While railfanning last night, I saw two UP intermodal trains headed to global 4 on the EJ&E. What stood out is that the lights were on in each one of the non-occupied locomotive cabs on both of those trains. Is this standard UP procedure for some reason? Why?
Motel 6.[;)]
NOT !! (per the thread linked above)
Both this post and the caption of that thread are kinda humorous, though . . .[swg]
In addition to what Carl said on the other thread, it’s also to reduce tripping accidents. With the lights on when you enter the cab you can see the hobo curled up on the floor. With them off, you trip over him. Of course it’s not just hobos, sometimes housekeeping on engines leaves something to be desired.
It’s also on a service unit basis. Some have it, others don’t.
Jeff
Wouldn’t A) just locking the doors be a much better hobo deterrent and B) is the hobo problem actually that bad? I thought for the most part hobos are extremely rare these days… in years of railfanning I’ve never seen one. As a crew member, how often do you actually run in to them?
On our railroad I chew the guys out who leave the lights on. Just more light bulbs I have to change.
could upgrade to LEDs…
To quote Carl from the old thread,
“We had a rule on our service unit (don’t know if it’s still in effect) that trailing units had to have their cab lights on. Allegedly it was to prevent crews (and/or other uninvited guests) from going back there to curl up.”
This reminds me of one young fellow who was working in the production of semiconductor chips who found his way to a little-visited, dead-end spot in the production area, and went to sleep. Somehow, he was discovered, and his only defense was that he did not know that he was not supposed to be there. My thought was, “how did he manage to be away from his work station?”
A.) What locks? There are a few that have outside locks or provision for them, but crews don’t have keys for the type lock used. I think they’re used by the mechanical department.
B.) No, the hobo problem isn’t that bad. The tripping hazards are usually mundane things. Loose paper that should’ve been picked up and properly disposed of. Tools that have been left inadvertently or become dislodged from their holders. Stuff like that, although on the rare case I have heard of a crewmember stumbling over an unauthorized rider.
Jeff
Our engines have padlocks for the front doors - and we have keys. Plenty of rules (on our RR) require engines to be locked when left sitting at different places - but none for when in consist being used. Back doors usually have an interior slide type lock that can only be operated from the inside.
But I’ve seen more than one engine lock cut off. Probably when it was visiting another RR.
On one of my first road trips (back in the days of 14-hour hog law), I was getting a little noddy in the cab, and my engineer, bless him, suggested that I go into the second unit and “stretch a little”–he’d call me when we got to Nelson. As we descended Dixon Hill, he shined the rear headlight of the lead unit into the cab. Under this rule, this couldn’t happen any more. I’d have been awake–sort of–and probably not able to do a good job. As it was, I nearly had to be pulled back from an adjacent track as the Kate Shelley 400 blew by (maybe at 40 or 50, on the track of those days).
Pigs could fly too…
Who said anything about LEO-copters?
Intersting Information.
Thank You.
Paul,
As you have probably surmised the post was made in jest with the intent of adding some humor.
Respectfully,
What, you saying your road is too cheap fiscally responsible? I wonder what hurts the bulbs more: being left on, or the all the slack action, hard couplings, etc…
Being left on.
I don’t know… light bulbs don’t like to be slammed about. Though when we finish up with our day. I always knock the light breakers down. shrugs
We usually dont slam things around too hard. One of our freight engineers started out on the GN in the steam days, and worked 53 years for the GN,BN and BNSF, majority of that is ore service running the heaviest trains in the US. Hes damn smooth[:D]