I was traveling along the BNSF tracks the other day when I noticed a crew in a pickup truck doing track inspection. It was one of those vehicles with track wheels that travels on the rails. I was wondering how these things were controlled? Do they obey the same signals as trains? How safe are they from approaching trains? My curiosity got the best of me.
the goat
The ones I’ve seen running on the Union Pacific don’t trigger road crossing gates, and probably don’t trigger railroad signals; however, they can’t be on the track without clearance from a central dispatch center because other traffic must be halted.
I have seen them clamp a large jumper cable across the track to trigger the signal system and indicate that the track is occupied while they’re on it.
The Hi Rail operator will either call in on radio or phone in at a switch box to the dispatcher. The dispatcher will give him “Track Time” ( X number of minits or hours) depending on train traffic. If a crew lets say a “Tie” or “Steel” gang gets track time the forman will set clamps accross the rail to short both rails to give the sigmal a red. If its a pick up like you seen, he may have been directed where to get on track and where to get off track down the line as well as the time to compleate his task and he must notify the dispatcher when he gets on or clears the track. All track MOW vechicles and equipment have electrical insulotors on each wheel so the vechicle will not short the track as far as signals are concerned. John
DISCLAIMER: THE PERSON POSTING THIS EMAIL (me) IS A MORON FOR EVEN SUGGESTING THIS IDEA, SO PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME BECAUSE IT’S PROBABLY ILLEGAL!!! (sorry, needed to get that out of the way!)
Sometimes I hate my evil mischievous mind, but the mention of ‘jumpers’ across the track to give a red signal got me wondering… Has this little fact ever been used by evil railfans, evildoers, or (God forbid) terrorists to intentionally stop a train? I would imagine there’s not a very high voltage running between the tracks, so an ordinary set of automobile jumper cables are the first thing that comes to mind. Is that how the signals are controlled? By completing a circuit between the rails and the signal through the trains wheels?
Come on man give credit to the dispatcher. As soon as you lay that bar across the tracks and those signals light up red, the dispatcher is going to jump out of his chair and go “WTF!”. Police will be notified immediatly.
As a young mischievous child, not recently mind you, a couple of my friends and I would use a metal bar and ran it accross the tracks to trigger crossing gates. Annoying to drivers at the time, but fun for us. As far as terrorists, I doubt they would care about this fact, they would probably be busy looking for other ways to cause harm.
jasper,
You must have done that trick on a section of railroad that was not under CTC control. If you were to do that today the dispatch center would have the local police on your tail in no time.
[:)]
The automobile drivers at the crossing, who could see what was going on up the track, would call as soon as they could get to a telephone booth (no cell phones then). The location they reported was much more accurate than a CTC operator would have. Even so, the police never caught anyone.
[:)] [:)]
More than likely, a signal maintenance man will be called by the dispatcher, not the police. Often, however, it is the local police that notify the railroad of the false activation. When I was in signal maintenance (I’m now in signal construction), I was often called for just such things. It was referred to as “vandalism” and VERY LITTLE humor is found in it. [:D]
It’s already been done…but with more sinister purposes in mind. I remember reading about it in Trains in the early '90s. Some idiot removed a section of rail, and then ran a jumper around it…causing the signal to display a false “clear.” When the Amtrak train came around…it promptly derailed and made a big mess. I don’t remember if anyone was killed, but several people were injured. Whoever did it was never caught 