My driver wants to know

[Mookie]

why remote engines have the operator in the cab instead of on the ground.

My guess is that they are operating in the cab because they are lining up the engine for a different track and the remote has to stay within a certain distance of the operator. So he is in essence, along for the ride.

He wants the professional opinion.

Jen

[wabash1]

tje operator who is in the cab of a remote control engine is doing so agianst the rules he becomes a engineer at that point. we was gathering all the evidance against the carrier and operator for the union when the judge said its fine for them to do this. they keep going back and forth with the disssions that i have lost track of what is right and wrong. the man on the front of the engine is to watch movements to the front so not to hit anything. the signals from these remotes travel several miles so there is no operational problem just watching where they are going.

[Mookie]

Wabash - I will give you some more details -
I see our remote every so often. They bring it out of the yard, sometimes riding on the front and sometimes in the cab. It seems that have to come out so far to go back in on a different set of tracks. He has one public xing to go thru, so this is possibly why he is on the engine, instead of the ground. Could he be an actual engineer or hostler doing this job, which would qualify him for being either in the cab or on the ground?

AND - one time the remote was at the head end of a string of freight cars - which headed out of the yards to the shops on the east end of town.

Does this make a difference in your reply?

Jen

[wabash1]

Well not really. see remotes are to be run in yard limits only and not over any public crossings. there has to be a man on the lead unit to watch for the normal things engineers would look for bad switches derails not lines etc. ive heard of the bnsf breaking the rules til this year when i heard the fra got the and fined them for going out on the main over public crossings in a downtown area. pulling regular trains out of the yard to switch them out. What gets me is the way they think they are saving money. 1 man on the front of the engine and 1 man doing all the work switching. the guys switching is throwing switches making cuts and generally working his but off while one sits on the engine doing nothing. this is why things have slowed down railroads aint wanting to make a profit they want to win awards and have tax right offs.

like i said i dont remeber the last ruling on this subject from the federal judge. the man operating a remote is neither a hostler or a engineer he is a conductor or switchman. operating a computor pack, that is operating a locomotive.

[Mookie]

The engine is marked Remote and has a flashing yellow light on top. Is there a possiblity it was being used as a switch engine, rather than a remote?

But referring to what you said - it was one man, one engine and I was watching a coal train leaving town and just beyond it was the remote engine heading east - right around the edge of Lincoln and pulling probably 25-30 cars. I assume going to the shops for service. But if it was a remote and not a switcher - then they were breaking the rules. Just not sure if remotes can be used as plain switchers or not. I have never seen but one person on the remotes and he came out to our area several times both in the cab and also on the front end - you could see him wearing the remote harness - got off, threw the switch and then got back on the front end or back into the cab and went back into the yard. The switch is located between two public xings. Would they consider this still part of the yard?

Very interesting.

Thanx for info

Jen

[wabash1]

Jen that is the perpose of remote is for switching. it got rid of the engineer to use a conductor and breakman only. if in yard limits they are still not allowed over public crossings bnsf got fined by the fra for doing this. (even though missouri says the carrier pays off the fra.)

[Anonymous]

I am an engineer and I work one of the last two jobs with an engineer left in my terminal. Where I work the remotes go over multiple public crossings everyday, several times a shift. There is nothing illegal about running a remote over a public crossings.

As far as operating from the cab there was an injunction to prohibit the operation from inside the cab until a decision was made by arbitration. That decision has been made and a remote operator can now control the locomotive from inside the cab of the locomotive.

The carriers and the BLE still don't see eye to eye about everything that is being done and I am sure that there will be additional arbitration. The carriers believe that the term "in and around the terminal" from the arbitration allows them to run remotes outside yard limits. The BLE believes that it is not allowed. The carriers believe that one operator or the utility man may give radio and hand signs so the other operator can control the movement without being on the proper end of the movement. The BLE believes that radio and hand signs to control the movement are not allowed under the arbitration. Timeslips are being turned in on the moves that are in disagreement. Eventually the timeslips will reach the NMB and a decision will be made on these issues.