Not too long ago a friend of mine back home was telling me a story about listening to his scanner and hearing that a two-engine NS train had a traction moter burn out on one of its engines, and it creaped through Mt. Olive on the old Wabash at about 15 mph, with the dispatcher ordering the crew to try to make the siding at Raymond.
My question is, often I see power trains of the same lenght go through town with four or five units–and it would appear that they do not need them all. In situations like that, do they ever have the power-hungry train take a siding and have a train with excess power lend it one of its units?
At one railway I worked for we had a regular practice of swapping power between loaded and empty coal trains after the loads crossed the mountains. They would give their excess power usually to the first empty they encountered, but sometimes to a manifest if there were no empties in sight. These trains were running 3x2 loaded in the mountains, 2x1 on the flats beyond the mountains, so we had to pull 1 unit off each end. Needless to say this tied up the main track and siding during this evolution for 45-90 minutes, which delayed not only the two trains swapping power but other trains in the vicinity, and as a result we had numerous hog-lawed crews and missed incentives on coal train cycle times. But it’s what you have to do when you do not have enough power.
Can it be safely and usually taken for granted that all road crews know how to disconnect and reconnect each of the several Multiple-Unit jumper cables and hoses - in the correct order and locations - that synchronize all of locomotives in each consist ? And then, do whatever ‘set-up’ is necessary so that they’ll all run in the same direction and at the same speed, and with the dynamic brakes operating on all of them, etc. ? (I’ll leave aside the harder question of, what if a pair of locomotives has one of those tank car long-range fuel tankers or a similar arrangement attached to and between them.) I know that railroaders are generally mechanically savvy with big machinery - ‘farm-boy smarts’, I call it - and a pretty resourceful and self-reliant bunch, but I can still see that kind of maneuver being a pretty intimidating task for a new hire that might just be getting comfortable with the basics of coup
It does not take a rocket scientist to MU engines. And yes, many times crews are responsible for MUing their engines, both in the yard and line of road. If you can’t MU engines, then you have no business having a hogger or RCO card.
When you see a train with ‘excess’ power on the head end, very often the excess power is power that is dead in tow and headed to the nearest shop for repairs. The Class I carriers generally have a very limited number of ‘heavy repair’ shops strategically located around their properties. When power gets to outlying points with with problems that are more difficult to solve than the normal electrician or machinist at the outlying service facilities can handle, the only solution is to route the engines to a heavy shop for the needed repairs.
So trains with a large number of engines may not be able to give up power as they are already at the tonnage maximum with their actual working power.
I see a fair number - maybe 1 per week or so - of westward NS through trains from Allentown towards Reading with end-cab EMD switchers in them, at the rear of the engine consist, and not appearing to be ‘working’. I surmise that’s what’s happening. I do see them EB, too - just not as often, as it happens - otherwise they’d be piling up someplace, I suppose. [swg]
This is occuring as I type this. CSX dropped off a grain train at Wellsboro for the Chesepeake and Indiana (CKIN…referred to as Chicken by CSX). An eastbound CSX is picking up the power and the crew and deadheading both to Garrett. BTW, anyone wanting to watch the CKIN in operation, the dropping of the empty hoppers at Wellsboro more than likely spells the movement of a grain train tomorrow, possibly to Malden.
Last week CSX dropped off the grain train and a westbound intermodal had horn problems. Simple solution…pickup the units and take them into Chicago and the horn problem is buried in the third unit.
How long does it take to hook up a unit?
While we are on the subject of power…do locomotives ever get “lost”? Does this occur generally off line or on line?
As a rule of thumb…allow 30 to 45 minutes for the pick up of an engine on line of road. Longer if it is necessary that the engine being picked up must be on the head end of the locomotive consist since the EOT identity must be reset and a brake test done with the ‘new’ locomotive and the EOT.
Generally I expect my crews to lace up a six unit consist (jumpers, hoses and chains) in 20 minutes assuming no problems.
as far as locomotives getting lost. Define “lost”; do we not know where they are for a few hours. Constantly. do we loose them for a couple days, occasionally, Has one ever completely disappered. Not that I have ever heard of.
It does happen. Sometimes trains with many locomotives on them aren’t pulling the train at all. They are shut off, and are being “shuttled” from place to place. So yes, this does happen.
I moved to New Jersey and joined the staff at Railfan & Railroad in the summer of 1988 just in time to witness the last days of the famous engine swap at South Amboy. PRR’s electrification out of Penn Station ended there, so trains heading onto the former New York & Long Branch to Bay Head would swap their GG1 for a K4s or a diesel. By the time I saw it, the South Amboy engine swap had an NJT E60CP handing off to an F40PH, the whole process done in just a few minutes while commuters sat comfortably in their coaches. This electric-to-diesel swap ended after NJT extended catenary to Long Branch, with a diesel shuttle used for the remaining 16 miles from Long Branch to Bay Head.
You’re referring to towing units dead-in-consist? I believe the question refers to swapping locomotive consists i.e 2 units on a freight bound uphill switched for 3 units from a downhill train out on the mainline rather than at a terminal…
I think the time allotted, on the New York Central, for swapping steam/Diesel power with the electrics (in both directions) was four minutes at North White Plains, NY. That included attending to the steam lines. How fast can the WT crews do it? Does anyone care?
Out here, in Shelby, MT we are not a division or crew-change point. A lot of EB trains drop off excess power, rather than have it run an extra 100 miles to Havre or Great Falls. WB trains add that power back on. The problem that I see is many of the crews are not properly trained in setting up locos in the DP mode. Many delays! Heaven forbid if a UP unit, with activated cab signals, is involved! Of course, older NS units, without toilets, can’t be ‘leaders’. That problem seems to be going away…
Hays – on the “Right Side” of the mountains, Bruce!
Since the days of the ‘speed engine changes’ at locations where one mode of engine was swapped out for a different mode of engine…quite a number of the rules in the Power Brake Law have changed and set many more procedures that must be taken to assure that the trains braking system is fully functioning with the newly added power.
When it comes to completely changing power on freight trains the Power Brake Law mandates the kinds of brake tests the must be performed to assure a fully functioning braking system, including proper operation of the ‘two way’ EOT in being able to initiate a emergency brake application from the EOT. Inspecting proper operation of braking systems takes time, the longer the train…the more time required.