Georgia law officers contact CSX to inform them of a rail defect. Apparently about 18 inches of each end of a rail joint has been fractured by yet another low-clearance vehicle at a grade crossing.
From what I gather about four hours after the report a train passed through and, yep, on the ground!
So have the railroads, in this case CSX or in East Palestine NS learned anything about early detection of defects in regards to derailment prevention?
Here’s what CSX had to say:
"Every day we work with law enforcement and emergency response personnel throughout our extensive network and have good communication with matters like this. Our team is conducting a thorough investigation of the incident to implement improved measures to ensure this does not happen again. We’ve spoken with Mayor Dial, and we’re committed to working with the City of Tyrone as our investigation continues. We’re grateful for the first responders who quickly reported to the scene following the incident, and we’re thankful that there were no injuries.
“We appreciate the public’s patience while we complete this work, which is critical to ensuring the safety of motorists using this crossing, and a safe, reliable freight rail network”
I have no idea of what happened in this specific instance.
However, being an Asst. Chief Dispatcher on CSX for 26 years, the normal path for a ‘Public Safety’ issue is for the original report from the ‘outside world’ will be to the 800 number that is posted on the AAR Crossing identifier tag applied to the crossing protection stanchions on either side of the crossing - in CSX’s case that is 800-232-0144 - which is answered by the CSX Police at the PSCC - Public Safety Communications Center. With the identity of the crossing ‘nailed down’ the Chief Dispatcher for the appropriate territory will be contacted who, in turn will notify the MofW Roadmaster for the territory where the crossing exists who is then responsible to have the inspection performed by MofW personnel.
I have no information on if the crossing was inspect or not or if MofW took no exceptions when the crossing was inspected. I am certain, within CSX there is a paper trail of various Company Discipline Investigations with the employees involved in what they saw and what actions, if any, they took.
The very first thing the ‘operator’ should do after learning there is a ‘broken rail’ or other obstruction will be to call the dispatcher. The dispatcher should have standing orders for all trains in the affected area to stop or reduce to restricted speed… ‘half the distance’ here referring to the known crossing location. Existing GIS support will display this.
When the MOW crew gets there… they should establish a line to the operator, who will then inform the dispatcher. Progress with remediation, and safe re-opening to traffic, should likewise be phoned in to the ‘crossing point of contact’.
I have my old service voice-mail system in storage – it was capable of very complex store-and forward to multiple chains of phones and pagers. That’s thirty-year-old technology… and a version of it would likely have made Randy Stahl aware of the evolving RTC stupidity ‘in time’, even on a national holiday.
Ah yes - you all have no idea of how ‘off the wall’ communications with the ‘general public’ can be about any condition.
Prior to CSX establishing the PSCC as the point of contact for ‘emergency type’ situations - virtually everyone in the company was considered a ‘contact’ and they did not have ANY means to get the data to the person/organization within the company to act upon the situation.
When I first went back to Dispatching in 1990 I was the ACD for the Tampa Division - which ran from Savannah through Waycross, Jacksonville and on to Miami, including Tampa and the Bone Valley phosphate mining area. Every afternoon starting about 4 PM the phone was ringing constantly as the Afternoon Thunderstorms were happening in at least one area within the territory and road crossings would malfunction for one reason or another and all the reports were coming to the ACD position who had to identify the crossing, find the Maintainer responsible for it and then try to contact the Maintainer via his pager (time before cell phones). Maintainer would then try to respond to the page to get notified of the issue. Every afternoon seemed to be the same - just the locality of the issues changed as the T’storms hit different areas each day.
The general public DOES NOT KNOW how to identify the location of the problem. Down by the Quick-E-Mart doesn’t cut it. Local law enforcement tend to refer to locations by the hundred block. Railroad locations are cataloged by mile post. For action to be taken on the railroad - the mile post of the issue has to be determined.
The PSCC as the point of contact, performs that call screening and identification process, and that is critical. Unless you are dealing with a mom & pop two person business, all businesses have a call screening process in order to get critical information to the job that needs it.
The Train Dispatcher does not have the time to play 20 Questions with outside callers about anything. If we get to the point of inoperative crossing protection, slow orders or anything else that requires the Train Dispatcher to issue a ‘Mandatory Directive’ to trains - the issuance of the directive has particular steps that must be taken in the CADS computer system that the Train Dispatcher uses to line signals, manipulate control points, and issue Train Messages and other Mandatory Directives - these are very structured communications between the Train Dispatcher and train crews.
The seems like what Balt said they already do: CSX Police at the PSCC (the ‘operator’) notifies the (chief) dispatcher. I suppose the only thing different is that the dispatcher’s first order of business should be to ascertain if there are any trains near the affected crossing and then notify them accordingly (and update the PTC system as applicable). THEN they can call MoW or signal department as needed.
Before we denigrate CSX’s system, we should wait to see where the failure actually occurred.
But the operative word here was/is failure. The longer a communication chain is in length (number of intermediaries) the longer it takes messages to get results accurately.
This is the whole point of those little blue MANDATORY signs. “The Public” is told to go find that sign if they’re not already looking at it. That sign unambiguously identifies the EXACT location of concern. The operator does not call the ‘maintainer’ before assuring that traffic is protected.
Now if you find a broken rail out on the line somewhere, or see that a truck or traction motor is ‘on fire’, we have more of a concern. That’s where patching in local first responders with a better idea of the local lay of the land AND access to GIS would come in… and this would also advise the maintainers from a more official source whether the concern is critical for safe traffic. (Or if it is hysteria, where to allocate the charges…)
Where the fun comes in is using AI of some sort to recognize issues before 'humans report them.
Never mind railroads - 9-1-1 dispatchers have their hands full trying to figure out where calls are on the roads. People on the Interstate have no idea of what milepost they are near, or exit, or overpass. And they’re probably the worst. All too often a driver on the Interstate will call in a fire adjacent to the highway, and they have absolutely no idea where they are. Thank goodness for GPS… Add to that the folks who report the incident is at the “old Smith farm,” and the like. I’ve been in the fire business over 45 years, and there have been many instances where we are dispatched, then cancelled as a result of dispatch finally discerning where the actual incident is located.
On the Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern, there are two crossings that are actually the same road. We know one crossing by the road name, and the other by a nearby landmark. The public and the 9-1-1 folks aren’t going to know that and will likely refer to both by the road name.
I have the numbers for the appropriate dispatchers in our area, but I’ll call the emergency number first. The DS will be an absolute last resort.
UP, when notified of something happening at a crossing by local authorities - sometimes things on the right of way that may have affected the main track - won’t run a train over it until a track inspector has checked it out. Things called in by concerned citizens, usually when crossing panels are working loose, might get trains stopped or at least a proceed at restricted speed not exceeding 10 mph looking out for track defect. It’s the same warning given when a train reports rough track.
That’s not to say that sometimes can’t slip through the cracks, but that’s how things usually go.
A couple years ago my wife and I were heading to the local Walmart for something. We get stopped by a westbound BNSF doublestack nothing unusual for my town being on the transcon. Well I see a mud pumping spot just south of the crossing and then the train hits it doing 35mph. The front pilot of the locomotive was slammed into the rails along with the trailing locomotives end plates. Then the cars started bottoming out on this spot it was that bad.
Yes I called it in using the number of the crossing listed on that blue card and said the trouble spot was about 100 yards north of the crossing and how they hadn’t put one on the ground was amazing yet. They sent out a maintenance crew. Then found the real problem leaking water main about 50 feet to the west but the weak point was underneath the tracks. Hell of a mess they had to fix on a holiday weekend for both the water company and the railroad.
I had a ‘first-hand’ call-in back in late '90s or maybe early 2000s or so. I met up with a modeler friend near Geneva, Ohio and during the course of our conversation he mentioned the ‘banging’ sound from passing trains in the recent 48 hours. He said Amtrak went through last night and the noise woke me up. Passenger track speed is 79.
This was Conrail’s former New York Central main line east of Cleveland. It was pretty easy to drive to so we parked and walked to the source of the noise and found that a rail-end had fractured and there was about eight inches of the head of the rail missing and I saw where the wheel treads had been banging on the tops of the joint bars! No cell phones, no grade crossing toll-free numbers then. (didn’t have a camera, either!)
I had to leave for work right then but as soon as I got to work I looked up the local office of the FRA. Yes, a Federal Agency had a local office! What a novel idea! It was already after 3 pm but a lady answered and I explained the situation to her along with the mile post, number two track, NORTH rail. She apologized and said our field inspector is in Louisville today. As in Kentucky, I ask? Yes, he covers a three-state area, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.
I further explained that this is more than just a minor rail defect and that there is an eight inch chunk of the rail head missing on a passenger main.
“Thank you, I’ll take care of it” and that was that. I did follow up with my friend that lived nearby and he told me that a Conrail ‘Block truck’ (that’s what I’ve always heard the tandem-axle, flat bed trucks the M-of-W gang uses are called) had showed up not long after the time I called so it would seem the nice lady at the FRA made the right calls.
In my rural area of the country, our 911 system locates a cell phone call in a combination of ways. A cell phone can give location unless the user has the location turned off. Even then, the 911 system can get a location down to a fairly small area. I guess neither of these work if there’s no cell service, but that is increasingly rare in the country.
Could the railroads get a system like that? I have no idea the cost or if it is even possible.
