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One more week here in Atlanta, then back home for OJT. I have so much stuff crammed in my skull that I really need to start using for it to make any sense. I see signal aspects in my sleep, and walk through grocery stores arguing with myself about the difference between class 1 and 1a air-brake tests. I have learned how to adjust the seats on an sd40 engine in such a manner to allow the most comfortable nap possible, and just cool it is when you kick a car just right, and it couples with almost no slam.
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May 27, 2011 18:22
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You may have to apply over and over. I know some guys who signed on with me had been trying for a year or more, others got it on the first try. Just keep trying, and don't take rejection to heart, its part of getting the job.
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Jun 17, 2011 21:33
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Bow TIE Fighter posted:OK, I'll bite. They don't, they are brought in for maintenance and inspection on a rigid schedule. At my terminal, all the power is inspected and minor repairs done daily, and when major stuff is required, they are sent west to a bigger shop. You don't spend millions on a locomotive and not change the oil or check the water. Some of our yard engines are almost 40 years old, and run well. They get used hard every day, 3 shifts and its rare to see one out-of-service.
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Sep 5, 2011 05:52
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Gorilla Salad posted:Another kind of railroad, courtesy of EnglishRussia.com This is a very cool page. It has huge machines and boobs.
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Sep 5, 2011 17:21
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BrokenKnucklez posted:
We went out the other night with an engineer trainee. We were stopped at a red, waiting on couple that were about an hour away when the engineer decided to crap in the lead engine. I jammed a brakestick against the door and left him there for the whole hour until we got a clear so he could enjoy his stench. He was apologetic and bought breakfast on the way home.
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Apr 19, 2012 02:02
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We are lucky to have cab signal, but it occasionally makes guys dependent. We had a crew running on c-lights (makes every signal an approach, but still able to run track speed between home signal. They lite up when your cab signal goes out) blow right past a stop a few years back because they didn't pay attention to where they were.
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May 19, 2012 06:38
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b0nes posted:As a train operator, how do you calculate how much distance you need to brake if say ahead you see or hear of someone stuck on the tracks? If someone or something is fouling the tracks, you would brake immediately, but throwing the emergency brakes on creates the very real risk of causing a derailment, It looks like that is what happened to those 2 girls in MD. Every situation is different, but no engineer is going to intentionally try to blast their way through an obstruction on the tracks. The trouble starts because stopping distances are longer than sight distances. Railroad tracks and right-of-ways are private property. You aren't supposed to be on them anyway.
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Sep 2, 2012 18:17
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NoWake posted:Not to take away from what you've said, but the derailment in MD was caused by a defect left in the track too long, vertical split head. Recommended action is to take out of service until joint bars applied, then limit to 30mph until the rail section is replaced. Since it was 25mph track, no slow order was put on it, no slow order = low priority and the defect was apparently left in for like 5 months. I hadn't heard that part, I am temporarily banned from the forum I use for work stuff. I'm not surprised though. We seem to be in a short-term profit mode here, lots of deferred maintenance all while reporting record profits.
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Sep 3, 2012 16:06
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ijustam posted:How does going into emergency derail the train? The brakes don't apply on the entire train all at once, there can be a significant delay between the front and rear. When the front slows significantly, and the rear is still moving at track speed, things can get exciting. The force can be enough to force the midle right off the tracks. If the trainline emergency happens towards the rear, a train will rip itself apart as the rear slows and the front keeps moving. I have had to change knuckles when this happens, and occasionally it will rip a drawbar right out of the car. Some types of cars, boxcars and autoracks have drawbars and couplers that slide in and out to help cushion the shock of starting and stopping. The amount of movement can be a couple of feet per car, so a long train can stretch or bunch significantly when starting or stopping. An engineer has to account for this, and be aware of what the rear of his train is doing as well as the head. Just because the head end is going up hill and losing speed doesn't mean you don't have a mile of train behind you going downhill and picking up speed. If there is a lot of slack between the cars, things can go bad.
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Sep 3, 2012 16:34
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B4Ctom1 posted:
The sad thing is, this is not at all far-fetched in this industry...at all.
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Sep 4, 2012 07:58
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InterceptorV8 posted:So the brakes work like a normal car and not like a semi? Or it does both....maybe? Kind of like a truck. There is a single air pipe, called the train line that runs the length of the train and supplies air to the cars. On each car there is a pressure sensing valve and 2 reservoirs(actually a single tank split in the middle). The engineer reduces the brake pipe pressure to apply the brakes. The valve senses this reduction, and lets air flow form one of the reservoirs to the brake chamber to apply the brakes. If the brake pipe pressure is reduced to far, the valve triggers an emergency application, where all the air in the other reservoir(maybe both, i'm not sure) is immediately dumped into the brake chamber, applying the brakes as hard as they can be applied. Now the brakes on every car are locked, held on with air pressure(no springs, like a truck) and the reservoirs are empty. Now you have to recharge the train line and reservoirs, but the cars near the engine fill first, and the brakes on those cars release. On a steep hill, this can be bad, as it can cause a slack effect that can be enough to get the train rolling again, only now with nowhere near the braking power it had. And maybe in the wrong direction. The conductor usually applies a ton of hand brakes when the train goes into emergency before the engineer resets the system and pumps air back into the line however, to prevent this from happening.
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Sep 7, 2012 18:53
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BlackShadow posted:
Most yard switching is done with the brakes bled off, allowing cars to roll freely. Ina flat yard, the engine stops quickly as the pin is lifted on the car, "kicking" the car down the selected track. A good crew, with a brakeman working the switches,and a conductor who knows his job can switch a ton of cars really quickly this way. To prevent cars from rolling out the other end of the track, many yards are built with a bowl shaped contour. Part of the skill of a conductor is knowing this contour, and how hard to kick cars into a track to ensure they couple to cars already there, but not fire them out the other end. Spring brakes would make this process incredibly slow, as all it takes to bleed brakes off is a quick tug on the rod attached to the bleed valve on the current set-up. The guys who do this out here do it without ever getting out of their truck. Of course, over time, cars will also bleed themselves off, so hand brakes are used on any cars left standing.
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Sep 8, 2012 15:22
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Brother Jonathan posted:Ah, CSX. The biggest collection of brilliant people who can't run a railroad. CSX is a beautiful example of how Theory X can bring everything to a screeching halt while making management think they are doing a good job. No, we didn't manage to move much freight today, but we did write up a bunch of guys for trivial rule violations and handed in a lot of reports and had lots of meetings and conference calls, so all in all it was a very good day from managements standpoint.
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Oct 11, 2012 20:23
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BrokenKnucklez posted:I have Sat/Sun off working days Sat/Sun off, 1801 start pusher service. 156 mile day. Local service rate of pay. 5 months on the same job so far. 
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Dec 2, 2012 03:09
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Off to Engineer School!!! Got the call over the weekend.
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Jan 29, 2013 00:49
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Disgruntled Bovine posted:
The max speed on the B & A is fifty for freights, and the power moves are because there are more trains going east than west, and several times a week they send the excess engines and any with major problems that can't be fixed in Boston back to Selkirk.
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Feb 5, 2013 01:31
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BrokenKnucklez posted:Haha, we always send our junk power back to Chicago to get "fixed". Usually comes back just as useless and broken down as before... I honestly don't know. We don't have them here, our yard jobs are out on the main several times a shift.
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Feb 6, 2013 21:12
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They aren't melting the snow, they are blowing it. Some melts, I am sure, but that isn't the objective.
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Mar 4, 2013 23:16
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Veins McGee posted:You still have mandatory crew rest though, right? Like you can't work a shift X hours after working a full shift. And there is the problem. You are entitled to 10 hours of uninterrupted rest after you complete a shift. But you have no idea when the next call is coming for your next train. You don't know if you are going out as soon as your rest period is up, or is the next day. Say you get done at noon. You are eligible to be called back to work at 10 pm, but you may not be called back until the following morning. Do you go right to bed, wake up at 8 or 9 pm, or stay up and go to bed at night? What happens if you go right to bed, wake up at 8 or 9 and don't get called until 8 am? You have been up all night, are now tired and have to go to work. Or you go to bed in the evening, and 4 hours later the phone rings. You just never know, so even with a mandatory rest period, it is still really easy to get caught tired
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Mar 8, 2013 22:44
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bytebark posted:What's interesting is how 21st century millennials being hired by class 1 railroads though their management trainee programs are dealing with it. Railroad don't just recruit grads, they also recruit internally. The internal recruits tend to be older, much much wiser in terms the railroad business, and already have some measure of respect from the craft employees. It also may come as a surprise to some, but just because they came from the crafts doesn't mean they are stupid or even uneducated( my RR offers substantial tuition money, and dozens of internal online classes for free, to ALL employees.) When it comes time for a promotion, the new grad is up against a seasoned, wise, respected employee with an extensive network. A degree just doesn't carry the weight you might expect.
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Mar 14, 2013 20:09
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Veins McGee posted:
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Apr 8, 2013 00:17
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Veins McGee posted:For companies that love talking about safety so much, this seems kind of dumb. You seem to have a bit of expertise in our agreement and working conditions. How much time did you spend in T&E again?
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Apr 8, 2013 23:41
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CharlesM posted:This is literally the kind of work environment that crushes creativity and innovation. Not saying someone here should try to stick their head out, as the change has to start at the top, which is hard too. It is, but I get to drive trains, which is cool as poo poo and therefore makes it all ok.
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Apr 14, 2013 02:29
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They all do.
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Apr 15, 2013 14:01
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kastein posted:That's probably the Franklin Street terminal in Worcester that you're talking about them rebuilding. They've been working on it for several years now AFAIK, I know they've finished digging out the side of a hill and building a new retaining wall there. Good to know they're actually putting money into stuff, my sources were probably misinformed on that. It's all done. The spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 million on the project, and the Great Wall of Worcester is a sight to behold. I lost money in the pool when it didn't collapse into a spectacular landslide,(I was betting the hurricane this fall would do it in.)
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May 25, 2013 19:52
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The rail trains I have worked, when they get to the end of stick, the bolt with joint plates it the next stick so the end result is a continuous rail sometimes a mile or more long. They place it, then the welders come along later and weld the joints. You know it's going to be a long day when the foreman says "bring it back 3 inches so we can get the bolts in."
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May 27, 2013 19:44
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Veins McGee posted:2 train CSX derailment caused by a sinkhole underneath the tracks in Upstate New York, 2 non-lifethreatening injuries. No sinkhole. Guy got by a red.
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Jun 29, 2013 04:46
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Motronic posted:The "no air pressure left"/parking brakes are spring brakes just like on trucks as far as I'm aware. It would be fairly insane for them the be anything else. Train brakes do not have springs, they function solely on air pressure. Every car has 2 reservoirs plumbed to a piston that is attached to the shoes. When the train air line running the length of the train is fully charged(about 90 psi), the brakes are released and the reservoirs are filled. When the engineer reduces the pressure in the air line(called brake pipe or trainline), the drop in pressure triggers a valve on the cars to release air from 1 of the reservoirs into the piston causing the brakes to come on. It only takes a 7 to 10 psi drop to start applying the brakes, and more brake force in developed right up to the maximum progressively. You can feather the brakes when you applying them, taking a few psi at a time to get a small increase in brake force as needed, but when you release them, they can only be fully released, there is no graduated release. The second reservoir come into play in an emergency stop, when the train line to 0 and both reservoirs dump all their into the pistons all at once. The fun starts when you start recharging the train line after an emergency stop, the brakes release at about 2 psi and you have no air to stop until you have recharged the whole system. On a steep hill, I have tied 40 hand brakes on a heavy train to keep it from taking off on us.
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Jul 8, 2013 01:40
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:I think only the federal government can rival the railroads for lazy and/or incompetent employees(craft or management). To be fair, you aren't talking about T&E here, because if you are, you are talking out your rear end.
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Dec 12, 2013 05:24
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:The daily deep dicking I get from yardmasters/crews begs to differ. Sounds like you guys are pretty screwed up out there. We have a briefing with the IM manager, YM and crew at the start of the shift and IM lays out what they need. To be fair, there are no CSX 1-year-wonders running the show out here either, most everyone is former Conrail, managers and crews alike and these guys know their poo poo.
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Dec 12, 2013 15:49
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0toShifty posted:What is this contraption? It's right behind the drivers cab. I'm in the end car of a SEPTA Hyundai Rotem train. It's a mechanical handbrake lever.
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Apr 10, 2014 01:08
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FISHMANPET posted:Reminds me of this video, which is pretty cool: Some do, some don't. CSX is very focuses on short-term right now, and it's beginning to show. We are constantly short people and equipment. Track speeds are getting slower and slower, engines aren't being serviced, crews are being worked more and accomplishing less, yet we have record profits. The railroad is being run into the ground here. We can't get a UPS train across the road on time on a sunny day anymore. Our managers don't manage, they put out brush fires and struggle to just keep trains moving with fewer and fewer assets. It feels like working for a bankrupt company.
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Apr 26, 2014 16:23
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:Combined, all of the railroads are investing billions of dollars into capital improvements a year. CSX invested $2.3 billion in 2013 alone. The problem isn't in capital investment. Its that we're over capacity and, you know as well as me, the extreme weather in the GL/Albany divisions(and on foreign roads) severely hampered operations almost network wide. Bitter cold and deep snow are nothing new around here. What was new this year was sitting in hotels for 40+ hours because PTI refused to work any time it was snowing. Even a couple inches and they shut right down. Also new was refusing to send the flangers out because they cut the MOW dept. by a full third through attrition. We have temporary slow orders that are over 2 years old and still haven't been addressed. Spending 2.3 billion on new intermodal terminals and PTC is just frosting. The heart of the railroad is wearing out, and isn't being fixed.
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Apr 27, 2014 06:20
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:I would be way more concerned about the inevitable derailment(s) and what hazmat spills are coming to an area near you. That's only along CSX lines silly. If they are reactivating a line, it sure as hell isn't CSX so he should be safe.
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May 31, 2014 19:10
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:There is an engineer at my terminal still bitching about the Conrail split up. Over 15 years since split day and he's still upset. The culture shock for some was pretty bad. CSX rules by fear, and demands blind obedience to the rule book, no matter what the outcome. This wasn't the case at Conrail, so pining for that place you used to work, and maybe spent 20 years at that treated you with a bit more respect and trust seems normal to me. Flying in an airplane years ago was a much better experience than it now, and just because it has been horrible for years doesn't mean I still don't wish the days of good food, liberal drinks and big seats to come back. Same thing for the Conrail guys.
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Jul 14, 2014 05:04
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:Dudes were probably saying that when EOTs invented. And they were right. It wasn't very many years later that 3/5ths of the crew was gone. I am reserving judgement on this, I'll wait and see what filters down to CSX. They have been doing a good job of reinvigorating the unions here with their latest push to put everyone out of service. Plus, we will have some time to see what happens at BNSF and to prepare. But I think the writing is on the wall, and I need to have a fall back plan put together soon. Definitely not taking on any new debt or planning a vacation for next year. I applied for a couple temporary transfers to start piling up some cash hopefully.
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Jul 20, 2014 02:15
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If I remember correctly, the lower line that the pantograph contacts is hard, brittle copper alloy for wear resistance, the second wire both supports it and acts as a parallel conductor in case the contact wire breaks. The counterweights keep tension as the the wires expand and contract with temperature changes and mechanical stretching.
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Jun 3, 2016 22:12
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