http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=313337
The DynamicTamping Express 09-3X sounds the siren at UP 3486, UP 3111, UP 3108 (SD40-2s) RCL job and UP 8008 (SD9043MAC) as the DPU on the Manifest West Colton-El Centro. The Tamper can advance as the El Centro train ahead is stopped within the work limits and under the direction the road foreman.
Any idea why this Tamper has a siren installed on it?
That track climbing to the left has quite a steep grade.
A tamper in operation is a very noisy piece of equipment. When in operation there will generally be some employees on the ground with it. In multiple track territory trains are allowed to pass the tamper while it is in operation. Many railroads have rules that when trains are passing, maintenance employees are to stop their work and watch the train pass from a safe distance. The Siren would be used to warn the employees working with the Tamper that they need to stop work and get in a place of safety to watch a passing train.
Very nice shot, Karl!
Was there other equipment working in connection with that tamper? If the entire crew was on board the equipment, a siren wouldn’t be necessary, but if there were people on the ground around it, or on other devices like tie cranes, you’d want some warning of an “incoming” train (coming in to your work zone). When an entire tie gang is working on the line, you’ll hear the siren first (presumably activated before the employee in charge has given a train permission to proceed through the limits), followed by the horns on every piece of equipment so equipped. Work is expected to stop before the employee in charge reports that “men and equipment are in the clear.” Then you’ll hear the locomotive horn as the train passes the gang: a long and a short to start with, then two shorts repeated at appropriate intervals until the engines are past the workers.
The work area would have been at the head end of the freight stopped ahead…so the tamper was heading to it…you could tell there was a lot of equipment up there…but there was no direct view from the freeway other than a lot of yellow track equipment behind the trees! Thanks for the answer.