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Originally posted by miniwyo Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR Austin TX Sub Reply adrianspeeder Member sinceMarch 2002 From: Harrisburg PA / Dover AFB DE 1,482 posts Posted by adrianspeeder on Monday, April 4, 2005 6:33 AM National Transportation Safety Board Adrianspeeder USAF TSgt C-17 Aircraft Maintenance Flying Crew Chief & Flightline Avionics Craftsman Reply jchnhtfd Member sinceJanuary 2001 From: US 1,537 posts Posted by jchnhtfd on Monday, April 4, 2005 9:22 AM You might also see about contacting either (or both!) the UTU or BLE or CAW unions. Opinions? Paradoxically, railroading is one of the most dangerous occupations there is -- and yet, because of the dedication and care of all the guys and gals working out there, the accident and injury rate is astonishingly low. There are a whole lot of ways to get hurt out there, but the folks know it and tend to take care of themselves and their fellow workers. Jamie Reply mudchicken Member sinceDecember 2001 From: Denver / La Junta 10,820 posts Posted by mudchicken on Monday, April 4, 2005 9:42 AM S-A-F-E-T-Y, and a little perspective. To further Jamie's remark, read the remarks from an article in the Sunday Denver Post in the last two sentences regarding trucking company safety......railroaders would be appalled at such a rate of fatalities. http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2794364,00.html Suggest you look at the codified federal regulations, the CFR's, especially 49CFR211 thru 49CFR218 under transportation, just to see the rules and regulations that are already out there. Find them hardbound in your library or on THOMAS on the Web. Then go look at Wyoming's Corporation Commission/ Public Utilities Commission regulations (Chapter XIII, 9-04-79 my favorite pet peeve, clearances that get ignored by most industry until somebody gets scraped off the side of a boxcar).....and then there are the railroad related inserts stuck in odd places through the OSHA reg's (29CFR1910) They taught you how to footnote? Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Monday, April 4, 2005 9:21 PM I have to agree that rail road saftey is very high. I worked for Conrail and when I first started we had all the safety classes and had real life case studies of accidents. I thought to my self what did I get my self into??? This one of the most dangerous jobs out there!!!! But I learned that one always be aware of everything around you and your co workers and never ever let your guard down!!!! Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 5, 2005 6:11 AM What is the FRA website, anyway? Reply Edit daveklepper Member sinceJune 2002 20,096 posts Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, April 5, 2005 9:47 AM One of the greatest improvements that can be made technically and gradually is electric control of braking. Some of the streamliners with dedicated equipment had it and this did not prevent that equipment from operating in regular trains when necessary. It simply means something like and addition commuincations circuit (possibly combined in the same conector) and valves that respond to both change in train-line brake pressure and the electrical signal. Emergency stops would require less time and less space and be safer. Reply mudchicken Member sinceDecember 2001 From: Denver / La Junta 10,820 posts Posted by mudchicken on Tuesday, April 5, 2005 10:32 AM QUOTE: Originally posted by RcNut What is the FRA website, anyway? http://www.fra.dot.gov http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/Default.asp http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/R_Acc.htm Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west Reply jchnhtfd Member sinceJanuary 2001 From: US 1,537 posts Posted by jchnhtfd on Wednesday, April 6, 2005 9:16 AM QUOTE: Originally posted by daveklepper One of the greatest improvements that can be made technically and gradually is electric control of braking. Some of the streamliners with dedicated equipment had it and this did not prevent that equipment from operating in regular trains when necessary. It simply means something like and addition commuincations circuit (possibly combined in the same conector) and valves that respond to both change in train-line brake pressure and the electrical signal. Emergency stops would require less time and less space and be safer. This is coming, Dave, faster than you might think -- it is already in place on some passenger services which have dedicated equipment. As you say, there are some enormous benefits in train handling, particularly in emergency stops (does away with slack action popping half a dozen cars in the middle of the train, for instance!). It's on passenger service primarily to reduce or eliminate slack action. However, that said, there are a few 'issues' (how I dislike that word!). With freight equipment, the most obvious is that 'simply means something like' phrase. There are an awful lot of cars out there, and re-equipping them all will take a lot of time (and money) -- and the system is pretty useless unless all the cars are equipped; I would be that unit trains will be the first to see this. A second, and somewhat less obvious item is that the present air-brake system is pretty close to fail safe (something bizarre happens, the train goes into emergency -- unless someone (not necessarily the engineer -- has done something genuinely wrong) but, at the same time, is astonishingly robust -- that is, it can take an awful lot of abuse and keep on working. This is not, so far, true of electrical connections; in fact, I know of at least one serious derailment which was caused (in part) by a bad MU connector between the lead engine and the rest of a three unit set, which caused the dynamics to be working only on the lead engine. Designing an electrical control which is fully proportional and at least as robust and fail safe as the present system is quite possible, and I'm sure there are some bright heads at WABTEC or somewhere who are working on it, but it's going to take some work. Jamie Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 6, 2005 5:12 PM I am a retired Signal Maintainer [Amtrak].In my 37 years service the big problem I had was trains not sounding whisle approching men working on or about the tracks. Yes there is a rule that says trains must sound horn, BUT I would say 98% of trains DO NOT follow it. On 1/4/88, a signal maintainer[Kenneth D. Plouffe age 42] was struck and killed by Amtrak train # 175 at mile post 169[Davisville R.I.] He was working my job that day because I was off. The reprot I got was that train #175 didn't have the head light on bright as he had it dimmed account of the passage of a fright train in the other direction, and DID NOT SOUND HORN. Off course Amtrak coverd themself in the offical report. You mite contact FRA for the report. Another place to check for saftey is my union.Brotherhood of railroad signalmen. Check key word BRS to contact.Even after this accident I didn't see any inprovement in the trains sounding horn. Amtrak did vastly improve there safety training and it was much better when I retired in 2002 Reply Edit edblysard Member sinceMarch 2002 9,265 posts Posted by edblysard on Wednesday, April 6, 2005 6:10 PM miniwyo, Look here for the rules we must follow, at least west of the Mississippi river... http://www.sdrm.org/faqs/rulebook/title.html There is a section just for employee safety.. Ed 23 17 46 11 Reply Overmod Member sinceSeptember 2003 21,669 posts Posted by Overmod on Thursday, April 7, 2005 8:01 AM mudchicken -- at the risk of ruining the lesson you were trying to teach miniwyo about library science and hard work, the CFR is available quite nicely on the Web. The 2002 revision of 49 CFR: http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/cfrassemble.cgi?title=200249 For the slightly lazier, index of 49CFR 2xx -- pick safety-related categories and go to it! http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_02/49cfrv4_02.html Of course, safety in the Northeast is via NORAC (Northeast Operating Rules Advisory Committee), not to take anything away from Ed's provision of GCOR. Both of these should prove useful to miniwyo in determining what 'should' be done (and what is currently called for!). Nice 2003 version for Chicago area is available at http://www.ihbrr.com/bulletins/7412_NORAC_alt2.pdf The BLE has helpfully provided: http://www.ble272.org/Rules_department.htm I'm particularly fond of the tagline at the top! Might be a good quote to use at the beginning of the paper (but be sure to footnote it ;-}) Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, April 7, 2005 11:31 AM QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken QUOTE: Originally posted by RcNut What is the FRA website, anyway? http://www.fra.dot.gov http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/Default.asp http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/R_Acc.htm Thanks Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Friday, April 15, 2005 11:52 PM The National Safety Council publishes a yearly booklet "Accident Facts". See their website for more info.. Have you tried the Association of American Railroads? As a retired Safety Professional I've learned that top management is the key to employee safety. What they expect, measure, and hold supervision and employees responsible for is what they will get. My thought is that you will find railroads have similar accident causes to most of the rest of US industry, falls and material handling (ergonomics). Reply Edit Join our Community! Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account. Login » Register » Search the Community Newsletter Sign-Up By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy More great sites from Kalmbach Media Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy
Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR Austin TX Sub
USAF TSgt C-17 Aircraft Maintenance Flying Crew Chief & Flightline Avionics Craftsman
QUOTE: Originally posted by RcNut What is the FRA website, anyway?
QUOTE: Originally posted by daveklepper One of the greatest improvements that can be made technically and gradually is electric control of braking. Some of the streamliners with dedicated equipment had it and this did not prevent that equipment from operating in regular trains when necessary. It simply means something like and addition commuincations circuit (possibly combined in the same conector) and valves that respond to both change in train-line brake pressure and the electrical signal. Emergency stops would require less time and less space and be safer.
23 17 46 11
QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken QUOTE: Originally posted by RcNut What is the FRA website, anyway? http://www.fra.dot.gov http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/Default.asp http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/R_Acc.htm
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.