This Was a Test

Yesterday morning, I could hear on the radio scanner the Union Pacific dispatcher working with maintenance crews to try and thread trains through the area while a UP rail testing car was inspecting the line. The test car moves slowly along the tracks using various tools (possibly ultrasound; I don't know the specific technology this car uses) to check for hidden defects in the rails that, left unaddressed, can cause a rail to shatter under the load of passing trains.

( Test Car Coming Through )

This afternoon, as Lisa and I came back home from a short errand, the UP maintainer was parked in front of our house talking to the local cable serviceman. Lisa went and talked to the maintainer, who said that they've been changing out rails where the detector car found faults, and that's a good thing, but it ties up traffic on the railroad. It probably doesn't tie things up as much as a 17-car grain-train derailment that happened up at Flanigan NV a few days back. Lisa surprised the maintainer by telling him that she'd been there. It's a pretty desolate place, but we did visit it once.