Dumping the Air...Good? or Bad?

[Anonymous]

Greetings All

I have run into a situation that has me perplexed.

While at a station stop, after discharging passengers, the all clear to proceed was given, then a suitcase appears out of a door that was checked to be clear..

I bolt through the car ( I have not been issued a radio yet) only to find several people trying to detrain after the door has closed with one family member outside pounding on the car yelling to open the door... Now we start to move.

So I dump the air... we stop... and I open the door and let the others out.

Now the other crew members come and ask why I did what I did, after explaining what happened they say OK, no one was hurt and no harm was done go about your duties.

Now, here comes an off duty engineer up to me and states in a very loud voice that I better not dump the air whenever he is on duty EVER!!! (this was in front of the remaining passengers) then he went back to his seat.

Was I wrong???

Comments please.

[edblysard]

Was a passenger or the person on the platform in danger?
If, you did exactly what you should have.
Blow off the grumpy engineer.
Ed

[Anonymous]

Did they not teach him how to recover from an emergengy application? Big Friggin' Deal! Not knowing the entire situation, I cannot say wether you were in the right or wrong, but, c'mon....you are a new guy and new guys tend to react within the best of their knowledge......I do! If you did what you felt was right, then don't sweat it and find out why in the hell you have not been issued a pac-set yet? That hogger could have easily explained why not to plug it and have gained your respect at the same time. My advice to you is; when you get a few more whiskers and you work with him, make sure that you big-hole it for him.........What's he gonna do? Shave your head and send you to Nam?
Ken

[kenneo]

He was off duty. He has no authority over you, your conductor does. That hogger, even if he was correct, is way off base in doing what he did. Only your conductor has the right to read you the riot act. Not even the Trainmaster can do that.

[CShaveRR]

In your mind, an emergency existed. That's reason enough to dump it.

I'm somewhat surprised that there is no communication signal system on your train. Too pulls on that cord (or two pushes of the button) is the rulebook signal to stop at once when moving. I'm sure the engineer would have preferred that method of notification.

Was his nose redder than the rest of the facial area?

[Anonymous]

Dumping the air at low speed usually causes a very hard stop. Any passengers still walking or standing, as they probably are just after a station stop, can easily lose their balance. You're lucky no one was hurt. If people were in danger of getting hurt outside, dumping it was right; however, if they were just missing their train, two beeps on the buzzer would do it. You can always back up to get them. Greater delays would have resulted if somebody has possible broken ribs. Emergency should be the action of last resort.

[wabash1]

I woould have prefered you to ask me to stop than dump it. In cold weather when you put a train in emergency ( not sure of passenger service ) but in freight yo have the tendency to stick open a triple valve. more delay. the air will take longer to recover in the cold than in regular temps. Their was not enough information here to make a good opinion of why not to do it. but there was no reason for the off duty hogger to stick his nose in your buisness. yell at you infront of others . if i was a conductor and this happened to me i would have thrown the off duty hogger off the train. or wait til i work with him and the first stop we make i would big hole it just to **** him off. sometimes you must take the safest course of action. this in your mind as a new guy was the safest course. you will learn other ways to handle it. but remeber one thing also sometimes old guys forget what it was to start out and things they did( til they are reminded) just remeber when you get 15 years in. and you see something done the way you wouldnt do it. offer suggestions not but chewings.

[zardoz]

Skeets pointed to one of the two main reasons not to do that: the injury potential. The other reason is that if the coach was off the platform and the people got off, they could step off into a ditch or barb-wire fence or whatever, especially if it happened at night.

Did you only open your door or did they all open? On the CNW commuter coaches, a person had the option of opening only their coach, all doors to the left, or all doors to the right.

But if the station stop was properly announced, and the door to the coach they were in opened properly during the regular stop, then it was not a true "emergency", and to pull the air was questionable.

Wabash is also correct in that especially in cold weather, triple valve freezing is a definte possibility; would you like to crawl under the train in your uniform, in the snow and mud, to hold a fussee on the valve in the hopes it will unstick?

Regarding the blow-hard engineer, he should mind his own business. I like ironken's idea: if you ever work with him, be sure to dump the air at least once for him!! (but not while people are standing up at slow speed). Or when you are yarding your train, you could put a few strategically places torpedoes on the rail for him. Or you could get some mud or something and put it on the bottom few feet of the loco's grab irons. Lots of ways to get even!

****"em if he can't take a joke!