Some friends were travelling on the Zeph last week from Osceola IA to Denver to attend the Iowa State - Colorado game. Sometime during the night they apparently blew through a red flag. The BNSF dispatcher ordered the train stopped. The entire operating crew was releived of their duties. The passengers had to then wait four hours for Amtrak to round up a replacement crew & get them out to the stranded Zeph.
Has anybody else heard about this? Passengers don't always get the strait scoop, or come to wrong conclustions based on bit & pices of overheard conversations.
I don't know of the specifics of the incident you are referring to. That being said, Passing a Stop Signal (your term red flag) is the MOST SERIOUS rules violation a train crew can have, any questions view the Chatsworth, CA Metrolink incident.
Procedure when a Stop Signal Violation occurs is that the train is immediately instructed to stop. Local carrier supervision is notified and dispatched to the scene. A relief train crew is ordered (crews are give a 2 hour call to report to their on duty location, then have to be transported from the on duty location to the incident site). If the the offending crew is Amtrak, they are notified to provide the recrew; if the offending crew is the carriers crew, the carrier will supply the recrew. The offending train will remain stopped until the on scene investigation and interviews by Carrier officials have been completed and the recrew for the offending train has arrived and taken charge of the train.
Most, if not all CTC Signal systems today, maintain operational logs that track when signals are lined by the Dispatcher (control point operator) and when trains activate the various track circuits that are a part of the system. Review of these log(s) define the incident and are the prima facia evidence of the violation. A violating crew is not permitted to remain in service and will be held out of service until the Carriers formal investigation process has been held and all parties, carrier, crew, control point operator, signal system technicians and any other parties that may have relevant testimony have presented their evidence. Presuming that the violation is proved by the evidence, the normal discipline assessed it termination of employment.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
This is likely the same incident being discussed under the "What would you do?" thread on this site. The date of the incident I posted about was 11/11/2010.
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