With the deadline for PTC looming, it seems like many questions about it have been popping up. I’m wondering about whether preserved steam locomotives will need to have PTC installed to go out on mainline excursions. I would think that they don’t need to install PTC (grandfather clause?). And if they do, how would PTC be able to control a steam locomotive?
Maybe someone knows more about this than I do, but the last word I’ve got is if a steam locomotive is going to be run on a line where PTC is required (and some are exempt) it’s going to have to have PTC installed.
I haven’t heard anything about “grandfather clauses.” Presumably there aren’t any. Oh, brother.
MILW 261 is doing a fundraiser for their PTC.
Their excursion from Minneapolis to Duluth on June 9 and 10 will raise funds for the PTC install.
PRR steam locomotives had auto-stop equipment back in the 40s - 50s. The big problem is the cost. Bennett Levin will be running his PRR E-8s in the next couple weeks. This may be the last run of these locomotives. Even he can’t justify adding PTC equipment to locomotives that only run 1 - 2 times a year.
I wonder if there is a way they can wire it in to a trailing diesel, so the diesel PTC equipment controls for responding to PTC for monitoring and stopping?
Otherwise the big steam opportunities will be greatly diminished.
Surmising off the top of my head, and by no means a complete list:
The UP fleet will operate, of course, and the 261 crew seem to always make things work out.
2102 on the Reading and Northern, perhaps?
Strasburg 89, 90 and 475 should be okay.
The D&S, C&TS, and White Pass & Yukon narrow gauge lines should be okay.
630 and 4501 in Chattanooga seem to have access to a line, and the Texas State Railroad might be okay if they can stay afloat financially.
Great Smokey Mountain 1701 should be okay.
1225 might also be okay.
3415 in Abilene KS should be okay.
2100 and 4070 in OH should have access to the Cuyahoga Valley line.
D&NE 28 has access to the line along Lake Superior.
4449 and 700 have access to a short stretch of track for Christmas trains.
However, one would think that 3751, 4449, 700, 2926, 765, 611, 557 and 470 could have some challenges getting out on the high iron.
Hopefully there is a solution out there.
PTC won’t be required on all lines, just major class ones and commuter agencies. Railroads like Strasburg and other short lines don’t have to worry about it.
This could get me in trouble, but here goes…
I know we’re not supposed to get political here. I know and understand that, it’s a good rule established for good reasons. However there’s something about PTC that just has to be said.
PTC was a governmental knee-jerk reaction to a wreck that was caused by an idiot motorman who was texting while he should have been paying attention to his work. By the way, how’d that dummy get the job anyway?
PTC was the result of a “SOMEBODY has to do something NOW!” mindset. No they don’t, not until all the facts are in and the chances of a repeat occurrance are figured in. This is an example of the blind, heavy hand of government and pure panic legislation.
A better reaction would have been legislation on the state level providing for severe penalties for operators of public conveyances such as commuter trains, light rail, and buses, including fines and hard time, who operate said vehicles while impared or distracted. Regular medical physicals of said operators to reveal any health issues might have been added as well. Penalties for concealment of any known health issues could also be considered.
Many things can be handled adequately on the state level, the Feds don’t have to be involved in everything, nor should they be.
So please everyone, take the lesson to heart. The next time “…they have to do SOMETHING…” crosses your mind, stop and think. One day “They” may come after something near-and-dear to your heart, as innocent and inocuous as it may seem.
Don’t mean to offend anyone, and if I did I apologize, but I just had to say it.
But to play devil’s advocate, cab signals and ATS have been around 100 years or so. Maybe if the railroads would have been more willing in pursuing technology on their own over the past few decades, the mandate wouldn’t have been so forceful.
Good point Zug, but remember the government let them have a way out. As I understand it long as the trains didn’t travel faster than 79mph ATS didn’t need to be installed.
Some 'roads installed it anyway, and good for them.
The thing is, I feel sorry for all those good people who put money, time, sweat, tears, probably some blood, and more than a little love into restoring their various steam locomotives, and who are about to have the rug yanked out from under them through no fault of their own. It just doesn’t seem right.
PS: We like the Limestone Pie. Everyone else can just wonder what I’m talking about.
Give them an inch…
I can dig it. Money going out versus money coming in.
As stated earlier, PTC is not going to be installed on every single mainline in the U.S., there will still be plenty of secondary lines without PTC that could potentially host excursions. As I’m sure there are other ways around it as well, would just need to actually read the entire law/act to be sure.
You took the words right out of my mouth. The knee-jerk reaction is part of their aerobics-exercise program along with leaping to hasty conclusions, running around in circles and stabbing people in the back.
“The UP fleet will operate, of course…”
Nowhere have I seen anything, anywhere (maybe I’m looking in the wrong places?), about PTC being installed on the Big Boy. Or the 4-8-4. Or the Challenger.
Did I miss it?
I don’t see how a diesel in the consist will stop any of these machines.
Maybe I’m all wrong, it’s happened before.
Before we go too far about PTC as an unfunded safety mandate, consider that air brakes, (semi)automatic couplers and various safety appliances were eventually required by Federal statute.
If PTC institutes a brake application in a diesel immediately behind a steam locomotive, the engnineer in the steam locomotive will certainly know it and immediately close the throttle, with brake application slowing or stopping the train.
from what I hear thru FB friends who work on RR’s etc, PTC will not be the end of all accidents, they might help, but many of the systems already in place should have too. From what I’ve heard PRR had a great system similiar to this and it was torn out many years ago when other RR’s took over, it had been installed on the Philly line where the terrible wreck happened in 2015, but was no longer there.
PTC won’t prevent collisions when operating under restricted speed situations. My employer is now requiring every engineer to have at least one stop test made under PTC restricted speed operating conditions every year.
Jeff
The PRR ATC system in the NEC was in place and working through Amtrak, and was removed at the Frankfort curve only to permit easier installation of the new PTC system. Like the CSX-Amtrak passenger train into a freight on a siding situation, it is also case where the process of installation of PTC was the main contributor to the accident!
Any different from a banner test?