Question for Pro Railroaders

[Anonymous]

I'm doing research for operating sessions on my layout. I'm putting together "Chance" cards which will be drawn throughout the session. I would like for you to give me a couple of "real" situations where you were delayed, or problems arose, then give me the funniest or wackiest thing that ever happened to you. Thanks, Robert

[Anonymous]

Most all delays are train meets, passing or being overtaken(less of the later they like to keep trains in the order scedualed). Then most trains are held out of terminal, left to rot untill the crews are about out of time, then asked to "give us a good move" meaning yard the train in 30 mins or less so the main line will not be blocked by a dead train. Nothing funny or wackie about that. I am sorry I don't have any funny delays. I'm not saying there hasen't been any, but most delays for are not good things. A lot have to do with road crossing accidents(most fatal)and or derailments. And all tend to make you late for your daughter's school play!

[Anonymous]

I have been delayed because the train that I was travelling on was going too fast! We had caught-up a train in front and had to wait for the line to clear.

[Anonymous]

As James said, most delays aren't caused by pleasant reasons. However, I can mention some experiences, all involving excursion trains on various railroads over the years:

- On one steam excursion, we were moving along smartly until we stopped for no apparent reason. We were then informed that the railroad had agreed to shut down at a specific town for an hour in order to accomodate a foot race.

- Once, during a trip to a festival, the guy running the diner under-estimated his needs. So, we stopped at one point for about 20 minutes while he ran to a nearby grocery store to purchase hot dogs and buns. The mildly amusing aspect of this event was destroyed when a couple pushing a baby in a stroller decided that they didn't want to walk a block around the train and crawled UNDER the train, stroller and all.

- On the evening before a fall color excursion, there was a severe storm downline, with high winds. As we came around a curve at 50 mph, the engineer encountered a number of trees blown across the track. While the plow pilot on the engine made short work of the trees, the cars were scraped and we had to stop and inspect for damage.

- Rolling around a curve in a small country town, the engineer on another excursion observed that a farmer had parked his grain wagon a LITTLE close to the track at the elevator. As the lead unit passed, he found out that the wagon was TOO close (bang!). Even after big-holing the train, most of it had been nailed by the wagon, which inflicted several torn-off grab irons and bent steps in the process. However, the wagon looked a lot worse. The farmer stated that, since trains don't normally run on weekends, he could park wherever he wanted. The Deputy Sheriff taking the accident report could only shake his head.

- Coming back from a long weekend "up north," we were stopped by a dragging brake shoe on one of the cars. We attended to the problem, climbed back aboard, closed up and signaled the head end that we were ready to move. No response. Hmmm. A couple of minutes later, the engineer came out of an adjacent lounge car with half an apple pie and a cup of coffee (he had scurried up there while we were working on the brakes).

- Early on the first day of a weekend trip to a resort area, we encountered locomotive trouble and stopped on the main through the middle of a very active yard. First, one unit wouldn't load beyond Run 2. The Road Foreman wyed the power. Then, the other unit decided it didn't want to work as a trailing unit. Finally, a decision was made to go get a third unit (that one worked). While this was going on, were were trying to serve breakfast in the diner. That car's batteries were tired and after a period of sitting still, the ventilation gave out. That car also had a solid-fuel range (fueled with a layer of fire logs and about 100 pounds of charcoal briquettes), so it got warm and smokey rather quickly. Just to keep things interesting, yard crews were performing heavy-duty switching on tracks either side of our train (and the 4 mph rule was not in effect).

Beyond the above, we have also seen our share of getting stabbed at junctions, etc., plus a tragic, multiple-fatality grade crossing accident. Railroading isn't always fun.

Bob

[PaulWWoodring]

I had thought for some time that modelers should do something like chance cards to make operating sessions less routine and more realistic. There really is no such thing as a "normal" operating day, there may be a plan or schedule, but events usually conspire to prevent things from following it completely.

Mechanical problems are probably at the top of the list. You name it, it can happen. And in today's operating environment of just-in-time/just enough, anything that upsets the plan ripples down the line to affect many other plans. One unit failing on a critical grade on a single-track main, air hose separation far from the head-end of a 9 or 10,000 ft. train, or worse a broken knuckle or pulled drawbar. Sticking brakes that trip the detector, or a real hot-box that has to be set-out - and the nearest siding is miles away. Track structure problems abound, starting with broken rail, grade crossing signals that fail and require every train to stop and flag the crossing, signals that malfunction and cause every train to run at restricted speed, or worse, display the wrong aspect and cause a crew to run a stop signal when the previous signal displayed clear (happens more than occasionally and may have been the real cause of the Silver Spring, MD Amtrak/MARC wreck). In this day of centralized dispatching centers a common problem is having the "code line" go down between the control center and the signals in a territory, sometimes for an entire subdivision.

Human error obviously accounts for a lot of delays. Crews that are late or fail to show up or infrequently show up impaired. Crews sometimes forget to MU a consist properly, or to uncouple an engine consist properly and rip out the MU plugs or more commonly leave the walkway chains hooked up and pull down the grab-irons. Run-through switches are probably the #1 human error accident problem. Obviously, highway grade crossing and trespasser fatalities are significant as well, and are guaranteed to delay a train for a couple of hours. Cars with defective brake valves that go into emergency when any brake application is made called "kickers" on many railroads are another common problem. Of course when things like this start happening, crews get delayed to the point they go "on-the-law" and then trains are delayed even further waiting for relief crews.

This is far from a complete list of what can go wrong, but things I can think of off the top of my head. Suffice it to say that it there are many ways to screw up a railroad, and some days it seems like they all happen at once, especially when it looks like you're going to get that "early quit". Good luck.

[Anonymous]

#1 delayer is the train delayer, uh i mean dispatcher. like some of the others said you have other things like air hose separations also called a UDE(undesired emergency), hot box detectors (pretty rare), broken rails (common especially when it's cold out), signals messed up, yards holding you out (very very common, especially at major yards, like kansas city). a little quick story you might like, we had an officers special comming east at pratt,ks, but he was behind a "short time" train (crew was about to hog law. well the dispatcher messed up a meet and the short timer did hog, on the main, with no siding around. needless to say the officer's special was also now stuck behind the dead train.
to make matters worse the dispatcher is one who gets really flustered, really quickly. in this case the dispatcher go so upset, she disappeared for 2 hours, no one could get a hold of her. it was pretty bad, and i'm sure she probably got a bit of an @$$ chewing!

[wabash1]

on 1 trip i had to get the picture it was jan 2nd and we were the first train to run. on new years day and night we had a ice storm trees down and the usual mess. we got are track warrent and it was to the first siding. this was strange as we had no opposition comming. we made it to the first siding hitting a few trees on the way. and this went on for 2 hours siding to siding and for no known reason. then the dispatcher told use that a track man was trying to patrol the track and cut trees but was having trouble moving as the rails were icy he had no traction. we finally got him to move and the dispatcher sent us on. we cleared trees that rocked the engine and the rails he got on behind us and patrolled his track. after a little while he called his boss and said track was fine. he went home . we did his work for him.

other funny things seen a blind man walking with his guide dog we are blowing for the crossing and the dog is dragging this man to the crossing in front of us. then stops. we didnt hit the man as the dog did move him. but it dont say much for the master when the dog trys to kill him.

and then there is the females that flash you as you go by. the trespasser that you hit, the cars you hit.the dispatchers. and yard masters that dont want your train. there are very few good runs. as someone gets into your good day.