That's what it took to get to work yesterday, March 15.
After being in the motel in Fremont for almost 48 hours, I finally got called for a train out of the Omaha area. I was third of 4 crews called within about a 30 minute period. On the way down to the depot, the motel driver said that we would be coming back and they would save our rooms for us. Upon arrival at the yard office, the van dispatcher said all the roads out of Fremont were now closed due to the massive flooding in Nebraska. (They had deadheaded 4 crews home a few hours earlier and had been able to escape by van.) The van dispr had notified the railroad and was waiting back for their response. It was generally thought we would all tie back up at the motel.
The railroad called back. They had come up with Plan A. They were going to try to charter a flight out of Fremont for Omaha. Visions of a WW1 surplus Sopwith Camel popped into my head for some reason. They couldn't charter a flight, so they went with Plan B. They sent one of the corporate jets to get us. So all 4 crews were airlifted out. We all got trains, although they changed who was getting which trains. We made a slight step up, originally we were going to have to put ours together in Council Bluffs. Instead we got a manifest out of Kansas City. After our group, they sent the plane back to Fremont for 4 more crews. It sounded like this group were going to trade one motel in Fremont for one in the Council Bluffs/Omaha area.
The newswire item has a few pictures, one being the curve at Logan, IA. (It's captioned near Boone, but it's just east of Missouri Valley.) When we went on duty, someone had earlier talked to a conductor on a work train there. They hadn't dumped ballast yet because water was still up far enough that the MOW supervisor didn't want his people walking through water along side the cars while operating the ballast car dump doors. The water was going down and they expected to start dumping within an hour or two. By the time the first train, besides the work train, was ready to go through (about 5pm) the track had been restored and MOW was already gone. I was on the second train through. There had been about one mile under water and another mile or so where you could see where water had been up to the ties. The parallel CN still had lots of debris and a few spots where the ballast had been scoured nearly or completely out from under the track.
On the trip home there were numerous westbound trains tied down. All waiting for the tracks to be reopened. Last I knew, the Nebraska side still had many issues. They really got hammered.
Jeff
I can't ever see CSX using the corporate aircraft for a 'crew taxi'.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Jeff:
Does that plane ride count on your HOS ( similarly, as a 'cab ride' might)? A trip like that is always grist for 'war stories' ver time! anot to mention really, different, and interesting.
[ Years back, I took some bass fishing boats to Chicago, and delivered, on the day before the start of a 4 day holiday weekend.] Two of us were offered the chance to ride a 747 to Narita A/P (NRT). I loved it, Tuesday, my dispatcher wanted to know where the heck we had been; we'd missed loads to JFK...He did not believe that we'd 'turned' Tokyo over that weekend; until he spoke to the mgr at the airline.
BaltACD I can't ever see CSX using the corporate aircraft for a 'crew taxi'.
Johnny
Our railroad would be like: "we'll send you a canoe. But you'll have to supply your own paddles! And don't forget your signal log!"
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
zugmann Our railroad would be like: "we'll send you a canoe. But you'll have to supply your own paddles! And don't forget your signal log!"
jeffhergertThat's what it took to get to work yesterday, March 15. After being in the motel in Fremont for almost 48 hours, I finally got called for a train out of the Omaha area....they couldn't charter a flight, so they went with Plan B. They sent one of the corporate jets to get us.
jeffhergertBy the time the first train, besides the work train, was ready to go through (about 5pm) the track had been restored and MOW was already gone. I was on the second train through. There had been about one mile under water and another mile or so where you could see where water had been up to the ties. Jeff
Jeff, what kind of speed restriction was there on the flooded portion?
We had a 10 mph over the part that had been underwater.
We were taken to the Fremont airport by our normal vans. At Omaha we were picked up by managers, who took us to our trains. They've been using managers to supplement our normal van drivers. So I don't know if this was because of a van shortage or to impress upon us that we were in the spotlight. Because of something the manager said, I think it was the latter.
Once on our train while the conductor was back knocking off brakes, I heard the dispatcher come on the radio. He wasn't on the closest tower to us, but I could hear him say "Emergency" three times and that either a levee or ice dam had been breeched and to watch out for flash flooding between MP 39 and MP 22. Watching the news, I think it might be a couple days before things start moving again.
Deggesty BaltACD I can't ever see CSX using the corporate aircraft for a 'crew taxi'. Which is more important--the source of revenue or the financier?
Which is more important--the source of revenue or the financier?
In PSR the financier!
The track department side, already spread thin, are probably scrambling to find ballast and surfacing equipment. Even thinner would be the structures people, but so far I haven't heard about any bridges lost. The roadmasters (MTM) and division engineers (MTP) are not getting much sleep right now. Everything from ballast to rip rap is suddenly getting priority (cursing the lack of air dumps out there?)
As for the MTO's, they are probably hustling crews around so they don't appear to be the source of any holdup and the dispatchers, isolated as they are in Omaha, keep stuff moving in some fashion. (At least Harriman is central to the flooding and not thousands of miles away)....Secondary lines (like the KP) and alternate routes suddenly have a chance to shine. Stress levels are certainly up.
A glossary of the acronyms (as I understand them) for those who don't know:
MTM = Manager of Track Maintenance
MTP = Manager of Track Planning (inaccurate title, IMHO)
MTO = Manager of Train Operations = trainmaster type.
Feel free to correct/ supplement as necessary.
- PDN.
mudchickenSecondary lines (like the KP) and alternate routes suddenly have a chance to shine. Stress levels are certainly up.
Alternate routes - while they may have a chance to 'shine'; most likely won't have a crew base that will permit it.
BaltACD mudchicken Secondary lines (like the KP) and alternate routes suddenly have a chance to shine. Stress levels are certainly up. Alternate routes - while they may have a chance to 'shine'; most likely won't have a crew base that will permit it.
mudchicken Secondary lines (like the KP) and alternate routes suddenly have a chance to shine. Stress levels are certainly up.
PDN: We used to sarcasticly refer to the the UP management titles as the "yuppie caste system" put in place for people that never set foot on the territory or got their hands dirty" (usually BA and CE degree-d non-railroaders) ... never liked the term "general roadmaster" either.
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mudchicken BaltACD mudchicken Secondary lines (like the KP) and alternate routes suddenly have a chance to shine. Stress levels are certainly up. Alternate routes - while they may have a chance to 'shine'; most likely won't have a crew base that will permit it. Then you break-up the qualified crews and have "pilots". In the case of the KP, you can probably run at almost capacity for a while. (there is another thread just after PSR infected UP's corporate thinking, that the KP was redundant. Hopefully the thinking is a little less gung-ho after things like this.
Then you break-up the qualified crews and have "pilots". In the case of the KP, you can probably run at almost capacity for a while. (there is another thread just after PSR infected UP's corporate thinking, that the KP was redundant. Hopefully the thinking is a little less gung-ho after things like this.
Don't know UP rules - CSX rules required a pilot for each craft that was not qualified. Additionally, they did not permit using a qualified Conductor to pilot a unqualified Engineer.
If you don't have enough qualified people to run the trains, you probably won't have enough qualified people to act as pilots.
I understand what Balt & zugs are hinting at, but the KP was a little unusual that they had people on it that were qualified elsewhere and could come back to it. The last 6 years or so saw a slowdown on the use for the district, but there were plenty of folks still qualified on the district back around new years...Got used last year when the undercutter appeared on the transcon to attack the coal blow-dust recurring headache.
mudchickenI understand what Balt & zugs are hinting at, but the KP was a little unusual that they had people on it that were qualified elsewhere and could come back to it. The last 6 years or so saw a slowdown on the use for the district, but there were plenty of folks still qualified on the district back around new years...Got used last year when the undercutter appeared on the transcon to attack the coal blow-dust recurring headache.
FRA has qualification standards - being qualified on the territory 6 years ago does not make you qualified on the territory today. FRA qualification regulations are the Catch 22 when a carrier down grades the use of a particular line.
I believe, but I can be mistaken, you have to have operated over a territory during the preceeding year to maintain qualification on that territory. On most carriers, how T&E crews complete their 'time slip' for their trips indicates what territories they have operated over and record of this is maintained in the computer system for qualification purposes.
BaltACD mudchicken I understand what Balt & zugs are hinting at, but the KP was a little unusual that they had people on it that were qualified elsewhere and could come back to it. The last 6 years or so saw a slowdown on the use for the district, but there were plenty of folks still qualified on the district back around new years...Got used last year when the undercutter appeared on the transcon to attack the coal blow-dust recurring headache. FRA has qualification standards - being qualified on the territory 6 years ago does not make you qualified on the territory today. FRA qualification regulations are the Catch 22 when a carrier down grades the use of a particular line. I believe, but I can be mistaken, you have to have operated over a territory during the preceeding year to maintain qualification on that territory. On most carriers, how T&E crews complete their 'time slip' for their trips indicates what territories they have operated over and record of this is maintained in the computer system for qualification purposes.
mudchicken I understand what Balt & zugs are hinting at, but the KP was a little unusual that they had people on it that were qualified elsewhere and could come back to it. The last 6 years or so saw a slowdown on the use for the district, but there were plenty of folks still qualified on the district back around new years...Got used last year when the undercutter appeared on the transcon to attack the coal blow-dust recurring headache.
The UP requires a trip within 12 months on non-heavy grade territories. (I think the FRA allows a longer period of grace time.) They do count trips worked as a conductor for those previously qualifed as engineers, but who have been cut back to conductor.
What they've done in the past for planned detours (over the CN or IAIS in my area) was to create a pilot pool. They would use engineers from the affected pool (those that were going to run the detours) and/or managers. They'ld get qualified (a hi-rail trip over the line in a few cases) and then pilot a regular crew. Going over the CN, which we did more often, once an engineer had a couple trips they would at times let him and his conductor go on their own.
I'm not sure that they would bother trying to establish detours to the extent they would need to qualify extra people. Outside of losing a bridge or section of track for a very long time, I think they'll detour the hot stuff and let other traffic sit. Allowed to be moved as crews are available on the routes available.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
They are sending a few train west of Omaha via the BNSF. Yesterday a couple of coal hopper trains that were tied down were to go that way. I got home at midnight Friday/Saturday, tied up 20 times out. Went to work yesterday on a manifest that is supposed to go to the BNSF today.
My train didn't have enough power for going over the BNSF, so we were supposed to pick up an engine off a tied down train. (There were still 10 trains tied down in westwern Iowa.) The train we were supposed to steal power from was a DP hopper. We were to take sthe trailing unit of the lead consist. When we got there it wasn't going to be able to be used. Deader than a doornail, no battery charge, and it had dumped it's water. They talked about using the lead engine, but decided the drawbacks to doing that were too bad. We were told to proceed, that they would find another engine later on.
We have an incoming car parked somewhere in the middle of Nebraska and one in the middle of Montana due to flooding.
From reports I got from my drivers and from customers we have in Nebraska UP better hire a bunch of track workers and buy every ton of ballast they can get their hands on. If the reports are half as true as they are saying most of their mainline is washed out in the flooded areas and bridges were taken out also.
BNSF is detouring over UP to Council Bluffs/Omaha. Due to a temporary waiver allowing non cab signal equipped power to lead in cab signal territory, BNSF power can lead. I saw one such move with a BNSF engine leading.
So the UP leader on the Amtrak trains wouldn't be necessary, either, I guess. In theory, PTC should be able to cover a multitude of sins (we know better, but still).Where do you suppose the BNSF trains west hop onto the UP? Are you going to see any of this stuff, Jeff? How's your "pilot's license"?
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
So far, the Amtrak trains have been getting UP leaders. I don't know if the PTC is actually interoperable yet. They all have the same PTC equipment, but I don't know if UP's "back room" will recognize a BNSF (or Amtrak) engine and vice-versa.
The detours, both BNSF and Amtrak, get on/off the UP at the west end of the Missouri River bridge in Omaha. They reworked the track layout at the connection a few years ago. Before the rework, Amtrak could leave the passenger station and go directly to the UP. Now they have to back out of the station and then use the adjacent track to reach the connection.
I have a chance of catching one of the detours. It will just be the luck of the draw.
Just a note from here,South of Wichita. The last couple of days I've seen at least three trains on the NB line from Mulvane, they were UPRR power leading,and BNSF power trailing.
That area is PTC equipped. The UP power at that point, would possibly, have come North from Ark City, or even off of the SouT-con out of Wellington. No idea where they originated on the stackers they were leading(?). One was a solid tanker train {at least, the bufffer car behind the engines was a BNSF}.
There was one very long import/export(not one domestic can on the whole train) stack train, I saw; all BNSF power, head end was 1BNSF, 1NS, 1 UP, and 2 BNSF midtrain, and 2 BNSF DPUs trailing. (my guess was, it was over 10k + feet,in length). They seem to go thru this area on wednesday's or thursday's(?).
How about the east end of the detour, Jeff? How far west do I have to go before the volume gets heavy?
The east end for the detours depends on the train. Some get off the UP at Clinton, some go all the way to Chicago. Some may go to Edelstein to regain home rails. If you see a BNSF engine leading on the UP side on the Rochelle camera, it's a detour.
About the luck of the draw, I just got called for AMT6X. Seems to be running late today.
I have some friends who were scheduled to be on today's UP detour WB Zephyr, but have since elected to drive to Colorado. The got a refund apparently because their Naperville stop was eliminated. They were told that ther may have been some bustitution around bridges. Has that happened?
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