jeffhergert BaltACD jeffhergert Yes, the cab light requirement isn't in the rule book, but in one of the other numerous bulletins put out by various levels of management. With the tinted windows it may be hard to tell if anyone is in the cab. It would depend on how many cab lights are on. There's no requirement for how many of the lights are on. Some turn every interior light Depending on model, there can be 5 to 7 lights. one or two main lights, plus 3 to 5 reading lights. I won't turn them all on. I usually try to leave the one or two engineer reading lights off because I hate it when they're burned out. Jeff If a employee would be riding in a trailing locomotive - they would keep the cab lights off in order to protect their eyes acclimation to night vision - exposure to light lengthens the time required for one's eyes to adjust to the light level in the dark. While some areas still have a brakeman on some trains, we usually don't. About the only ones riding trailing units are dead heads. Some may have them off if they want to sleep. Others may want to read and have a light on. I've done both when dead heading. A lot of crewmembers in the lead cab will leave the reading light on at night. Especially those that are dimmable. (Some of them require manual methods to reduce the amount of light.) I've done that too. Especially when some of the gage lights are burned out. Jeff
BaltACD jeffhergert Yes, the cab light requirement isn't in the rule book, but in one of the other numerous bulletins put out by various levels of management. With the tinted windows it may be hard to tell if anyone is in the cab. It would depend on how many cab lights are on. There's no requirement for how many of the lights are on. Some turn every interior light Depending on model, there can be 5 to 7 lights. one or two main lights, plus 3 to 5 reading lights. I won't turn them all on. I usually try to leave the one or two engineer reading lights off because I hate it when they're burned out. Jeff If a employee would be riding in a trailing locomotive - they would keep the cab lights off in order to protect their eyes acclimation to night vision - exposure to light lengthens the time required for one's eyes to adjust to the light level in the dark.
jeffhergert Yes, the cab light requirement isn't in the rule book, but in one of the other numerous bulletins put out by various levels of management. With the tinted windows it may be hard to tell if anyone is in the cab. It would depend on how many cab lights are on. There's no requirement for how many of the lights are on. Some turn every interior light Depending on model, there can be 5 to 7 lights. one or two main lights, plus 3 to 5 reading lights. I won't turn them all on. I usually try to leave the one or two engineer reading lights off because I hate it when they're burned out. Jeff
With the tinted windows it may be hard to tell if anyone is in the cab. It would depend on how many cab lights are on. There's no requirement for how many of the lights are on. Some turn every interior light Depending on model, there can be 5 to 7 lights. one or two main lights, plus 3 to 5 reading lights. I won't turn them all on. I usually try to leave the one or two engineer reading lights off because I hate it when they're burned out.
Jeff
If a employee would be riding in a trailing locomotive - they would keep the cab lights off in order to protect their eyes acclimation to night vision - exposure to light lengthens the time required for one's eyes to adjust to the light level in the dark.
While some areas still have a brakeman on some trains, we usually don't. About the only ones riding trailing units are dead heads. Some may have them off if they want to sleep. Others may want to read and have a light on. I've done both when dead heading.
A lot of crewmembers in the lead cab will leave the reading light on at night. Especially those that are dimmable. (Some of them require manual methods to reduce the amount of light.) I've done that too. Especially when some of the gage lights are burned out.
CN is kind enough to give us red B/O tags that are the perfect size for dimming the desk lights. But sometimes you have to get creative with the paper towels and band-aids from the crewpaks (if you both forgot your duct tape at home).
The crewpak materials are also pretty good at silencing annoying rattles when stuffed strategically into cracks.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
jeffhergertYes, the cab light requirement isn't in the rule book, but in one of the other numerous bulletins put out by various levels of management. With the tinted windows it may be hard to tell if anyone is in the cab. It would depend on how many cab lights are on. There's no requirement for how many of the lights are on. Some turn every interior light Depending on model, there can be 5 to 7 lights. one or two main lights, plus 3 to 5 reading lights. I won't turn them all on. I usually try to leave the one or two engineer reading lights off because I hate it when they're burned out. Jeff
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
MikeInPlanoWhat about pneumatic jacks built into the car that can be deployed when needed.?
The initial difficulty I have with this is one of capital and training:to be effective the jacks would have to act well outboard of the gauge, where the contact with the roadbed might be uncertain (and the precision of spotting cars over in-ground jacking pads purpose-built for effective loading difficult to achieve). You would still want to do balanced load and unload -- otherwise a faiure of leveling or locking would be rapidly catastrophic, possibly inescapable. Reasonable safeguards and a recursion of onerous and boring SPAF equivalents would be designed, of course ... but would they still be maintained and observed many years later, especially when complacency or deferred maintenance has set in... I'm reminded of the hitch failure on Iron Highway, which was pointed out to me to be highly anomalous BUT it was dangerous in significant ways when it happened.
I'd be more concerned with parts of one of the jack mechanisms accidentally deploying or breaking. There are no good places for a jacking leg to go at 50mph. How would you keep them out of mischief in some other kind of high-momentum accident? More to the point, what does the crew do when one fails inspection or testing enroute?
I'd think about using fixed stabilizing jacks at spottable positions, raising to engage the underframe of the car a bit like the jacking in the original CargoSpeed intermodal approach. There is no reason why this couldn't be worked with 'power air' in some way if shore power of a safe kind proved difficult or fallible. Then you have the fun of developing a safe procedure with interlocks and safeguards against trouble ... the problem being again that the consequences of a safety failure or oversight could be almost promptly implacable.
Overmod Deggesty Quite interesting, Paul. The only warning I have read indicated that no more than two layers should loaded or unloaded before moving to the other side and, again, moving no more than two layers past leaving/adding and then moving to the other side. That is, no more than a two layer imbalance... That's a practical interpretation of what Paul's warning says. If we were to 'literally' follow what that warning calls for, we'd need coordinated lifts from both sides of the car at once, I might add starting alternately from the ends toward the middle in a coherent pattern, so that the added weight is 'exactly' balanced side-to-side at any point. My opinion is that this is lawyer CYA; you can't argue in court with what the 'manufacturer' or 'owner' has said about keeping the balance exact, exact, exact even if in 'practice' that's functionally ignored... I'd note that with palleted loads the 'two-layer' weight might be greatly exceeded modularly, to the point where you well might want to alternate 'sides' even piece by piece. Especially if the side-bearing clearance is excessive, or the truck springing compromised, or the track 'soft' or inclining to one side...
Deggesty Quite interesting, Paul. The only warning I have read indicated that no more than two layers should loaded or unloaded before moving to the other side and, again, moving no more than two layers past leaving/adding and then moving to the other side. That is, no more than a two layer imbalance...
That's a practical interpretation of what Paul's warning says.
If we were to 'literally' follow what that warning calls for, we'd need coordinated lifts from both sides of the car at once, I might add starting alternately from the ends toward the middle in a coherent pattern, so that the added weight is 'exactly' balanced side-to-side at any point. My opinion is that this is lawyer CYA; you can't argue in court with what the 'manufacturer' or 'owner' has said about keeping the balance exact, exact, exact even if in 'practice' that's functionally ignored...
I'd note that with palleted loads the 'two-layer' weight might be greatly exceeded modularly, to the point where you well might want to alternate 'sides' even piece by piece. Especially if the side-bearing clearance is excessive, or the truck springing compromised, or the track 'soft' or inclining to one side...
The suggestion to place jacks while loading or unloading is interesting. What about pneumatic jacks built into the car that can be deployed when needed.?
Yes, the cab light requirement isn't in the rule book, but in one of the other numerous bulletins put out by various levels of management.
I wouldn't expect John Q Public to know the difference - it would be company officials doing roll-by that would know. If the person was wearing a high vis vest, it might take a call to the lead loco to see if they were aware of a rider...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
tree68 I would suppose that lights on in an unoccupied cab would also let someone observing a train as it passes see if there's someone in the cab. Especially if there's not supposed to be...
I would suppose that lights on in an unoccupied cab would also let someone observing a train as it passes see if there's someone in the cab. Especially if there's not supposed to be...
True, but how is the average citizen or railfan to know whe belongs there? I read on this forum that sometimes supervisors and deadheading employees ride in trailing locos.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
BaltACD jeffhergert We're required to have interior lights on at night on trailing units that are running. (Actually producing power or isolated). If the unit is shut down, they don't need to be on. It's a safety thing for crewmembers going inside the cab at night. Jeff It must be a UP thing - never heard of such a rule on CSX.
jeffhergert We're required to have interior lights on at night on trailing units that are running. (Actually producing power or isolated). If the unit is shut down, they don't need to be on. It's a safety thing for crewmembers going inside the cab at night. Jeff
It must be a UP thing - never heard of such a rule on CSX.
Same here (CN in Canada). Never heard of anyone having to do that.
jeffhergertWe're required to have interior lights on at night on trailing units that are running. (Actually producing power or isolated). If the unit is shut down, they don't need to be on. It's a safety thing for crewmembers going inside the cab at night. Jeff
We're required to have interior lights on at night on trailing units that are running. (Actually producing power or isolated). If the unit is shut down, they don't need to be on. It's a safety thing for crewmembers going inside the cab at night.
Not really. Someone forgot to flip a switch.
Regards - Steve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twistlock
steve-in-kvilleI'm seeing lots of container trains, of varying arrangements. One thing I noticed are maybe six well cars that share the same trucks, almost like they are permanently coupled. Is there a name for these cars?
Articulated cars would be the proper name.
Where I worked they were referred to as 5 packers and 3 packers. The 5 packers have 5 wells to hold containers, the 3 packers have 3 wells. The wells can hold multiple containers. While it is possible for the wells to hold up to 4 twenty foot containers, I can't recall seeing that configuration; most normally I see 2 twenty footers on the bottom and they are topped with 40, 48 or 53 foot top container.
They are articulated sets, and they are as you note 'permanently coupled'. Of further note, most have larger wheels in the 'central' trucks than on the ends. I have not seen them in sets of 6; 5 or 3 are more common.
I've noticed locally, where tracks cross city blocks diagonally, for some of the really close crossings the engineer just prolongs the final long blast to cover two crossings.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
You'll hear variations. Some will just repeat the sequence, ignoring the part about the last long blast when crossing the road. As I recall, that's pretty much what the rule says.
One spot I know of with two crossings immediately adjacent to each other often produces long-long-short-long-short-long.
Special equipment includes ATS or cab signals, creep control, etc.
What kind of special equipment? Like different technologies?
steve-in-kvilleSo if there is a special paint/heritage unit in a train, is it always the lead locomotive? So far that has been my experience.
On the home road, I'd imagine they make an effort to do that. Run through power on another railroad possibly not so much.
OTOH, if it's facing the wrong direction and there's no way to turn it, it'll at least be the second unit. And if it's in one of those increasingly rare spots that requires special equipment in order to lead, not.
I've seen them in positions other than lead.
I've got six photographed (CG, VGN, PC, INT, DL&W and RDG) and almost all of them sighted. Of course, it helps that that I ride to and from work everyday on an ex-Wabash line (Southwest Service).
steve-in-kvilleI've seen the same heritage unit (Wabash) two weeks in a row going the same direction. Fancy that.
There's a chance it's running between two points and you simply haven't seen the return trip.
Very cool, though. I like the Wabash scheme.
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