In a message dated 3/24/02 7:34:01 PM Central Standard Time, VLBG@s...
writes:
> Bob,
>
> Yes, your conclusion is correct. A Brakeperson is usually added to yard
> crews,
> locals, & trains that have considerable on-line work. This usually
> includes
> unit grain pickups and setouts since few elevators have room for entire
> grain
> units on one track and there are usually grade crossing complications.
> Makes
> a terminal air test on 104 or 110 cars a lot easier with 2 men on the
> ground.
> Sometimes an extra Brakeperson is called just to transport to the elevator
> and
> assist and then goes back to their terminal. There are also a few coal
> dumpers
> that do not have a loop although many mines and utilities have switched to
> contract switching services and they load or unload.
>
> At terminals where trains are assembled from blocks or separated into
> blocks
> on different tracks yard crews normally do not do this work. These yards
> will
> normally have a Utility Man on duty each shift to assist in this work. For
> safety reasons the Utility Man "attaches" to a crew for the time required
> to
> do
> the work and then "unattaches" after the work is complete. A great deal of
> "modern" railroading is block swapping, even on high priority Intermodal
> trains. Really not that many yard to yard transfer jobs anymore. It is
> just
> as easy to have a train made up in blocks and have the road crews exchange
> blocks either online or at a particular yard. Clovis NM is the re-blocking
> point for Intermodal trains on "The Transcon".
>
> In Canada most yard switching is done with two men on the ground and a
> beltpack controlled locomotive. There has been a recent court ruling that
> frees U.S. roads to switch over to this method. BNSF has picked Newton KS
> and Mandan ND as the first two yards to be converted and I'm sure it will
> spread very rapidly.
>
> More details, let me know,
>
> Russ
>
Russ,
When I worked for the Gateway Western/KCS we had two men on road freights and
Switching jobs, we never got an extra man. My job was classified as
Conductor/Brakeman and we did both and a bunch more. I just heard from a
friend of mine who still works for the KCS and he told me that they are now
using the remotecontrol system but with only one man on the ground. he said
that there was going to be a fight to see who would operate the Loco, the
engineer (B.L.E.) or the conductor (U.T.U.).
John Lee
St.Louis,MO
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