I don’t know how many of you read the news wires, but tonight I read about an Amtrak engineer getting the crap kicked out of him by a mob of people in Sacremento, Ca. Now I am a new conductor, and still waiting to start my promising new career and this angers the heck out of me. As train crews we are trained to have Safety being the number 1 priority. What do you do when a mob of people stop a train moving at restricted speed? You stop the train of course within half the range of vision, which is exactly what the engineer did. I pose these questions…What do you do when a situation like this arrises? I see why the engineer dismounted after tying down to try and deal with the scenario in a civilized manner and not disturb his passengers or fellow crew but was it the safest course of action? Would it have been effective to yell from the cab car window? How do you protect your crew and cargo or passengers in a scenario such as this? Personally and as a young individual who is passionate about the safety of our nation and the individual, my first instinct would be if the crowd looks to be a bunch of bums or thugged out kids why not just gesture for them to get out of the way from the cab? If they do not move, as they are not railroad employees, and are just there trespassing or there to cause a ruckus, lay down the horn as loud and as long as you feel like it. No matter how hard these idiot youths are or think they are, after being blasted with a K5LA for a straight minute, they are going to be hurting and loose the will. Point is, it is not the trains’ or the crews’ fault that some people move into it’s domain. The right of way is where locomotives are the kings and gang bangers, vagrants, bums, tramps, and 'bos are not even ants compared to an SD70Ace or even a Plymouth critter. I am not suggesting that running an individual over is an option, as that solves
As you said, access to railroad property requires Right Of Way (ROW) safety training. As a sub-contractor I have to renew mine every 2 years. Personal on the right of way will have a radio and cell phone as does the train crew. The engineer’s orders should tell him where to expect personel near the tracks.
A call for help to Local or Railroad Police “should” be easy and in advance of violence.
When this kind of situation occurs, and they don’t move after repeatedly blowing the horn, then it would be time to get over the radio and call the dispatcher. The Police can handle this. I certainly wouldn’t come out of the cab. I would lock the doors and call the dispatcher. that would be the safer coarse. Also notify the conductor of the situation and let him lock the doors to the cars.
The police will handle it from there.
James
What surprises me is that incidents like this don’t happen a lot more often, though not in this manner. I’m speaking of RR employees being assaulted while working drills or in yard service in bad neighborhoods, particularly at night when a lot of local freights are working. I’ve often wondered if employees are permitted to carry guns when working in such places. I know I wouldn’t want to be a brakeman working out on the ground in say, Newark NJ in the dead of night. But a lot of guys do it.
Well isn’t that what fusees are for? You’re supposed to be carrying 6 of them on your person. ANy attacker is going to think twice when you light one up and jam it in his eye. Plus I think the average person looking for mischeif is going to scram when you get on your pac-set and call up the dispatcher, control op or railroad police. Carrying guns I don’t think is the right decision. Don’t get me wrong, I own a few firearms and have been professionally trained in their usage, but it is too dangerous to be worrying about where your gun is when you are riding a box car or tank car. Suppose your weapon goes off (i.e. negligent discharge) and puctures a tank of liquid propane? Anybody who works on any railroad of significance knows what a bleve is and how one occurs.
From evidence presented elsewhere, this seems to be a case of some gang members trying to assert their turf rights. Unfortunately, when dealing with nasty people, there are no nice solutions.
In addition to the usual ‘more police patrols,’ one suggestion calls for the trains to transit this area at higher speed. If the ones on the rails had been punted into low orbit, the rest of the nitwits would have had second thoughts about the wisdom of trying this stunt. Whether it would have prompted better behavior is open to question.
One can only hope that the guilty parties will be rounded up, tried and given appropriate punishment.
Chuck
Deport them Punks kids to Iraq, that will teach them.[2c]
You know, isn’t this place near where the rail trestle was torched a few weeks ago ? maybe this area has become a hangout for dangerous people and needs to be better patrolled by the local or rail police.
Maybe we should punish wrongdoers with real jail time instead of going easy on them. Assault an engineer? 20 years. Torch a trestle? 10 years. Let them break rocks and dig ditches for the public good for a portion of their adult life. Not so fun then is it? Sorry, I have no sympathy for the hooligans, forgiveness yes, but I believe you must still suffer the consequences of a bad decision, in doing so hopefully you will make a better one in the future. Just ask the kid in Bangkok that got caned for vandalism.
Allow the police to kick in a few doors and round up the usual suspects, none too gently mind you. Take the legal cuffs of our law officers and put them on the crooks. Enforce victim rights and take away the rights of the criminal. Make breaking the law something that you DON’T want to do.
I understand your sentiment, but I am slightly offended. I have been to Iraq and everybody I served with was a paragon of American virtue. Send them idiots to IRAN, and now you’ve got game! Do what they did there and those punks would be a head shorter than they are now, no questions asked.
Hey, no hard feelings!
how about cutting timber/ties from trees, and laying 39’ sections of rail on said ties… WITHOUT POWER TOOLS
Let’s see. You have 70 tons of metal around you and you are ten feet above them and you get out and confront them. I suppose on day offs he goes to the bad part of town and confronts gangs also. Sorry he got hurt but one of the stupidest things to have done I have ever heard of.
This seems to have been the best course of action. But I’d hesitate to call someone stupid if I wasn’t there and couldn’t see the whole situation. Maybe there were only a few people on the tracks and the rest didn’t show up till the engineer got out.
As a UTU member, I would not leave the eng cab regardless of how many crewmembers are on the head end. Lock the doors , close windows & call 911. Too many nuts out there and its not worth giving your life up for the rr.
This whole thing is sad i knew trainmen in the 90s who when they got to Chicago would travel in groups of 3 or more just to walk to the shanty. They were worried about groups of " locals" jumping them. Some guys were almost happy about cabooses being eliminated because they felt unsafe back there alone in the middle of the yard.
tangerine-jack , I’m with you 100%.
I have zero tolerance for those who commit crimes against civilized society…especially those with warlord tendensies. Eliminate the cable tv room, the excersize room and the sports facilities in prisons and replace them with something involving HARD labor. Facilities too crowded ? Build on. Death row log-jammed ? Stop whining about how the injection might inflict discomfort to the perp. Obviously “bleeding hearts” have never been a victim of these _______. (fill in the blank). Low orbit punt ? Yeah, just another version of their “mailbox baseball”.
I’d like to believe that the suggestion about sending them over to the sandbox meant to use them to occupy the lead humvee or other high risk task. The media fails to promote the fact that those who serve in the all volunteer armed forces are quality human beings who deserve 10x more of the respect and 100x more of the equipment support than they currently receive.
Crewmen : Please, please, stay inside, lock the doors and call for backup.
Engineers of old-like my Grandfather would have blown the whistle and continue to move after all he has a schedule to keep.A steam locomotive or any locomotive has a tenancy to move people once they see its not going to stop.You see self preservation kicks in.
When I worked on the railroad we would use hammers,coupler pins and anything else we had on hand to defend ourselves should the need arise.
Try that nowadays, and you’d get your boots sued off! Yes, they knew they shouldn’t be there, yes, they saw the train coming, yes, the engineer was blowing the horn, yes, they got hit by a train due to their own stupidity…let’s fine the railroad several million dollars because the engineer didn’t stop!
I bet they will jump clear to save their life.Thats the way life is…NOBODY wants to die when you get right down to it that old self preservation kicks in same for combat that’s why you make yourself a small target even in a full out attack…