Dangers of the job!

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Bigmacdak

I'll take the Duster.....
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I new it wouldnt be long befor they (BNSF) let this video leak out & it ended up on youtube. Here is the dangers of my job, working for a class I railroad. I'll try to explain as best I can. This train is operating on what is called dark territory. That means no signals on the track. You have all seen them green, yellow, red. ect. This track has none at all. You run on a track warrant, basically a sheet of paper that gives you authority to move from point A to point B. In this case a local had put some cars in the siding & forgot to line the switch back, yet told the dispatcher they had lined it back. Having this info, the dispatcher issued a track warrant to the train behind & authorized them to proceed. The crew couldnt see the switch was left open untill it was too late. The vid. is 3min. long & the shite starts hitting the fan at 2:40, so just fast forward to 2:40. At 2:42 you can hear the engineer "plug" the train. Plug is slang for hitting the emergency brakes. But at that point it was too late. No one was killed, thank god, just banged up pretty bad. I can only imagine what the guys in the cab were thinking.....This is the dash cam on the engine, so you are seing exactly what the crew saw....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C8TpVXhaDE&feature=related
 
I'm a road car inspector for the Long Island Railroad. I see these thing once in awhile. (Aftermath) We also, believe it or not, also have dark terr. out on the east end.
Weather is also a problem for a RailRoad trying to update it's way to old system.
The tracks have been here prior to 1843 when the LIRR became the LIRR from Penn Central.

All I could say seeing that was "Oh F%&*!
 
rumblefish, didnt know you were a carman. Hello from a fellow man of the craft. I started as a carman's apprentice with the united states army & transfered to the switch engine at our local ammo plant. 4 years later I hired on with UP. UP is trying to upgrade to ABS on most of its heavy traffic routes. My line has been here since 1868 & it only took them 120 years to get it done!
 
Carmans appren. with the Army? WOW! That's an odd way of doing things. Never thought about that route. He he he.

My Dad was an engineer with the LIRR. I went to go that route, but we had a talk. So I stayed as a cleaner (Coach) and waited. He told me it would be great for me, knowing me, he was dead balls on right. A deal with the union and carrier has coach cleaners going up to carmen automaticaly based on your time on the job.

I left the shops awhile back and now work local in a yard midnight inspecting testing repairing and taking cars out of service. Not a bad gig. Close to home.

I worked Desil for about 3 years in NYC and then went to class for the MU's. Been inspecting about a decade now.
 
rumblefish360 said:
Carmans appren. the with Army? WOW! That's an odd way of doing things. Never thought about that route. He he he.

My Dad was an engineer with the LIRR. I went to go that route, but we had a talk. So I stayed as a cleaner (Coach) and waited. He told me it would be great for me, knowing me, he was dead balls on right. A deal with the union and carrier has coach cleaners going up to carmen automaticaly based on your time on the job.

I left the shops awhile back and now work local in a yard midnight inspecting testing repairing and taking cars out of service. Not a bad gig. Close to home.

I worked Desil for about 3 years in NYC and then went to class for the MU's. Been inspecting about a decade now.
Click to expand...

Yup. The ammo plant here has over 350 miles of track spread out over 45,000 acres! The only reason I left the car shop was due to a layoff in manpower. I was forced to go to the switcher but im glad I did. It helped land me the job I have today.
 
A friend of mine is a career railroader in both the army and civilian life. While posted in North Carolina he was in the seat one mornig for the North Carolina Central when he came upon a crossing with a 48' trailer sitting across the track. He of course had no time to stop and split it in half and spread coke syrup all over the place. They didn't derail and no one was hurt. When the driver of the truck was asked if he saw the train coming he said no, he was blinded by the sun. The problem with that was that it was 4 in the morning and still dark. He was blinded by the headlights of the engine. My friend has never been in a major derailment but he has told us of several encounters with vehicles, or people, sitting in the gauge and of course the results weren't pretty. I sometimes don't know how a crew can get over seeing some of the things they see in a grade crossing accident, or even one like in the video. From spending time with my friend in the NORAC classes he taught, to a little hands on experience we got, I have to say, More power to all of you railroaders! It's not the easy or glamorus job many people think it is.
 
LOL, thanks to the kudos. Laying 2 feet of melting snow to fix a car getting wet by the stream of melting snow can really suck. At least we have gangforemann that are people and not nuts.
 
Keep them railroads going men and ladies.:rock:

Man!! :tongue9: Glad no one was killed. :love7:


Thanks for sharing :salute:
 
All I can say is "DAMN!" Glad to see that we have some guys here with their head on straight workin' the rails.
 
"What we have here is failure to comunicate" LOL
The front wheels are set so far back that a deception in direction is created.
A set of wheels out front would provide earlier warning as to which way the engine is gonna go.
 
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