Good Riddance
Apr. 11th, 2022 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeAround 7:30 PM as I was getting ready for bed last night, the "Big BN" through freight showed up, and from the discussions on the radio, it appeared that they were going to try and collect and remove the defective locomotive that kept us awake ringing its bell all night long some days ago.
Sitting on the main in the background in the Big BN, led by BNSF 4696. During their discussion with the dispatcher, it looked like they thought they were going to be able to use the power from BNSF 502 to power their train, and that they would need that additional power to pull all of the cars they were supposed to pick up from Fernley Yard.
Shortly after the BNSF crew coupled their lead units onto 502, the Union Pacific dispatcher called back to BNSF and asked when they would be getting moving. The dispatcher was unhappy when he learned that besides trying to pick up this locomotive, they would have maybe 90 minutes of switching cars in and out of the Fernley tracks.
Apparently the dispatcher had assumed that they were only going to be there for a few minutes and had cleared the signals ahead of them a fair distance. That was bad because there was a 15,000-foot train coming toward us. That's a "no-fitter" in that there are no sidings on the Nevada Subdivision long enough for it. Normally all other trains go into sidings and get out of the way of the no-fitter, which also typically ends up underpowered — what railroaders once called a "drag freight." This is part of so-called "Precision Scheduled Railroading," which allows the railroad to lay off lots of employees and mothball locomotives, and makes the stockholders happy because costs go down, but makes the customer unhappy due to the degraded service.
The Fernley House Tracks branch off the main line at Fernley, not the siding, so the dispatcher warned BNSF to stay between the signals at Fernley while he set the route for the no-fitter so it would go around them using Fernley siding. This isn't ideal because the switches at each end of the siding are rated at only 10 mph, and because the long train is so underpowered, they don't like risking stopping it as it can be hard to start again. Even with distributed power units, the risk of pulling out a drawbar is real, and walking two miles down the train to fix a broken coupler or busted drawbar isn't something you want to have to do.
The BNSF crew (not surprisingly) seemed to be having some difficulty getting this unit connected, other than just the simple coupling. I put on my face mask and went out to talk to them. I asked the engineer (the conductor being engaged in walking the length of the cars parked on the Fernley house tracks), "You know that locomotive is dead, right?"
The engineer assured me that they knew that. I shrugged and went back to the house, were Lisa had been observing things from the porch. We kept listening to the radio. A new dispatcher came on shift, and she had to be brought up to speed about what was happening here. The problem that BNSF was having was that they needed a dummy air hose to connect this locomotive to the rest of the train, I guess so that the air brakes on the rest of the train behind the dead locomotive would work. (In case you didn't know, trains are braked by air, supplied and operated from the locomotives.) There are supposed to be dummy hoses in the locomotives, but none of the three units in question here had one.
The BNSF crew tried to contact the oncoming drag freight, and when they couldn't reach them, asked the dispatcher to check to see if that train had a dummy hose they could give them. The dispatcher didn't want to stop that train for the reasons I explained above. BNSF said, "They could just throw it off their train as they go by" and given how slowly they'd be moving, that wasn't a bad idea. Unfortunately, that train didn't have any spare hoses.
There was some talk of stopping the oncoming train part-way through where there were a couple of distributed-power (remote controlled) units back in the train. BNSF's crew could check for hoses on them. But again, the dispatcher really didn't want to stop the no-fitter lest it not be able to start again, which would have really messed up the whole subdivision.
We then heard that a work train east of Fernley had been listening to this exchange and volunteered that they had a spare hose. When the no-fitter could get past Fernley and the work train itself, they could stop alongside BNSF on their way back to Sparks and drop off a hose, which should allow the BNSF crew to get their train moving as well. Fortunately, the BNSF crew was apparently not short on time — train crews can only work 12 hours before they go "dead on the law," which requires a "dogcatch" crew sent out by van to relieve them.
With the BNSF long on time and me short on sleep, I headed off to bed while Lisa continued to monitor the situation. She told me more the next morning.
According to Lisa, the BNSF crew got that locomotive connected and attempted to restart it, and in so doing caused the bell to start ringing again. It didn't wake me up, but Lisa said they sat there until around midnight fussing with it before finally leaving.
BNSF 502 is gone as of this morning, but most or all of the cars in Fernley yard appear to be untouched. I speculate that when they discovered that they had a broken-down locomotive they realized that they wouldn't have enough power to get their train over the Sierra Nevada, and that they had to leave the Fernley cars in the House Tracks while they made their way with the cars they already had. Presumably the broken locomotive will eventually end up in Stockton, where BNSF (ex-Santa Fe) should be able to do more to repair it.
It does seem to Lisa and me that nobody on the railroad has been talking to anyone else, given that the through-freight crew didn't understand the nature of the problem with the dead locomotive, and the dispatcher hadn't been told anything, either. Personally, we're just relieved that the flaky 502 is out of here.
Sitting on the main in the background in the Big BN, led by BNSF 4696. During their discussion with the dispatcher, it looked like they thought they were going to be able to use the power from BNSF 502 to power their train, and that they would need that additional power to pull all of the cars they were supposed to pick up from Fernley Yard.
Shortly after the BNSF crew coupled their lead units onto 502, the Union Pacific dispatcher called back to BNSF and asked when they would be getting moving. The dispatcher was unhappy when he learned that besides trying to pick up this locomotive, they would have maybe 90 minutes of switching cars in and out of the Fernley tracks.
Apparently the dispatcher had assumed that they were only going to be there for a few minutes and had cleared the signals ahead of them a fair distance. That was bad because there was a 15,000-foot train coming toward us. That's a "no-fitter" in that there are no sidings on the Nevada Subdivision long enough for it. Normally all other trains go into sidings and get out of the way of the no-fitter, which also typically ends up underpowered — what railroaders once called a "drag freight." This is part of so-called "Precision Scheduled Railroading," which allows the railroad to lay off lots of employees and mothball locomotives, and makes the stockholders happy because costs go down, but makes the customer unhappy due to the degraded service.
The Fernley House Tracks branch off the main line at Fernley, not the siding, so the dispatcher warned BNSF to stay between the signals at Fernley while he set the route for the no-fitter so it would go around them using Fernley siding. This isn't ideal because the switches at each end of the siding are rated at only 10 mph, and because the long train is so underpowered, they don't like risking stopping it as it can be hard to start again. Even with distributed power units, the risk of pulling out a drawbar is real, and walking two miles down the train to fix a broken coupler or busted drawbar isn't something you want to have to do.
The BNSF crew (not surprisingly) seemed to be having some difficulty getting this unit connected, other than just the simple coupling. I put on my face mask and went out to talk to them. I asked the engineer (the conductor being engaged in walking the length of the cars parked on the Fernley house tracks), "You know that locomotive is dead, right?"
The engineer assured me that they knew that. I shrugged and went back to the house, were Lisa had been observing things from the porch. We kept listening to the radio. A new dispatcher came on shift, and she had to be brought up to speed about what was happening here. The problem that BNSF was having was that they needed a dummy air hose to connect this locomotive to the rest of the train, I guess so that the air brakes on the rest of the train behind the dead locomotive would work. (In case you didn't know, trains are braked by air, supplied and operated from the locomotives.) There are supposed to be dummy hoses in the locomotives, but none of the three units in question here had one.
The BNSF crew tried to contact the oncoming drag freight, and when they couldn't reach them, asked the dispatcher to check to see if that train had a dummy hose they could give them. The dispatcher didn't want to stop that train for the reasons I explained above. BNSF said, "They could just throw it off their train as they go by" and given how slowly they'd be moving, that wasn't a bad idea. Unfortunately, that train didn't have any spare hoses.
There was some talk of stopping the oncoming train part-way through where there were a couple of distributed-power (remote controlled) units back in the train. BNSF's crew could check for hoses on them. But again, the dispatcher really didn't want to stop the no-fitter lest it not be able to start again, which would have really messed up the whole subdivision.
We then heard that a work train east of Fernley had been listening to this exchange and volunteered that they had a spare hose. When the no-fitter could get past Fernley and the work train itself, they could stop alongside BNSF on their way back to Sparks and drop off a hose, which should allow the BNSF crew to get their train moving as well. Fortunately, the BNSF crew was apparently not short on time — train crews can only work 12 hours before they go "dead on the law," which requires a "dogcatch" crew sent out by van to relieve them.
With the BNSF long on time and me short on sleep, I headed off to bed while Lisa continued to monitor the situation. She told me more the next morning.
According to Lisa, the BNSF crew got that locomotive connected and attempted to restart it, and in so doing caused the bell to start ringing again. It didn't wake me up, but Lisa said they sat there until around midnight fussing with it before finally leaving.
BNSF 502 is gone as of this morning, but most or all of the cars in Fernley yard appear to be untouched. I speculate that when they discovered that they had a broken-down locomotive they realized that they wouldn't have enough power to get their train over the Sierra Nevada, and that they had to leave the Fernley cars in the House Tracks while they made their way with the cars they already had. Presumably the broken locomotive will eventually end up in Stockton, where BNSF (ex-Santa Fe) should be able to do more to repair it.
It does seem to Lisa and me that nobody on the railroad has been talking to anyone else, given that the through-freight crew didn't understand the nature of the problem with the dead locomotive, and the dispatcher hadn't been told anything, either. Personally, we're just relieved that the flaky 502 is out of here.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-11 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-12 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-12 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-12 11:51 am (UTC)(* Off topic: had you heard that Bill Fries, who participated in creating those famous UP commercials of the 70s, recently passed away? He was also known as the character C.W. McCall of "Convoy" fame.)
no subject
Date: 2022-04-12 11:56 am (UTC)I had not hear of Fries/McCall's death. I enjoyed much of his work, including things like "Black Bear Road" and "Wolf Creek Pass."