I haven’t done one of these in ages, and someone was asking if I had any more to share - so here’s a quick and easy one I whipped up. This is railroading 101, so it won’t take a second of thought for anyone that does this for a living - so let the ones that weren’t crazy enough to hire in this industry have a shot at it.
Here’s the situation: You’re on this local that has to serve this industry. You have 2 engines and 5 inbound loads. You need to spot the inbound loads to the inbound tracks (any track will do), then grab the outbounds to go back from where you came (towards the right side of the screen). Here’s the kicker - that “tail track”? Only holds one engine. Sure, you could split your power and go push-pull back to the yard, but you have to wait for a train to pass by on the main before you can leave the industry so you do have some time to kill. Plus if you get both your engines on the right side of those cars, it will save you a couple moves back in the yard. A simple basic move… but how do you do it?
I have another one to draw up if anyone is interested.
i would set those 5 loads in along with the second engine as they show in the picture, back out with the lead engine on the lead, then pull ahead and run around the mtys, couple up, back up enough the get the engine thats with the loads on the headend of the train back out on the main when you can and leave
I’d shove the in-bounds into their destination, leaving locomotive #72 sitting on the spur with the inbounds, then I’d use the run around with engine#45 to get to the far side of the outbounds, push them back to the lead, and then go back down onto the spur to pick up the other engine, then with #72 now the lead engine back out onto the lead, then to the main.
Convicted one has the fastest solution that requires the least walking and work…but remember, you have an EOT to hang, an initial terminal brake test to perform and time to kill
The only suggestion I would add to his version is to leave # 72 just inside the switch leading to the inbound tracks, on straight track about a locomotive length in.
Not real sure how detailed Zug wants you guys to get with the required steps or rules to follow, but keep in mind it is not as simple as coupling up and going, there is a criteria that has to be met and steps followed to comply with the rules…
To give you an idea….
Say I am the conductor, Zug is the engineer.
I drop off at the main line switch, Zug drags the rear up to me, I unlock and line the switch, confirm the switch is lined for our movement and no derails are in place, get a red zone or 3 step protection, remove the EOT, place it on the rear crossover platform,.
Have Zug shove me back to the switch leading to the inbound or spot tracks, stop, toss the EOT off, line the switch and confirm to Zug it is lined and no derails are in place, ride the shove into the spot tracks, stop, get 3 step protection, tie the re
You all pretty much got it. One or two of you maybe made yourself an extra move, but the basic gist was there. 100% all around.
Another easy one: On this local you have to serve this industry with both a facing and a trailing point switch. You have some new gray tank car loads* for them (all their tank cars on hand are empty and need to be pulled), plus two red boxcars loads for them. The customer has three empty (MT) boxcars to pull out, and one load that has to be placed back in the siding along with the new loads you brought in.
The green cars are for another customer down the line. When done, you need to have both the engines back on the west end.
*- tank car loads are non-hazardous, so no special placement rules apply.
Therein lies the problem. The Cookie Monster ate the picture in the first post. For some reason, for me, there is only text, no photo, no link, no little box to click, no nothing. …And no damn spell czech! [|(]
A winner….the rules require, at least the GCOR does, that a main line switch must be restored for “normal” movement .(lined and locked if so equipped)
Even in CTC, there are still a lot of manual hand throw switches like this, so…the easiest way would be, on the initial shove back the engineer stops clear of the switch and lines/locks it for main line movement.
If there had been no following or opposing movement, I would ask the dispatcher if I could leave it lined for the industry, which is allowable, but only with permission from the dispatcher or control point operator.
Engineer drops conductor off at the first main line switch and drags the rear up to him, he removes the EOT, and places it near the switch.
Engineer pulls ahead to clear the switch, conductor lines it for the boxcar siding, confirms it’s lined properly and no derails are in place, and then climbs the last car to ride back.
Engineer shoves back to just short of boxcars in siding, conductor dismounts, engineer couples to boxcars in siding, conductor releases brakes and climbs onto the last car.
Well, unless the dispatcher tells the crew that they need to clear up for another train, they can leave the switch open until they are done. It will have to be restored to its proper position before the crew leaves.
I like the references to the initial terminal test, including testing the EOT. However, both scenarios would require another test that hasn’t been mentioned. Anyone know what that would be?
In CTC under GCOR, and I assume under other rule books too in some variant, if the main track’s maximum speed is above 20 mph, the hand throw switch isn’t equipped with an electric lock or there isn’t a signal governing movement over the switch to the main track (what we call a “leaving signal” or what KP calls in his Sunset thread, an “entrance signal”), you can’t clear up a train or engine. In those situations, you would have to leave the switch open.
So what’s the verdict, Zug? Am I off-base on anything?
I sometimes get the feeling that I’m persona-non-grata around here- the threads that I post in (which doesn’t happen very often lately) tend to drop to the bottom of the list like a rock in a lake.[^o)]
I have an old saying: “there’s a thousand ways to switch out a train, and they all suck!” But it is why we make the big (sic) bucks.
But yeah, you have a good handle on it. Switch out the boxes first, stash the trailing engine on the box track, have the hogger pull ahead, swap over to the other engine to do the tanks. There really is no correct answer. I did serve an industry like this once or twice on a local, hence where I came up with the idea - but the above is the way we did it. What’s frustrating is the tank track was a fairly new spur. Why it was allowed to go in facing the opposite direction from their other track baffles me to this day.
