It seems an overzealous trainmaster delayed Amtrak #29 for over 2 hours in Cleveland the other night when he reportedly caught them speeding 45 in a 35. The trainmaster ordered the train to stop at CP194 (Berea) where he pulled the engineer from service. The Norfolk Southern did not have any engineers available to take the train to Toledo, so Amtrak had to deadhead one from Toledo. Meanwhile it was discovered that Amtrak #29 was indeed doing the authorized speed and that the trainmaster and his radar gun had made a grave mistake!
You may mean Ex-Trainmaster.
lol…that is just to funny
csx engineer
Should not NS have to pay A/trak something for thier silliness[?][?]
[quote]
Originally posted by Wooster25
That trainmaster won’t be fired. He doesn’t have anything to worry about. If Amtrak was speeding they were violating the rules. They have no authority to violate the rules.
Especially since they are carrying passengers.
Dave H.
Dave-Read the last sentence of the original post.
Or, they could fire the radar gun.
…Well was the train speeding or not…Both are indicated above…??
No, the train was not speeding and no, the trainmaster will not be fired because it was the radar gun that made an error, although he may have been a little overeager.
The story I heard is that the TM yanked the engineer because he was doing over the 35-mph freight-train speed limit, but that Amtrak trains are in fact allowed 45 on the stretch in question. It was not the fault of the radar gun–guns don’t kill passenger trains; people kill them.
If I were Amtrak, I’d be out to recover damages from that little episode.
The things I have to look forward to when I ride the Capitol next month!
Maybe there is more to the story, but on reflection I find it hard believe that the action of immediately removing the engineer was in order. A stop and a warning and initiating investigation proceedures would seem to be more appropriate. I have heard that the NS is very rigid with the enforcement of safety rules, but this sounds like a “shoot now and ask questions later” event. On the face, it doesn’t sound like something a good manager would do.
If I had been a passenger on the train, and later discovered that the delay was due to the action of an oversealous safety enforcer, I would have been inclined to write some rather sharp letters of complaint.
Jay
Whatever happened to old days when trainmen were required to know there speed without radar guns or speedometers. Come on, you mean to tell me he couldn’t tell ,within a few miles an hour, how fast the train was going without the radar gun. Then he would know the gun was wrong (if that was the case).
Chad
Good point. I know a fairly experienced Illinois State Highway Patrolman who tells me that he and his co-workers can eyeball a vehicle and come very close to the speed that will come up on the gun.
(I know him because he is a business client of mine, NOT because he ever busted me for speeding.) OK?
Jay
Jay,
Here in California the CHP didn’t have radar for a long time (unless local government bought them for there area). I know a few of them were proud of the fact that they could tell your speed without them. One officer that is a friend of my dads never even turned his on after they finaly got them. I think he said something like “Radar…we don’t need no stinking radar!”
I missed the last sentence. If it was the radar gun then he needs to have it checked. If he didn’t know the speed at the location he was testing, then shame on him.
Regarding pulling the crew out of service immediately, speeding can be a decertifiable rule violation (the engineer loses his engineer’s license) so the crew has to be removed from service. On the freight railroads west of the Mississippi, an engineer found going 10 mph over the speed limit will be removed from service.
Because it is so serious, you can’t just “eyeball” it, the official has to use a radar gun or a speed recorder to determine that the speed was violated.
Dave H.
I understand you can’t just eyeball it. I meant he should have been able to tell if the radar gun is that far off. Sorry, I should have been clearer.
Somebody forgot to calibrate! (This amuses this surveyor to no end! Technology in the wrong hands is license for stupidity.)
Another “buttonpusher” bites the dust. [(-D][(-D][(-D]
Did this happen on tuesday night/wednesday morning run? #29 was really late Wednesday morning at Sandusky Ohio it Arrived around 7:30 am about two hours late.I am glad it was late because I got to video the train in daylight it had an all Superliner consist and a privitly owned domecar and an observastion car on the rear.
Radar? Obselete.
Need to arm with Laser.
One time on I-83 long ago in PA, A undercover trooper stepped out of his unmarked Mustang and leveled his Radar gun at my rig from about 70 feet away, I will always remember that to my dying day as I had to decide if I was under attack and swing the truck to take him out (kill him) or stand fast and let him get my speed. The physical act of leveling the gun and the body’s weaver stance to hold it steady was just too similar to a combat position. The wire from his gun leading into the car is what saved him. (And me)
Use laser. Much better and more idiot proof than radar. Safer too.
come on people…please read the thread better… the train was not speeding… the radar gun was calibrated…it was actions that a trainmaster thought was correct …untill he got all the facts and found out he was wrong… please read eveything befor you comment…
csx engineer
on my numerous travels on Amtrak & using my scanner
when passing defect detectors I have never heard them giving
the speed of the train. Do some railroads have such
detectors and would it not be an easy item to install on
the default detectors ???