half switched?

2

Would it be possible to move the car yourself?..no doubt you’ve got some heavy equipment in your yard that could pull/push the car to where it needs to be.

3

No trainmaster on duty? But, yes, a part time crew could be the truth. The regular crew lays off and a crew off the extra board is assisnged. The crew may know how to traverse the tracks but don’t know the way the job is done. It is probably unusual that a whole crew is replaced on one day and it is unsual that a trainmaster wasn’t handy to supervise the train. You have a right to be upset and should notify the trainsmaster or superindentendts office as well as your sales or customer representative. Don’t say how big the road, but, if small, ask as high as you can go.

4

We talked ourselves out of touching it. Where it sits now is in an alfalfa field, and there is a drainage ditch between here and there. Besides, we’re not railroad people, and we don’t want the liability of breaking something that’s not ours.

5

Well…one lead that goes from the main to the only dock on the lead seems like it should be pretty obvious. The car is lumber. The receiver is a big ol’ lumberyard.

How big the railroad is? I mentioned that it was BNSF. I guess I’d consider them somewhat big.

6

Ok. I’d talk to your customer/sales rep and to the local trainmaster.

Another thought I had. In BIngahmton, it appears 84 Lumber receives cars at their gate and somehow bring them in on their own…whether they do or not, I don’t know, I haven’t seen a lcomotive in there myself but that means nothing. The point is that there are customers who do accept loads at their gate or entrance and this may be what the crew was used to/ But you are due a reasonable explanation, more detailed than the one you’ve received so far.

7

Good answer… it doesn’t take much and someone is hurt or getting sued (or probably both)…

8

Norris, that car wasn’t “half delivered”; it was non-delivered. I don’t know when demurrage would kick in any more, but you should make that protest ASAP tomorrow, tell them that you’ve lost the day before the weekend because of their non-delivery, and raise Holy Heck before you get socked for a bill that shouldn’t be there.

(There may have been any number of valid reasons for the rookies to not deliver the car…they might have been running short on time, for example.)

9

A question, has this happened before?

If so, what was the resolution?

A lot will depend on what the work order said, if it is a “99” car, it spots anywhere on the lead, and you regular guys just place it at your dock as a matter of habit…odds are that the work orders simply says spot, didn’t give an exact location, but it isn’t like you have a lots of places to put the car, so they shove it up to your dock.

If it says “99” on the order, they did their job, sort of.

99 is the code for spot anywhere in the plant.

If, on the other hand, if it says “spot at 1” or something to that effect, they should have placed it at the dock, be they were a new, part time or relief crew notwithstanding.

For the record, you are entitled to one “free” spot and pull as part of your bill, they should have used their common sense and placed the car where it would be unloaded…you didn’t mention if they pulled anything, but I assume that if they did, it would have been from the dock, so placing the loaded one back in the same place makes sense.

If it was a relief crew, and they were not familiar with the normal routine, they may have simple thought you used a tow motor to move you cars, so they shoved it on the lead and left it for you, believe it or not, a lot of places are served that way, especially if the lead tracks are privately maintained by the business.

We have a few places here with tracks so bad we only shove the cars inside the gate, because we won’t risk our motors on their horrible track.

But, from what you posted, it sound more like a relief crew unfamiliar with the regular work, who simply made an assumption about car placement, did the bare minimum, and headed home.

If the person you contacted said it was a “part time” crew, that seems to be a reasonable explanation, but you are still entitled to have the car properly placed or spotted, even if it means sending a crew and light motor out to do so.

Also for the record, do not att

10

Can’t speak for your carrier - with the uptick in rail traffic the statistics indicate rail hiring has been up for the last several months, hiring to add personnel to the workforce and personnel to replace personnel that is retiring. December is the time that most of these new hires get thrust into the battle … The Old heads with seniority take this time as vacation, those that are retiring will frequently retire on Dec. 31 but take most all the month of December as vacation.

This month, on my carrier has been a ‘real trip’ with newbie mistakes - mistakes I might had the Old Heads (if any) will let them walk right into as part of the rights of passage to being a ‘real railroader’.

11

If you work in a lumber yard then surely you must have a forklift. You can simply push the rail car using a forklift. Just about any company you can think of pushes cars around using something other than locomotives. You will need to release the brake but anyone with half a brain can figure out which way to turn a wheel.

I also used to work in a lumber yard and our spur was on a pretty steep grade. We used to just roll them down the grade by releasing the hand brake.

I am going to disagree with some other posters by saying you should leave it alone. If you are working with rail cars you should at the very minimum know the workings of a rail car, how to set and release brakes, how car will roll or not roll with out brakes etc. At some point someone either on purpose or by mistake will release a hand brake and you should have people working there that can stop that car if it starts to move. You could also have a emergency situation where for some reason that car needs to be moved and you don’t have 3 hours for the railroad to get there.

As a former Conductor for the Union pacific I see no reason why you shouldn’t be comfortable moving cars. About the only training you will need is setting and releasing a hand brake, pulling the lever that bleeds the air from the system, and maintaining a three point contact while riding.

I have also seen two people push a car loaded with bricks into a siding. On level ground even one person can usually push a car forward. You don’t even have to be behind it. You can push it standing beside it using the ladder.

12

Sounds like they can’t get a forklift to it.

The railroad screwed up - the car is not accessible. As noted, probably some extra flea that is not too familiar with the work.

13

Thanks to all for the input. It makes more sense, when viewed from the railroad perspective. Would we gain anything by putting a friendly sirn up by the switch? Re: “Switch crew- please spot cars at the loading dock”

Thomas- We’re new to the railcar receiving business. This yard was built 2 years ago- just in time for a business slowdown. We’ve received only about half a dozen cars here in 2 years, so everything is a learning experience. We’d prefer they all be the kind of experiences that don’t cost money.

Our yard forman is the most railroad savvy. He used to manage a grain elevator. He told us about moving a grain car once. Something went wrong involving a derailer, and it cost $1500 to fix the problem. We mess up a lot of our own stuff, no reason to mess up the railroad’s stuff. [:o)]

14

An update:

The fine folks at BNSF just showed up to push our car up to the dock. All is well in Whoville tonight.[angel]

15

Multiple level communication failure - Heed Ed’s (and the other operating guys)warning on constructive placement.

And thank-you Ed for pointing out how railroads deal with reckless or cheap industrial users:

“We have a few places here with tracks so bad we only shove the cars inside the gate, because we won’t risk our motors on their horrible track.”

With industries starting again, to use railroad loose car business in industrial areas (where just in time delivery and stockpile backlog doesn’t matter so much); the whining and caterwalling by industries has started to increase again. Told one clueless industry “the facts of life” three weeks ago or a self induced clearance problem.

The other rising problem seen is what happens when an industry moves into a building with an existing rail spur. The industry wrongly/stupidly believes they can start ordering car deliveries (w/o contract) and the railroad maintains the spur.(that sat idle for 20+ years)

16

Murphy,

Glad you got the car spotted, and it was probably a rookie mistake. I do not know what your experience with demurrage has been, but I would keep all of my notes about the incident, including who you called and when until after you get your December Demurrage Bill.

As I read your story, the car was set to you track on the 22nd, and spotted on the 23rd. If you get a demurrage charge based on spotted on 22nd, I would dispute it and demand they recalculate based on actual spot time on the 23rd. In the old days the demurrage clock started at 7:00 AM and charges accrued at 7:00 AM. If that is the case and the car was spotted at 8:00 AM today then today does not count since the car was spotted after 7:00 AM. I think BNSF’s demurrage tariff is on their website if you need it or are feeling in a machochistic mood.

Merry Christmas,

Mac McCulloch

17

I don’t know about the big orange road, but with my road, a customer can put temporary and/or permanent instructions on the work order. Temp instructions may be something like “don’t spot car on pit today”, while a permanent instruction may be like “don’t put more than 5 cars behind building”.

Maybe you can get a permanent instruction on the work order that says "spot new loads at dock".

You could do a sign. I recommend: “FREE COOKIES ON DOCK”.

18

Or, as one switch foreman in a passenger car yard told the dining car steward when asked to turn the diner so that the heat from the kitchen stove didn’t blow back over the customers:

“Whenever I find a bottle of whiskey in the bottom drawer of the buffet, I’ll turn the car.”

Can’t do that anymore these days - Rule G and impairment, tests, etc. - and you shouldn’t have to do that kind of thing anyway. But a warm or cold beverage might be welcomed, depending on the season . . .

[:-,] Or maybe the first crew wasn’t very fast, they were just “half-fast” . . . [swg]

  • Paul North.
19

The old classic:

" You call, we haul; you ring, we bring; but no gift? no shift!"

But customer service is the name of the game. Why you would take a car halfway up a lead and leave it there makes no sense to me. Even if they can move the car, you might as well throw it on the dock for them.

20

Big Z,

That’s exactly how I feel about it…jeeze, your half way there, it might take a whole extra 60 seconds to place the car where it makes sense, and get out of there, plus if there is no apparent danger, close clearances, overhead racks, derails or such, so why not make a customer happy, it cost me nothing to do that, and earns the railroad a solid customer.

Mudchicken, you already know how that works, they move in, see the spur, thinks its ok, and wonder why we won’t come past the gate…our timetable even specifies where PTRA maintenance into the plants ends, so our crews know when they are on our tracks, or on the plants.

Most industries get it, they keep the track up to snuff, some just can’t grasp the fact that every other tie being rotted out and stripped joints means I can’t bring my 250,000. lb locomotive into their place.