I heard over www.railroadradio.net today on the Omaha channel a UPY engine crewman make a “Man Down” call. Does that mean someone just got hurt? Immediately after the call over the radio I heard three tones that sounded like the numbers 9-1-1. Am I interpreting this ‘incident’ correctly?
Was it an actual person?
Remote Control Locomotives will broadcast “Man Down” or “Operator is Down” if the control pack is tilted beyond 45 degrees for more then 5 or 10 seconds.
If an actual person broadcast it, then yes someone probably just got hurt.
Nick
I thought it was a mechanical voice at first then a second voice (human) chimed in with more specifics. I thought it was kind of chilling to hear someone get hurt. I hope they aren’t seriously hurt.
Usually when someone gets hurt enough to warrant a call… it’s bad news all around.
Ive been carted away over the dock into a ambulance a time or two myself =)
If the RCO “man down” alarm sounds, sometimes, especially if you know the guy is OK, other crews will make comments about Operator A getting back up or what ever.
Nick
Oh. The guy that started talking after the initial call was asking for a response from a Safety Team. IIRC he said he could see where the guy was laying on the ground.
That doesn’t sound good CNW. I hope the guy is ok.
BTW, there are a number of things that could cause a tilt timeout/Man Down message though. As simple as bending down to tie up your boots can cause the pack to tilt and if you dodn’t stand up again before the alarm times out it will assume you’ve fallen. The Canac “Beltpack” RCO system we use on CN has a “Time” feature that gives 2 minutes before it starts the tilt timeout alarm(high pitched squeal from the control pack) if I have to bend down to tie my boots or buckle a hose. If there is no response after the tilt timeout alarm goes off after a few seconds, the Beltpack dumps the air. It then broadcasts over the radio: “CN 7207 A. Tilt-timeout from A. Recover emergency from Beltpack. Out.”
I haven’t heard anything since this afternoon, just those couple of calls. I’m glad that the packs at least have a system to keep the operators safe. That’s dangerous enough.
A couple of years ago while I was listening to the scanner, I heard the following:
“Dispatcher 11, who just pulled emergency?”
“This is (locomotive number) East, we just pulled emergency, we hit a truck, Villa Ave, milepost XX.X”
During the brief exchange, I have to give credit to the engineer, he was using that calm matter-of-fact voice that people save for the worst emergencies. He described what happened in two or three short sentences, but by the third one, you could begin to hear it in his voice. In about a minute, I heard the local fire department tone out for the pickup truck vs train. (I have half RR, half FD channels in the scanner)
It was interesting to hear the railroad traffic, as well as the fire department traffic regarding the incident. But, I got a chill down my spine while listening as well, the scanner had been quiet for a few minutes prior to the Omaha dispatcher making his query. It turned out to be a fatality, a person in a pickup truck, late on a Saturday night decided to play beat the train.
You know, I spent a career dealing with injury, loss of property, and death, but this incident, heard over a scanner, chilled me. Probably because it came out of nowhere. The scanner was quiet prior to this, and I couldn’t get over the fact that I had just heard someone lose their life. It was odd, and a little spooky…
I have had similar experiences, and this call sure chilled mine.