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Train in Emergency
Dec. 23rd, 2019 06:37 pmOn Saturday morning, Lisa came into the living room as a train went west from Fernley and told me that there were eight locomotives on the head end. Must be an equipment-equalization move, I speculated, as Lisa headed off to do other things. I then heard over the radio the crew of that train tell the dispatcher and tell him that they'd had an unplanned emergency brake application.
( Skip if you know how a train's air brakes work )
Trains are big and heavy, so while an emergency brake application halts the train, it doesn't stop it immediately. By the time the train had come to a stop, the rear of the train was opposite our house (but the view was obstructed by two tracks in Fernley's small yard with cars spotted in them) and the head end was fouling the switch at West Fernley. That means the Nevada Subdivision was plugged until the cause of the problem could be found and corrected.
( The crew was about to go 'dead on the law' )
Fortunately for all concerned, a UP local freight was in the area following this train on their way back to Sparks Yard. The dispatcher instructed them to come up alongside the stalled train, drop a crew member to inspect the train starting from the rear while the conductor of the mainline train started walking from the head end.
Lisa and I could both hear the sound of a lot of air blowing from the train. She suggested that, since the end of the train was right in front of our house, what we were hearing was an air hose that had come off the FRED.
( Friendly FRED, the EOT )
Lisa brought her camera as we ventured out to (safely) see what we could see. She shot four short videos that take in the sequence of events. These were not easy to shoot, as they are using a telephoto lens at a high magnification without a tripod, while shooting through the gaps in a center-barrier car on the near "house track" and a tank car on the far track.
( Air Brake Drama in Four Acts )
While this was going on, the dispatcher was facing the problem of a "Z" train (high priority intermodal, such as UPS and FedEx packages) heading this way and no way for them to get through, with the mainline train blocking the main, the siding plugged with the local, and a "dead" mainline crew. The two sets of crews and the dispatcher put their heads together and worked out a solution.
( Untangling the Mess )
Lisa and I went for a drive shortly after recording this mini-drama. Around the time we got back home, the "dogcatch" crew had arrived and were easing the train out of Fernley to take it to Sparks.
Other than being an annoyance, there was no danger here, especially after the crews identified the source of the emergency brake application.
( Skip if you know how a train's air brakes work )
Trains are big and heavy, so while an emergency brake application halts the train, it doesn't stop it immediately. By the time the train had come to a stop, the rear of the train was opposite our house (but the view was obstructed by two tracks in Fernley's small yard with cars spotted in them) and the head end was fouling the switch at West Fernley. That means the Nevada Subdivision was plugged until the cause of the problem could be found and corrected.
( The crew was about to go 'dead on the law' )
Fortunately for all concerned, a UP local freight was in the area following this train on their way back to Sparks Yard. The dispatcher instructed them to come up alongside the stalled train, drop a crew member to inspect the train starting from the rear while the conductor of the mainline train started walking from the head end.
Lisa and I could both hear the sound of a lot of air blowing from the train. She suggested that, since the end of the train was right in front of our house, what we were hearing was an air hose that had come off the FRED.
( Friendly FRED, the EOT )
Lisa brought her camera as we ventured out to (safely) see what we could see. She shot four short videos that take in the sequence of events. These were not easy to shoot, as they are using a telephoto lens at a high magnification without a tripod, while shooting through the gaps in a center-barrier car on the near "house track" and a tank car on the far track.
( Air Brake Drama in Four Acts )
While this was going on, the dispatcher was facing the problem of a "Z" train (high priority intermodal, such as UPS and FedEx packages) heading this way and no way for them to get through, with the mainline train blocking the main, the siding plugged with the local, and a "dead" mainline crew. The two sets of crews and the dispatcher put their heads together and worked out a solution.
( Untangling the Mess )
Lisa and I went for a drive shortly after recording this mini-drama. Around the time we got back home, the "dogcatch" crew had arrived and were easing the train out of Fernley to take it to Sparks.
Other than being an annoyance, there was no danger here, especially after the crews identified the source of the emergency brake application.
