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Trains’ top 10 railroad stories for 2014, part 2
I don’t see how one man crews can possibly work. Here they have to split trains to clear crossings , how is one man going to safely run the engine and split the train as well?
Loren - Operations like this have been common on shortlines and industries for years (I used a conductor in a pickup back in the early 1990s on a shortline, and it really sped things up). The concept is for mobile conductors who will work with any train needing their assistance. For your example, the conductor will be in a vehicle at the grade crossing and work the split and recoupling from the crossing, avoiding the often long walk and weather issues crews put up with now. Having worked trains over 10,000 feet long, dropping off and then having the locomotives pull a mile forward really leaves the groundman a long way from anywhere. Finding shelter in the end of a covered hopper for an hour wasn’t always the most pleasant way to spend a rainy evening.
I would be surprised if one person operations over the road are ever implemented as there are simply too many complications that would arise. If it were implemented it would be a case of penny wise and pound foolish in terms of safety and creating delays which are already an issue. Add blizzard conditions to this as well as subzero temperatures and you have a perfect storm for prolonged stops considering that even a mobile form of assistance would be difficult under those highway conditions. Add remote locations to this.
The delay from Native American review of antenna placement is not just on reservations- it is EVERYWHERE. They have review powers on any project anywhere in the USA that is regulated by the Feds as long as it falls within certain regulations, which PTC does.
“… two generation agos.” Really??? David P. is spinning in his grave.
And then there’s my newest grammar peeve: the past tense of the verb lead is spelled LED.
On a more serious matter, you wrote: “Not since Ricky L. Gates took 16 lives in a 1987 derailment in Maryland has the entire industry needed to stop and take note.” I would contend that the 2008 Chatsworth wreck is not only much more recent and serious, but also even more of an industry eye-opener. It certainly got more attention from the government, in that it resulted in the PTC mandate.
The single-person crew issue will not go away, but it is short-sighted and problematic for efficient operations. Shortline railroad single-person operations, indeed, have been successful in their own context. But on a high velocity, high capacity mainline Class I railroad which is already strained for capacity, it is impractical at best and dangerous at worst. Situations arise where multiple trains are in trouble, simply by coincidence. Having a mobile platform to ferry a crewman would be helpful, for sure, but a mobile Master Conductor can’t possibly protect multiple automatic grade crossing failures nor can they assist two or more trains which have been hit by an automatic defect detector or other mechanical or operational mishaps. In such cases (trust me, they will occur) everything will grind to a halt for hours until the mobile Master Conductor executes each task in the priority sequence that is given to them. The only priority that the carriers are interested in is cost cutting, which is not a bad objective, but eliminating manpower does have consequences. As an example: The single-person remote control crews which now are in use in many major railyards cannot manage to produce the amount of throughput that conventional crews could produce, but because a cost savings can be demonstrated, single-person crews will continue even though the resulting yard congestion is severe enough to significantly impede operations. Carriers then must figure out ways to compensate, such as rerouting traffic or constructing additional yard capacity.
Why not put tank car bodies inside of box cars. That is the way milk train cars were manufactured. I have a Lionel model of such a car.
Yeah! Why not!