Murphy Siding zardoz Murphy Siding Any thoughts on why 2 small-ish locals that close together? *Hot (shut down) cars for a particular customer(s)? *Too much work for a single crew to get done before HOS requirements stop them?*Time warp (Groundhog Day)?*Deja-vu? Did you happen to notice any of the return trips? And if so, was all the power and cars combined in to one train, or did they return as two? I didn't see them coming back. I wonder if the answer is that they may have had a couple dozen cars going out to half a dozen online stops, but 40 or 50 cars coming in from one stop, enough to require it's own train, while the local did its regular route? Is that plausible, that one of the two was headed to one stop to drop a dozen cars and pick up a lot of cars?
zardoz Murphy Siding Any thoughts on why 2 small-ish locals that close together? *Hot (shut down) cars for a particular customer(s)? *Too much work for a single crew to get done before HOS requirements stop them?*Time warp (Groundhog Day)?*Deja-vu? Did you happen to notice any of the return trips? And if so, was all the power and cars combined in to one train, or did they return as two?
Murphy Siding Any thoughts on why 2 small-ish locals that close together?
*Hot (shut down) cars for a particular customer(s)? *Too much work for a single crew to get done before HOS requirements stop them?*Time warp (Groundhog Day)?*Deja-vu?
Did you happen to notice any of the return trips? And if so, was all the power and cars combined in to one train, or did they return as two?
I didn't see them coming back. I wonder if the answer is that they may have had a couple dozen cars going out to half a dozen online stops, but 40 or 50 cars coming in from one stop, enough to require it's own train, while the local did its regular route? Is that plausible, that one of the two was headed to one stop to drop a dozen cars and pick up a lot of cars?
Maybe there was a light power move going out to one of the unit train terminals that happened to be assigned a few local cars to spot along the way?
I assume that BNSF has a home terminal for crews in your area (is it Sioux Falls?), which may have multiple switching assignments operating out of it. One of the other jobs may have had a light work day, and been assigned additional work to use up their day.
Whatever they were doing probably did have a logical reason behind it, but I have also seen (and been required to do) some pretty silly "busy work" on occasion. A railroad is no different than any other workplace in that regard.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
zugmann two trains, you say? Preposterous!
two trains, you say?
Preposterous!
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
There's always the possibility that Murph had too much South Dakota "grain," and he was seeing double.
Murphy SidingAny thoughts on why 2 small-ish locals that close together?
Can someone offer some possible explanations to a logical mind that questions things? The BNSF runs a local train about every other day past our property at work. It handles all the traffic between Sioux Falls and Marion, South Dakota. The line has 5 small town elevators, 1 propane distributor, 1 lumber yard, 2 grain load-outs for unit trains and 2 ethanol plants on about 50 miles off the line. The local is typicaly 2-3 old Geeps pulling 10-20 cars, mostly grain cars and tank cars. On Wednesday morning, the typical local came past with grain and tank cars. About 45 minutes later, another almost identical train came by. The two trains together wouldn't be more cars than the local usually handles. Usually they go down to Marion one day and back the next, working the stops. Any thoughts on why 2 small-ish locals that close together?
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