Change in rules? or is more of a "by the book" inspector?
Our county got a new Fire Inspector that cited things that have been in place for decades.
dpeltier You may be on to something. Baily is a good place to find many car defects. The routings and locations where the cars came from can give a snapshot of locations that might have not done proper inspections as well.
Now the loco discrepapncies would partially fall under those parameters.
EDIT: These results may cause the FRA to take a hard look at industry wide inspection practices?
blue streak 1dpeltier You may be on to something. Baily is a good place to find many car defects. The routings and locations where the cars came from can give a snapshot of locations that might have not done proper inspections as well.
Reading the letter, it said the FRA focused on the east departure yard. Not knowing UP operations at that yard, I'm assuming those cars are inspected on those tracks? Was the FRA inspection before or after the presumed(?) UP inspections?
Or were these cars being block swapped?
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
i have written up many locomotives, and managment dose get upset when i bring it to their attention, it's than their responsibility. part of the problem is other enginners not properly writting up power at the end of the shift, along with a shortage of properly trained mechanical people (company's fault). power is pencil wipped, than i get it, come on now, it's like shooting fish in a barrel, burnt out headlights, ditch lights, bad brake shoes, non operating bells and horn, oil and fuel leaks everywhere, how about non operating ac and a overflowing crapper, yes i do work for a class 1, even a blind man can find defects, I welcome the FRA, wish their were more out here.
zugmannt said the FRA focused on the east departure yard.
Wow that means those trains would have been headed through some major population centers of the Midwest.
So the FRA found a 20% reportable failure rate just in the cars at Bailey Yard in North Platte if I was reading this right. Excuse me for not saying that I was surprised at this. But instead of trying to fix the problems they were trying to run off the freaking inspectors. If my boss had a 20 percent failure rate on roadside inspections I could safely say these 4 things would happen in a very very short time period. 1st our safety rating would be lower than the Samuel B Robert's grave in the Pacific ocean. 2nd all our trucks would be guests of the DOT all over the USA every time they come in range of an open scale. 3rd most of our driver's would be gone for better carriers and 4th the same with our customers as well since we would lose our hazmat certification and be unable for specialized services anymore.
Crap like this is why East Palestine Ohio happened earlier this year and still the railroads haven't gotten the message that cutting the maintenance department is a smart thing.
CMStPnP zugmann t said the FRA focused on the east departure yard. Wow that means those trains would have been headed through some major population centers of the Midwest.
zugmann t said the FRA focused on the east departure yard.
There are 'major metropolitan centers' between North Platte and Chicago?
There is a reason the area has been termed 'Fly Over' territory.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
If my carrier had a 20% OOS rate which is what a FRA defect is my boss would be out of BUSINESS in less than a year. The UP is going not a problem. Thinking like this is why derailments like East Palestine OH happen. They have gutted the maintaince people to the point that no one can fix issues. I can tell you this much keep it up and the FRA will make an example of one of these class 1 railroads. I dreading the next major derailment that could have been prevented if only the class 1's instead of trying to gut maintance actually fixed what was needing to be repaired.
Shadow the Cats owner...actually fixed what was needing to be repaired.
But, but, the investors!
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Screw the investors. They are literally playing with fire. I'm hearing from my hubby's cousin that's in the reinsurance business that the little incident in East Palestine Ohio is going to be carnage for the NS. His cousin has heard estimates in the 20 to 30 billion dollar range just for the environmental cleanup and possibly another 100 to 150 billion in lawsuits by the time all is said and done. What are the investors going to say about this when it comes out that spending about 200 million more a quarter could have saved up to 180 billion.
BaltACD CMStPnP zugmann t said the FRA focused on the east departure yard. Wow that means those trains would have been headed through some major population centers of the Midwest. There are 'major metropolitan centers' between North Platte and Chicago? There is a reason the area has been termed 'Fly Over' territory.
I would think that Omaha and Des Moines count as "major metro centers"
What will it take for the railroad CEOs to get it through their skulls that you can't cut your way to freaking super efficient service. You have to spend money to make it. Just yesterday one of our outlying SIT yards in SC had a delivery made by CSX of a resin that couldn't get wet at all. It was interchanged to CSX off the UP in St Louis. It is ruined due to missing hatch on top of the freaking car. Just how in the heck did both railroads miss that. It's only a million dollar amount of resin that they are going to have to pay for.
Shadow the Cats ownerScrew the investors. They are literally playing with fire.
They don't care, and neither do the folks pushing PSR. As long as they get their money out of it, they're happy. If they can't milk the railroads, they'll find someone else.
It always bugs me to see some well known enterprise bought by an "investment group." All too often, that simply signals the beginning of the end.
Shadow the Cats ownerI can tell you this much keep it up and the FRA will make an example of one of these class 1 railroads.
I've been hearing that my whole career.
It's always "the next big one".
CSSHEGEWISCH BaltACD CMStPnP zugmann t said the FRA focused on the east departure yard. Wow that means those trains would have been headed through some major population centers of the Midwest. There are 'major metropolitan centers' between North Platte and Chicago? There is a reason the area has been termed 'Fly Over' territory. I would think that Omaha and Des Moines count as "major metro centers"
Omaha maybe, unless it goes the "short way" via the Blair Sub. It would still touch the "High Threat Urban Area" zone (within 10 miles of the city limits with the population threshold. Nothing but corn and bean fields, but still in the zone.
Des Moines not at all. Would touch the south end of Cedar Rapids.
Also, not everything going east goes to Chicago. There are manifests going to Kansas City and beyond, too.
I do think that some of the bad orders may have been things like a bent grab iron, etc. Stuff that meets the criteria for bad ordering the car, but usually get the "we'll fix it later" treatment.
Also, I bet a good percentage of the bad orders were foreign or (especially) private owned cars. The FRA would be looking at all cars, not just UP owned ones.
Jeff
jeffhergert... Also, I bet a good percentage of the bad orders were foreign or (especially) private owned cars. The FRA would be looking at all cars, not just UP owned ones. Jeff
Observation from the few trains I do see passing. Carriers are backing themselves out of car ownership. I see MANY formerly carrier owned car now moving with Private reporting marks. I have no idea what the financial arrangements are with the change in ownership. With PSR aims being what they are, selling off part(s) of the car fleet would create a one time income stream, and additionally would shift maintenance re$pon$ibitie$ to the private owner with the carriers charging the owner the standard charges for necessary repairs.
As an example for bad ordering a car. This happened 10 or 12 years ago and the guy who told me this is retired.
He was training a class of new hires out in the yard. They were learning to make joints. (Coupling cars together, not the kind that can be smoked:) He went to open the knuckle on a car. Now when you lift the cut (uncoupling) lever it's supposed to open the knuckle. If it does, it often isn't open enough and you still have to reach in. This particular car, a foreign owned car, the cut lever didn't even try to open the knuckle. Also, not unusual.
A car man was nearby and saw this. He immediately bad ordered the car, and told my now retired friend that they just made the railroad $50, or whatever the repair price was. Railroads have an agreed price arrangement for minor repairs, and this was billable to the owner.
My friend, who had 30 years in at the time never knew that such a common defect was subject to being bad ordered. I don't know if it rose to the level of a Federal defect, but think it might. Otherwise how could railroad A bad order, repair and charge railroad B.
Now I highly doubt that the FRA was trying to open knuckles in a departure yard. It does show that things that are annoyances to the untrained eye may be defects to the trained eye with an agenda.
PS. I think the name of the thread should be "won't fix instead of can't fix..." It's a conscious choice to cut back in the mechanical department. We're not talking about a Rock Island or Milwaukee Road (and others close to the brink) with a very tight money situation, but the UP, a darling of Wall Street. Although some of the things being done remind me of practices done by the RI or MILW in the late 1970s.
jeffhergert... Jeff PS. I think the name of the thread should be "won't fix instead of can't fix..." It's a conscious choice to cut back in the mechanical department. We're not talking about a Rock Island or Milwaukee Road (and others close to the brink) with a very tight money situation, but the UP, a darling of Wall Street. Although some of the things being done remind me of practices done by the RI or MILW in the late 1970s.
Seems as all it takes to be a Wall Street Darling is to cut back on all forms of maintenance and pass off the results as shareholder value - until the place gets to gridlock or blows up. The PSR way!
jeffhergertdon't know if it rose to the level of a Federal defect, but think it might. Otherwise how could railroad A bad order, repair and charge railroad B. Now I highly doubt that the FRA was trying to open knuckles in a departure yard. It does show that things that are annoyances to the untrained eye may be defects to the trained eye with an agenda.
It is, and yes, they do. FRA guys will try to pop open the end knuckle on a car here, and if it doesn't open: it's a shop.
What's scariest for people like my company that are railroad customers isn't that cars are being found with the defects is the sheer amount of defects that are getting through to us that we have to fix before we can legally release the car back to the railroads. Just last week in SC on CSX we got a covered hopper in a SIT yard that we are going to have to scrap instead of returning to the railroad. We found a visible crack in the truck support plate that was so freaking old it had rust. I got the word today that the car broke in 2 pieces. The ironic part is this one was owned by the CSX and less than a decade old. We're wondering if it wasn't on phosphate duty before being put in our SIT fleet.
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