Leo, great story. The point about an elevation derailment and the horror that
could have caused....
Interesting point with the detector - given the "cost/benefit" arguments of
reduced crews.
Not to hi-jack this discussion, but technology is great - except when it isn't.
Reliance on it can be complacency. Interesting after reading the Currie books
with that insight into career-first management attitudes (and people being
promoted beyond having to live through the consequences of their enlightened
decisions) and hearing/reading about "necessary" cost cutting. One person train
crews? How many of them would be comfortable on a single crew airliner?
There is far too much short-sightedness in American corporate culture. Safety
is only one area. Cut fat? I'll bet BNSF wishes they still had the option of
the north corridor reliever of the Denrock-Mendota line.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
-----Original Message-----
From: Leo <qutlx1@aol.com>
Sender: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 19:09:13
To: <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Reply-To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CBQ] Close call 1
The list is fairly quiet so in the interest of generating conversation and
explaining how "it used to be" here's a close call I was a part of:
we were coming down Sugar Grove hill eastbound into Aurora one sunny early
spring morning.
The train was definitely being operated at track speed or maybe a hair
over,just a hair over. The grass was starting to turn and the sky was blue.
Sitting on the left side of the w/c I observed what appeared to be a 1x 12 x16
go airborne about the approach signal for the Aurora siding at Barnes road. I
mentioned same to Lewis who thought for a second and advised,over the radio for
the hogger to"stop the train". When we stopped we went to the back door and
observed our worst fears. The ties were cut behind us. That meant we had a
wheel on the ground. Lewis said to me "you know we are lucky" , I asked why? He
said if we got on the elevation with all those switches we'd be on the ground
with cars on the streets below.
I walked up and approx 12-15 ahead of the w/c was an mty Q bulk head flat with
one pair of wheels off the rails at probably 60 mph or better. Joe
Arrington,the asst supt happened to be in his office at Aurora depot and heard
our transmission to Aurora tower advising that we had a car on the ground and
needed the Eola wheel truck to come out. He and the train master came out in
his car. He asked if we felt a bump from a broken rail. We both said no. The
train master walked back about a mile and found a chunk out of a rail. At
60plus we didn't feel it.
We ended up setting out the shifted load of 1x4 at Eola with everything ahead
of it set on the running track. We then went back to Barnes road with the power
and with the assistance of the Eola wheel truck guys rerailed the mty flat.
Took it and the rest of the train to Eola,tied up and went home. The company
saved a bunch of money that day because a brkmn was looking over his train and
the Condr made the right call.
By the way there was a dragging equipment detector at Barnes road and it was
flashing "OK NO DEFECTS FOUND"
I have a couple more of these, if I get positive feed back ill post them
Leo Phillipp
Sent from my iPad
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