restorator Does the prototype back up mile long trains at all with power at only one end? What kind of distance and/or speed restrictions would it have?
Does the prototype back up mile long trains at all with power at only one end? What kind of distance and/or speed restrictions would it have?
Last week I had to back up a big train. Due to the lead engine's distributed power control becoming defective. The integrated computer screen wouldn't give me access to the DP screens. None of the other engines in the lead consist had operable DP, so we couldn't swap around units. We were at our home terminal, with the head end in the middle of a power crossover between mains 1 and 2, also blocking access to the yard where there was some power laying over.
It was decided to have a mechanical employee "box car" the mid-train DP and shove back (only using the head end power) to clear another power crossover the rear end was occupying on the straight route. We would cut off the train ahead of the mid-train DP, pull ahead, hang a new EOT and depart. Later they would call another crew to take the rest of the train west. This is what we ended up doing.
This meant shoving the train back a little over one mile. The conductor was taken past the rear end to protect the shove from the ground. The rear car was an autorack and he didn't want to ride the shove, especially with the new rules. I shoved back to him (at a crossing) and he walked alongside the remaining distance until the DP unit was spotted up clear of the crossover. Needless to say, the shove back was made at walking speed. Even before the back reached him I kept the speed at walking speed. The train before splitting it in two sections was 13947 feet long.
Jeff