With the weather outside feeling like 38 degrees celsius outside here in southwestern Ontario, I was wondering what happens to railroaders when the weather turns extreme. Are there shorter shifts, more water breaks etc. when the heat gets turned up and other measures for when it gets really cold? Or is management’s attitude more like “Suck it up and keep going!”?
We’re a tourist line, but it’s still real work, and we use vintage equipment. The coaches are air conditioned, but the cab is not - unless you count open windows.
We do runarounds at several points in our day - if I’m working on the ground, I’m good for at least one bottle of water after - sometimes more.
The loco we’re running right now for our locals in Thendara is Canadian, so has a fridge (and a microwave). It’s usually stocked up with plenty of water.
Short sleeves are pretty much du jour, but shorts are a no-no, so in that respect, we just have to suck it up…
On the other end of the spectrum, our Polar Express trips are sometimes very polar, but people have paid for their tickets, so we run. It can be touchy with things like the toilets, and locos have to be kept warm, so it’s a challenge. The people just dress warmer.
Division supervision on my carrier has supervisors instructed to make sure crews stay hydrated and take breaks when necessary. Some Trainmasters will cart around cold drinks for thier crews and use the breaks as a opportunity for a safety conference.
My carrier is a switching/terminal road, lots and lots of flat switching and yard work…in fact, I have not been in a locomotive cab all week, but on the ground switching cars.
In our APB morning meetings, (accident prevention briefing) our officers remind us daily of how hot is going to be, and instruct us to take as many water breaks as we need, and to keep an eye out on our other crew members, we are all trained to recognize heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and know how to deal with both.
We have canned water, and canned Gatorade in coolers placed on all our switching leads, and an ice machine where we can restock the coolers as needed.
While I can’t speak for other carriers, down here on the PTRA in Houston, with the high humidity we take the heat and hot weather very very seriously, once you have suffered a heat related injury, you become much more inclined to have another heat related injury, each one becomes harder to recover from.
Down here, 100 degrees ambient temp feels like 106.
I was told when I started working on the railroad " it is always sunny and 70 degrees on the railroad " But generally we just suck it up . In the heat you drink a lot of water , in then winter you wear more clothes .
In the Original Post, 38 degrees celsius = 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remember about 5 years ago, zugmann had a little story here about the “The Cooler God” of his locomotive ? (good when they had the cooler already stocked for him, etc.) See this “Trackside Lounge: 3Q 2010” thread, about 2/3 of the way down, his post of Weds., Aug. 18, 2010, at 7:54 AM:
http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/176176.aspx?page=8
- Paul North.
Good for your Division adult supervision. The track guys are either out looking for rail getting up in the plates or they are out there relieving the pressure. Nobody in their right mind wants to disturb the track. Roadmaster is keeping tabs on where the ballast cars are, where the surfacing gang machinery is and somebody is probably ready to hose down the rock in the cars if the call comes.
This is a no fun time of year and really don’t care if it is a “dry heat”…Mr. Sun cooking the Ol ’ Noggin is a sure prescription for trouble and water, lots of it …is the order of the day.
I assume that in Ed’s world, the hammock has an ice chest strategically parked nearby? (The survey tribe here is working split shifts here and has 5+ gallons of cold drinking water on the truck in the morning unless there is a solid chance of a T-Storm.)
Ed doesn’t have a hammock (that they know of) but he does have a bench by his main lead switch, with a 5 gallon igloo water cooler stocked with ice, Gatorade and canned water.
His bench is made from the composite ties we experimented with, which didn’t hold up to the pressure of switching, neither did the steel ties.
My switchman has a bench and cooler about 3/4 of the way down the ladder too.
We are lucky, our work area is right next to the lunch room/locker room, so we can get in the A/C if needed.
Our yard is having a mow blitz, they are re-ballasting and replacing old ties in two tracks at a time in the yard body…those guys, even with all the machines they have, are earning every dime they make, that is brutal, hot and dirty work.
I don’t know the exact schedule, but it seems every 2 hours or so, they knock off for ten or twenty minutes, get in their trucks or go in the lunch room and cool off.
Tips we use not getting wiped out by heat…
Eat light foods, in small amounts over the course of day, save the greasy steak and bacon for after work, chicken works great, as do fruits, (our carrier provides big baskets of bananas, peaches, oranges and apples every shift) take a good multi vitamin daily, you lose a lot of potassium…stay away from Monster drinks, the sugar and caffeine in them jack your blood pressure up, and add the heat on top of that, the “crash” when it wears off is dangerous.
Sodas and any carbonated drink also make for a lot of problems, instead you should drink 16 oz. of water every hour, add in a sport drink a few times to replace electrolytes…do not over hydrate, that is just as dangerous as not drinking enough, pace you
Thanks for the tips Ed! Right now I’m working on maintenance at a nearby provincial park, so I’m either in an ACed pickup or in the shop half the time so it isn’t too bad but I can’t really imagine working 12 hours straight in the sun. When I do work outside I always wear a hat and I do make sure to drink plenty of water at regular intervals. Out of curiosity, are most yard locomotives AC equiped nowadays?
Ours are, (MK1500Ds) and have fridges to keep cold cans of water.
[quote user=“edblysard”]
Tips we use not getting wiped out by heat… Eat light foods, in small amounts over the course of day, save the greasy steak and bacon for after work, chicken works great, as do fruits, (our carrier provides big baskets of bananas, peaches, oranges and apples every shift) take a good multi vitamin daily, you lose a lot of potassium…stay away from Monster drinks, the sugar and caffeine in them jack your blood pressure up, and add the heat on top of that, the “crash” when it wears off is dangerous. Sodas and any carbonated drink also make for a lot of problems, instead you should drink 16 oz. of water every hour, add in a sport drink a few times to replace electrolytes…do not over hydrate, that is just as dangerous as not drinking enough, pace your intake. Shade on your head and neck are important, your scalp is an excellent heat exchanger/ radiator with all the capillaries in it, if you don’t have a hat on, the sun light will heat the scalp, and the blood in it, and increase your body heat quickly. Stay out of the direct sunlight every chance you get, not only is the UV a danger, the heat on your clothes will get you quick, wear light colored clothing, cotton wicks up and absorbs sweat and act like damp rag on your skin, the evaporative effect helps a lot. One of the biggest things drilled into us at safety briefings is to watch your co-workers for any signs of distress…most people who suffer a heat related accident don’t realize they are in trouble until it is to late. If one of your co-works comes up and suggest you take a break, listen to them. I plan a cool off break in the course of our work, we will switch 2 or 3 tracks and take a ten minute water break. I do this in the winter months too, the break allows you a mental cool off period also, and re-thinking your work plan can help you find short cuts or dangers you didn’t realize were there. Last, off work, eat well and smart, and sleep well…you can burn 25% and more calories working the heat t
Since there have been a few thunderstorms in my area lately, I was also wondering what happens during a thunderstorm. Is yard activity temporarily halted or is it just switching as usual? Since the freight cars are higher and would get struck first, would that keep a railroader from getting zapped? Out of curiosity, why are shorts a no-no when working? Is is to keep from getting your legs scraped up or for other reasons?
When I started in the early 70s wearing shorts were OK, not many did because of the environment and switching on customers property that didnt allow shorts to be worn, when I went into engine service in the 80s I wore shorts a lot in the warm months even on customers property, I just stayed on the engine.
On my carrier, shorts are not forbidden, but as Jack pointed out, a lot of our customers don’t allow them to be worn in the plants.
One of our customers, which produces and washes sulfuric acid requires we wear a plastic/paper like “jump suit” over our clothes, with a face shield and hard hat, all of which they provide.
Considering we switch/ work on ballast, a slip in shorts would very painful and dangerous, plus you do come in contact with the cars when riding them and the metal can be painfully hot, plus it may have contamination on it…nothing like dried chlorine or some other form of acid to leave a nice scar.
Plus, you get pretty filthy in the course of a hard day.
And, if like myself, you have really pale ugly legs, well…scare the kiddies and all that!
Thunderstorms…here we work in them unless visibility becomes an issue, and if there is a lightning strike nearby, we stop and go inside/hunker down, same with hail.
Here, that decision is left up to the crew, I have never heard a trainmaster or a yardmaster order a crew to work in a thunderstorm(plain rain, yes) nor have I ever heard a crew’s choice to stop and wait for it to clear up some questioned.