If cars and trucks can get speeding tickets on our
nations highways, can trains also get speeding
tickets on our nations rail system? If so, how?
speeds are preset and regulated by RR. I’ve seen charts that shows designated speeds for different rail systems…now who is to say the the RR engineer doesn’t like to sneak on down the tracks…they have a predestined schedule to go by…
yes, you,d better believe RR engineers have speed limits to follow. Randomly our companies locos are downloaded to see if proper speed limits are run. Also, another way to look at it. If an engineer is trying to make a little extra overtime and running under the speed limit than the supervision can also spot this. An engineer can be taken out of service just by exceeding the speed limit by a couple of miles per hour.
Hi Lindsay, in my experience with running on the rails we don’t get a chance to get a speeding ticket. We get fired. It may be for only a couple of weeks or it could be perminate depending on the outcome of an investigation, and there is allways an investigation! Railroads love investigations. FRA mandates a max of 5% or 5 mph over the speed restriction before termination is manditory. But most railroads have a zero tolerance policy. Do to litigations in court etc. if speeding is involved in a RR crossing incident. James.
With Wi-Tronix on the engines they don’t even have to download you. They already know.
Speeding isn’t worth it. There are no tickets or fines but as mentioned before just discipline or termination.
There are stories from the steam engine days (Casey Jones for example) but one I heard from my former employer goes like this:
Engineer ‘Hank’ was known to make up time when trains were late and he was actually put on trains for that purpose. His fromer Superintendent was now the AGM and on this day his business car was on the rear of a crack passenger train that was running late, and with ‘Hank’ at the throtle. When the train arrived at the crew change station the AGM was standing on the platform as ‘Hank’ walked by. The AGM said " ‘Hank’ my speedometer in the car indicated you were ten MPH over the speed allowed between MP 685 and MP 692. ‘Hanks’ response was “I never saw you go around me” as he continued walking to sign out.
One of the stories about passenger railroading in Mississippi, that was occasional brought up in conversations, was told about small towns in Mississippi on the "Mainline of Mid-America’ and Passenger trains. [paraphrased] “…There are towns, that in the afternoons and evenings when the passenger train goes through, it is moving so fast that the hammer on the gong, on the crossing will only get to half-cocked, before the train is gone…”
Some were known to use the description of a train passing through so fast that it sucked the trash out of the ditches on ‘both’ sides of the railroad…[:-^]
Decertifiable speeding is exceeding the authorized speed by 1/2 the authorized maximum or 10 mph, whichever is less. For 10 mph, 15 mph would be decertifiable. For 30 mph, 40 mph would be decertifiable.
That’s what the FRA requires. Individual railroads can have penalties that are more harsh than what’s required. My union has put out a notice on the bulletin board that we should all run about 5 mph under than authorized speed. That’s in case the speedometer isn’t accurate. We won’t be decertified until 10 mph over, but being over can start the disciplinary process. Especially the closer you are to 10 over.
I had a locomotive recently that had 3 different speed indicators. One was the axle driven main speedometer. The second was a PTC/GPS indicator. The third was in the engine’s data computer, the speed is not calculated using the same system as the main speedometer. All 3 stated a different speed at any given time, 1 mph apart. If the main one said 39, the PTC indicator said 40 and the data indicator said 41. With no measured mile to time the mile posts.
Jeff
Someone once told me the passenger train speed limit on the ACL thru Walthourville, GA (south of Savannah) was 92
I have heard of various local law enforcement (police, sheriff, etc.) attempting to issue speeding tickets to Engineers for exceeding local speed limit laws that city/town councils have attempted to set for Railroads, but I guess it produces more expense for the community trying to enforce such than they could possibly make back in fines and it didn’t help RR/community relations, nor did it result in the reduction of the speed of trains through the community.
Have always laughed at communities that set speed limits through their berg and then complain about the length of time moving trains block their crossings.
(1) Their(local gov’t) authority ends at the R/W line.
(2) Interfere w/ intra or interstate commerce and you deal with the state or the feds.
(3)Local (and sometimes state, like CO) expertise is non extant.
What are the regulations when the tracks are in the middle of a road?
I’m reasonably certain that other roads do it in a similar manner, South Shore does have a low speed limit posted for the part of the line that runs on 10th and 11th Streets in Michigan City. The trains do have to abide by the traffic lights at intersections.
Depends on where you are, track condition, geometry and the local state railroad commission’s decree. AFAIK there is no federal regulation on the issue (49CFR213 only goes so far)…
Operations in these kinds of situations would be spelled out in Employee Timetable Special Instructions. Each will be tailored to the specific characteristics of the location. No blanket statements can be made.
Report it to the diesel doctor and use your watch to find the accurate speed using the normal mile posts.
You’re covered. All you can do.
There was a story told on the old NYC of a town in northern Indiana that set a ridiculously low speed limit through their town. At the same time, they had ordnances that said a train could not block any of the numerous crossings for more than 10 minutes without moving.
The railroad’s completely unofficial response was to strictly obey both ordnances. Of course, that made the double-track main through the center of town a pretty serious bottleneck; so much that there was nearly always at least one train, and usually two, creeping through town and blocking all of the crossings.
The speed ordnance, at least, was quickly repealed.
Speed guns (
One day in the late 1960s an engineer was speeding on Cotton Belt’s Baldwin Branch out to the Pine Bluff Arsenal. A young Trainmaster was out on the branch with the Assistant Roadmaster. The speed limit on that line was 15 or 20 mile an hour. The Trainmaster, otherwise known as the “Ball of Fire” was checking the speed of the local train with a radar gun and found that it was speeding. The local officer with BLF&E was a part of the investigation that followed. The union officer knew to fact check the location cited in the speeding report. The track chart for the Baldwin Branch was consulted and the milepost on the report was not correct for the crossing cited. The union official then checked with the Dispatcher’s Office to find out which engine was assigned to the branch local that day. It was found that the engine assigned number did not match the engine cited in the report. Further query was made into whether the Trainmaster was qualified to operate the radar gun used to check the speeding switcher. On the day of the investigation it was noted that the crossing cited didn’t match company records of the location, the engine number didn’t match dispatcher records. And th