Hi Folks:
This year the Santa Northern has rebuilt/replaced two of the "Q" bridges on
the Third Sub. of the Alliance Division. The 1909 bridge over the Belle
Fourche River at Moorcroft (MP-570.9) had the concrete deck replaced with a
wooden one. The old wooden trestle over a ditch at Newcastle (MP-518.8) on
what is now Main 1, was completely replaced with a steel-pile trestle with a
concrete deck. The Pile Driver and several cars worth of new concrete
bridge parts are still sitting at Owens (MP-508), so there must be more B&B
work on the schedule.
They had a 10MPH slow order on the Newcastle bridge while they were driving
the new piles. They built a piece of skeleton track to sit on the old
bents, with shims and such to keep it level. Some of the boys were a little
nervous about that. It was a fairly easy place to have a 10, though. With
a coal train, you just shut off as you're topping Newcastle and it would
slow down to 9-10 by itself. It would drift for a while like that, and when
you had to get into dynamic, the motors were quite a ways off of the slow
order. My theory about bad track anyway is: As long as the lead motor makes
it across, the rest don't matter :>)
Speaking of my theories.....my investigation for "Failure to maintain a dim
headlight" (aka shutting off your headlight when you're setting still in
CTC) was finially cancelled after three postponements. The officials at
last figured out that we were going to beat them with "In case of doubt or
uncertainty, the safe course must be taken". Also...the Ass't Sup't was
reconsidering the wisdom of sending this thing down to Fort Worthless for
review...that silly an investigtion probably wouldn't be a good career move
:>)
Since I have considerable doubt that having the headlight shining in
someone's eyes when you don't need it yourself is a safe practice, I'm not
too concerned with the FRA/Company interpretation. Even though I can be
trusted to operate mllions of dollars and thousands of tons worth of
equipment, and look out for the safety and wellbeing of the people around
me........the FRA thinks that I can't be trusted to turn the headlight back
on when I start moving. I really think that the only reason the Company
wants the headlight on when the train is occupied is to save them getting
out of their Suburban, putting on their Orange hats, and climbing up (in the
case of the wide-cab GE's particularly) the too steep steps into the motor
to pester somebody if nobody's home :>)
We're on "Red Alert" now. The Company has suspended most of the rules that
require the Conductor to get down on the ground and walk the train. We are
supposed to stay in the cab for our own security. We figured we ought to
lock the cab doors too....to keep undesireables (officials and such) out.
Last trip, we parked a train at Pedro. When the Con. was walking back up
from tying brakes...a train went by and he stayed on the ground to roll it
by. Now...we wonder if they'll fire him for rolling a train from the
ground?:>)
Most people have to pay to see a circus like this.
Mike Decker
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