charlie hebdoI am often critical of your posts but on this I tend to agree. Recapturing some lost traffic is necessary for a variety of reasons but once again a myriad of objections are raised. At the core, however, is the refrain, "Change is too damn hard. and "Our current jobs will change or even disappear."
It's not about change - it's about proposing "solutions" that have yet to be, and may never be, technological possible or financially feasable.
If the demand is there, there is no practical reason why you couldn't insitute a LA-LV block at the current time. Acting like it's because there aren't self-driving trains or robots running around is a just an excuse.
charlie hebdo "Our current jobs will change or even disappear."
A lot easier to say that when one is close the end of one's career.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
It must be nice to be able to ignore or rewrite safety regulations and operating rules to suit any new operation you can think of. Those of us in the 1:1 physical world don't have that luxury.
BTW, you aren't the first one to think of using robots to do on the ground switching work like operating handbrakes and uncoupling cars. Someone was granted a patent for this back in 2009. If it was so great and had no problems whatever happened to this idea?
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20100076631A1/en
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
zugmann If the demand is there, there is no practical reason why you couldn't insitute a LA-LV block at the current time. Acting like it's because there aren't self-driving trains or robots running around is a just an excuse.
Yep.
Greyhounds has spoken at length in the past about the incompetence of railroad marketing and operating management folks he's encountered. That's still the case today in one form or another.
Railroad upper management is inflexible and focused on the OR. Most mid and low level managers just want to stay the course and keep their jobs, because if they push a new idea and it doesn't work out perfectly it's a black mark on their career (or maybe they won't have a railroad career anymore).
This workplace culture does not foster innovation and chance taking, no matter whether it's adding short haul intermodal on existing trains using existing employees or new and unproven technology that requires rewriting key sections of the rulebook.
SD70Dudeunproven technology that requires rewriting key sections of the rulebook.
Being stuck with rulebooks virtually guarantees there will be no innovation. Do you think the various innovative companies, such as Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla, used only proven tech and rulebooks?
charlie hebdoBeing stuck with rulebooks virtually guarantees there will be no innovation. Do you think the various innovative companies, such as Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla, used only proven tech and rulebooks?
They don't even follow labor law!
SD70Dude It must be nice to be able to ignore or rewrite safety regulations and operating rules to suit any new operation you can think of. Those of us in the 1:1 physical world don't have that luxury.
Actually, they do rewrite rules to suit new operations. RCO and energy managment systems have seen some rules "modified." In the US, the change to equipment being off-air for up to 24 hours and maintaining it's "solid block" status benefits the block swapping that's become more common with PSR. There is, or was, a pilot program going on to use defect detectors to do the 1000 mile brake inspections, mostly for unit trains that don't get broken up. If the temperature reading fell in the "Goldilocks" zone, not too cold or too hot, the brakes must be working OK.
Yes, they'll surely change rules as they need to.
Jeff
zugmann charlie hebdo Being stuck with rulebooks virtually guarantees there will be no innovation. Do you think the various innovative companies, such as Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla, used only proven tech and rulebooks? They don't even follow labor law!
charlie hebdo Being stuck with rulebooks virtually guarantees there will be no innovation. Do you think the various innovative companies, such as Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla, used only proven tech and rulebooks?
Carriers have yet to find a rule they don't want to violate.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
charlie hebdo SD70Dude unproven technology that requires rewriting key sections of the rulebook. Being stuck with rulebooks virtually guarantees there will be no innovation. Do you think the various innovative companies, such as Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla, used only proven tech and rulebooks?
SD70Dude unproven technology that requires rewriting key sections of the rulebook.
Amazon still moves a lot of their freight using what is now considered old and proven technology. Like airplanes, trucks, intermodal containers, and delivery drivers (the autonomous drones haven't taken over yet). Tesla's automobiles still have to meet crash safety regulations and follow the rules of the road, self-driving or not.
Amazon also seems to have taken a page out of the railroad playbook regarding employee treatment and relations. Not sure you should use them as an example to follow.
For us, Beltpack/RCO now has its own entire section of the rulebook. That technology took years to develop and get ok'd by the regulators. And the railroads perceived it to have a very large and immediate benefit in the form of eliminating engineers from most yard assignments. Also, if the change seemed to go a bit faster in the U.S. this may have been because CN originally developed the technology and had already established procedures and jumped through a lot of the regulatory hoops up in Canada.
I hope the proposed autonomous slip intermodal operation will be a lot more reliable than Trip Op and the electric handbrakes that railroads currently use.
jeffhergert SD70Dude It must be nice to be able to ignore or rewrite safety regulations and operating rules to suit any new operation you can think of. Those of us in the 1:1 physical world don't have that luxury. Actually, they do rewrite rules to suit new operations. RCO and energy managment systems have seen some rules "modified." In the US, the change to equipment being off-air for up to 24 hours and maintaining it's "solid block" status benefits the block swapping that's become more common with PSR. There is, or was, a pilot program going on to use defect detectors to do the 1000 mile brake inspections, mostly for unit trains that don't get broken up. If the temperature reading fell in the "Goldilocks" zone, not too cold or too hot, the brakes must be working OK. Yes, they'll surely change rules as they need to. Jeff
Detector readings can actually be a good indicator of individual car air brake performance in certain cases at certain locations. Both CN and CP have programmed detectors near the bottom of certain long grades (our Robson Hill and their west side of Rogers Pass as I understand it) to look for cold wheels in an effort to flag cars that leak off. Unfortunately this only became a focus after several runaways that were caused by air brake failure, and I wouldn't say this is a complete replacement for a stationary 'set and release' test (No. 1 or 1A).
The 24 hour off air period has been standard in Canada for a long time, certainly longer than I've been working. You still have to do a continuity test (what used to be called a No. 3 brake test) after adding cars to a train.
CN and presumably CP don't have to do roll out inspections of trains anymore if there is an automated inspection portal on the departing route up here. Again, this change took years to develop and get ok'd by the regulators, and how well it will work out remains to be seen.
The inspection portals are actually capable of being pretty good at spotting defects, but I have concerns over who controls them and how easily the readings and records can be manipulated, just like how air brake tests and maintenance records have been skipped or falsified in the past. And of course when a problem is found you still need people to fix it, and the railroads will use the portals as an excuse to eliminate a lot of carmen's jobs.
And yet, for all the rulebooks and rail labor laws and unions, a survey of Microsoft or Tesla employees would likely show higher job satisfaction, with both managers and workers. Not with Amazon. Rail's lack of innovation probably has more to do with the mangers than labor.
I don't know:
https://jalopnik.com/elon-musk-praises-chinese-tesla-factory-workers-forced-1848923913
charlie hebdo Rail's lack of innovation probably has more to do with the managers than labor.
Rail's lack of innovation probably has more to do with the managers than labor.
I agree with you there.
SD70Dude charlie hebdo Rail's lack of innovation probably has more to do with the managers than labor. I agree with you there.
The Board Room is the source of success or failure in any large organization.
They set policy and marching orders. We are seeing in Ukraine what happens when corrupt leadership believes their own press clippings and doesn't get 'buy in' from the 'employees'.
zugmann I don't know: https://jalopnik.com/elon-musk-praises-chinese-tesla-factory-workers-forced-1848923913
I was referring to Tesla plants in US and Germany. For all of Musk's quirks and politics, Tesla has been very innovative and successful in spite of the naysayers, including on here.
Tesla is reportedly building a large charging station at Barstow, halfway between LA and Vegas. The transportation topography continues to quake.
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