Amtrak San Diegan runs out of fuel, Oy Vey
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,409963,00.html
Does this sort of thing ever happen to the Big Guys?
Somebody is in BIG trouble!!!
Do we know if the fuel gage was operational? Before you can start the blame game, check for a mechanical problem, first. It may be nobody’s fault, if the gages failed enroute and displayed more fuel than was really available.
Can you imagine the same thing happening with a commercial jet? (it has)[:O][xx(]
Disaster on the Coastliner! lol!
Regardless of the possibility of a faulty fuel gauge, Amtrak (and before them Santa Fe) has been running these trains along the same route for many decades and they KNOW how much fuel a given train takes to make the trip and one would think they have it down to a science how often they need to refuel the units…also I would assume they top off the tanks at each end of the run, or at least after an average of “X” number of runs to be sure this sort of thing does NOT happen.
Was that ten trips? Or eleven?
We keep a running log of hours run on our switch engines…when they are due for fuel we get a call to check the tank gauge…if there is less than 400 gallons it goes to the fuel rack between shifts.
Trust me, Amtrak’s locomotive desk also keeps a running fuel log on all of their locomotives, someone missed calling the service guys to fuel it, and the crew who took it out failed to double check the tank gauge, which should be part of the engineer’s walk around check before he accepts the locomotive for service.
As was pointed out, someone is going to get days off.
Ed: In additon to checking the fuel gauge, does anyone periodically take the gascap off, and have a peek?
It’s dark in there. Gotta match?
the fuel guys around here have a long stuff hose that they put into the tank to messure how many inches of fuel are in the tank…so X inches means Y gallons…so when the fuel gauge isnt working they will dip test the tank… as far as the sight glass that is worthless to try to use… the dye they put in the fuel staines the glass to the point that you cant tell if there is fuel or not in the sight glass…
csx engineer
How can anyone actually see the fuel through any sightglass without a highly focused light source like a laser light or LED lamp since the tank is completely dark?
Andrew
It’s not that rare to have a locomotive with a digital fuel gauge that’s not working. On the new ones with large capacity fuel tanks you can have a couple thousand gallons in it without it registering in the sight glass.
We’re supposed to notify the dispatcher when we leave our home terminal if we have less than 2000 gallons. I just heard the other day an engineer tell him the digital gauge only showed 300 gallons on one of the engines, but he thought it was bad order. The dispatcher said, “OK, let me know if it runs out of fuel.” As far as I know, they didn’t.
If there is doubt that the unit didn’t get fueled where it was supposed to, and there is no functioning gauge, as someone else said something is used as a dipstick to get a reading.
You don’t need a match, that’s what fusees are for.[(-D]
Jeff
I recall a few months back a Chicago Metra engine ran out of fuel in the middle of a run. Bet the conductor on the train felt he earned his pay on that day.
WHAT?
That’s a similar procedure to that used by drivers delivering gasoline to filling stations. Each rig has a long measuring stick used by the driver to gauge the amount of gasoline in the storage tank before and after he fills it.
Guys - this is not the end of the world. Gas gauges are horrible on engines. The sight glasses get stained, the needles break, and the digital readouts are either wrong or display " . . . . " (or * * * * if in the cab). I check what the gauges say, if I can’t read it, that is what I report. I am not going to dip the tanks because frankly, that is not our job and I have never been trained to tell how many gallons per inch it is. If they won’t fix the fuel gauges, oh well.
So yes, engines occassionally run out of fuel. Maybe someone forgot to tell someone that the engines needed fuel at the office, but it happens. Why do some railfans insist on blaming the crews right off the bat???
Zug, I don’t believe anyone’s blaming the engineer here. Everything that everyone has said about fuel gauges could be true. From the sound of things, it was an omission, rather than a miscalculation. This locomotive was somehow missed in the fueling routine that probably takes place before, during, or after every day’s runs on a corridor such as this. An engineer could have made his required inspection, seen nothing amiss (because of defective gauges or recorders, known or unknown) and still have every right to assume that whoever is responsible for the routine of keeping the corridors’ locomotives fueled had done his job.
(Sounds like nobody could complain about what you’re doing and not doing on your job in this regard. Maybe if the dipsticks would come out of the office once in a while…)
I was kind of curious just how far a locomotive might make it on a tank of fuel, so I hit Al Krug’s site and Amtrak and came up with some figures for the sake of discussion.
Among the top fuel use locomotives listed in his table are the C40-8 and the SD70MAC. Both are at about 190 GPH in notch 8, and that’s the number I’ll use.
The Surfliners run all or part of the 350 miles between Paso Robles and San Diego (LA-SD is about 125 miles). Trains running end to end are scheduled at about 9 hours.
Were they to run in notch 8 for the entire trip, the calculations show a fuel use of just over 1700 gallons. Obviously that’s not going to be the case, but it does make a case for the locomotive being refueled before/after every run. Out and back trips from LA to SD can probably do so on one fill-up. Bottom line is that the locomotives would have to be fueled pretty much daily or more.
On the other hand, averaging notch 4 drops fuel usage to about a third of the notch 8 figure, meaning that a train running the full length of the corridor could probably do a full round trip before requiring fuel.
Of course, that depends on the size of the fuel tank, too. Don’t have those numbers.
I sincerely hope they shut the engine down before they hurt the injectors, seals and the upper moving parts of the prime mover. (running a diesel out of fuel can cause serious lubrication and other issues)
Wish I came up with that one! lol!
We have the same discussion about this incident going on over on the MR boards. General concensus is…oops.