Today I was out watching trains in Fremont and I noticed a train was stopped on one of the main tracks and seemed to be having trouble. So, I listened on the scanner to see if I could figure anything out.
I was just in time to hear the engineer make a call to the foreman to ask if he would take a look at a wheel on the lead engine. He said the wheel made a strange noise and was really bumpy. The foreman wanted to do a roll-by but the engineer wanted the wheel to be inspected while he was stopped. They couldn’t find anything wrong with it while the train was stationary so they did a roll-by. The foreman said he heard some thumping but the wheel didn’t look like it had a flat spot on it. He said when they went over a bump the wheel would lift off the groud ever so slightly and that might be the problem, but he wasn’t sure. After a lot of talking they gave the train a clear signal and told him he was safe to go but to keep an eye out for any problems.
Does anyone here have any ideas about what the problem might have been? I’m just curious to know what might have been going on.
Thanks.