Fire Hose Across Track

[54light15]

This is the proper way to deal with fire hoses and streetcars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPySsj_-Z4g 

[Deggesty]

The firefighters in Weymouth have it right.

The SP had at least one fire train at Donner; there was a picture of it in Trains back in the fifties.

[ChuckCobleigh]

Paul_D_North_Jr

Then there are the photos of windows of cars parked in front of a fire hydrant broken out so the hose could go through them . . . 

Backdraft, 1991.

[tree68]

Even firefighters get caught by the Dutch set-up...

I did a presentation a few years ago to the county firefighters association.  I emphasized notifying the railroad of any fire operations near the tracks, nevermind running a hose over the rails.  Fortunately, there's only two railroads, and one is a shortline that might run once a week...  I would not be shy about checking with dispatch to see if the RR had been notified if I was aware of an incident on or near the tracks.

I also pointed out the need for lookouts.

The fact that we don't see a lot of traffic on the line through the county (CSX, soon to be CN - see the news wire) means there could be those who think the tracks are basically inactive.

The hose through the car windows shots (there are more) are legendary, almost to the point that a firefighter would welcome the opportunity...  

Fire trains are more common that some may think - theyjust sit in the back of the yard, waiting for the occasional call to action.  They probably go out less often than the rotary snowplows.

There were a number of them on the NYC Adirondack Division, including one based at William Seward Webb's private station.  Forest fires were such a problem that the only oil burning steamers on the Central were those that ran in the Adirondacks, account a state law banning coal burners.

[BaltACD]

mudchicken

Unwittingly cut a fire hose outside Richmond CA with a work train in 1989.. Nobody on the railroad side had been alerted to the local FD attacking a brush fire just off the R/W.  Took 'em a while to get the hydrant turned off. Ironically, the work train was shuttling water cars.

When I was a kid we lived in Pittsburgh for several years.  Recall the lead in to one of the TV stations evening news show was a film clip of a B&O passenger train running along 'the river' at speed and slicing through five or six fire hoses, releasing great cascades of water.  This was in the early 50's and such things as radios on the B&O did not exist.

[mudchicken]

Unwittingly cut a fire hose outside Richmond CA with a work train in 1989.. Nobody on the railroad side had been alerted to the local FD attacking a brush fire just off the R/W.  Took 'em a while to get the hydrant turned off. Ironically, the work train was shuttling water cars.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

With all due respect to our good member tree68/ Larry here and his dedicated colleagues in the fire service, this thread may be of interest to some.

This first photo showed up on the news feed of my phone the other day.  The article below explains how it was staged for comic effect - safely, too.

https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-this-fake-photo-went-viral-and-tricked-the-internet-2014-5 

Another joke one - see the comments below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Firefighting/comments/7ke897/xpost_from_rpics_thats_not_how_trains_work/ 

The there's this 1:04 video of one gone wrong, captioned as "Train VS Fire Hose in Maine - Must see for All Fire Departments".  The TV anchor's narration explains it pretty well.  Some of the comments are funny, too: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0O7DP3i0ao&feature=youtu.be 

Here's another video of a BNSF fire train, captioned as "BNSF Fire Train (Very Rare)".  The good part of the 3:04 video is from 0:10 to about 2:34 - what's after that is pretty unusual - I have my doubts about it's safety: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut9JGMjPteU 

I love the first comment: "This is like every kid's different dream jobs rolled into one."

Several from a fire in Weymouth, Mass.: 

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fire-hose-runs-under-the-tracks-of-the-mbta-commuter-rail-news-photo/847395790

This one has it at a different angle, and with a 0:24 video of the Keolis track guys digging out the 'crib' between the ties for the hose to go into:

https://www.firefighternation.com/2017/09/14/fire-hose-under-the-train-tracks/#gref 

3rd photo from the top:

https://959watd.com/blog/2017/09/weymouth-early-morning-fire-damages-condo-building/ 

How they used to do it back in trolley car days: 

https://wongm.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/emergency-tramway-hose-bridge.jpg 

One in action - go slow or it could be like a roller-coaster ride:

https://tdu.to/photos.aspx?search=Richmond_car_hose_bridge.jpg 

Short explanation: https://tdu.to/32024.msg 

Then there are the photos of windows of cars parked in front of a fire hydrant broken out so the hose could go through them . . . 

- PDN.