tree68Also necessary if you're trying to get a train up a +/- 1% hill in the fall when the rails are covered with leaves - so you can hear if an axle takes off on you.
Now if that happens PTC will just enforce you the instant the speedo pegs.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
BaltACD the Engineer had his window open and he head out the window with little regard to the kind of weather that was being experienced as he needed to see hand signals from those guiding his movements on the ground.
Also necessary if you're trying to get a train up a +/- 1% hill in the fall when the rails are covered with leaves - so you can hear if an axle takes off on you.
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...
A lot of us still do that.
zugmann tree68 The RS18u's have both sidewall and whatever they are called heaters. Keeping warm in them isn't usually a problem... As I mentioned, though, air conditioning is an open window. Blowers? Has to be pretty cold (or have a broken sidewall) for me to use those. They are good at making more noise than heat. AC I can take or leave. Most of ours don't work that well and rattle horribly.
tree68 The RS18u's have both sidewall and whatever they are called heaters. Keeping warm in them isn't usually a problem... As I mentioned, though, air conditioning is an open window.
Blowers? Has to be pretty cold (or have a broken sidewall) for me to use those. They are good at making more noise than heat.
AC I can take or leave. Most of ours don't work that well and rattle horribly.
When I was spending time on the ground, in yard and industrial forms of switching - the Engineer had his window open and he head out the window with little regard to the kind of weather that was being experienced as he needed to see hand signals from those guiding his movements on the ground. Back then the ONLY form of A/C was the open window.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
tree68The RS18u's have both sidewall and whatever they are called heaters. Keeping warm in them isn't usually a problem... As I mentioned, though, air conditioning is an open window.
One of our F units (probably both, but I generally run one of them for Polar) was heated with engine coolant, which meant getting warm in the cab took a while. That unit was replaced with an electric heater, which is much nicer...
The RS18u's have both sidewall and whatever they are called heaters. Keeping warm in them isn't usually a problem... As I mentioned, though, air conditioning is an open window.
To many extents the carriers view T&E personnel as 'creatures' rather than human beings.
SP had some flush style toilets that needed a water supply. The ones I remember seeing were on their wide nose modern engines. They placed the water supply tank in the outer, unheated, entry way room in the outer nose. So they needed tank warmers.
UP gradually changed them out to regular pump flush chemical toilets. Which have their own problems at times. (Nothing like opening the door to the toilet compartment, sometimes even outside the door in the main cab, and seeing blue - or whatever color the chemical used is - all over the floor.)
We no longer have refrigerators. (Some are still used with ice, the power having been disconnected.) We have ice boxes, which wouldn't be a bad thing if they had been designed better. Everyone who doesn't use them, company and union, signed off on them to replace the refrigerators. We used to have 5 gallon, styrofoam lined ice buckets. (Made by Life-Like Products, the same that used to make model railroad items.) These worked great. They were deemed a safety hazard, that they were in the way when moving around or through the cab.
I and many others, carry coolers. I have an Igloo, but I've seen a lot of (IIRC) Rubbermaid coolers that say Norfolk Southern on them.
The once called comfort cabs are less so. With the return of the side control stand, it takes up a lot of room. That wouldn't be so much of a problem, but the latest third seat design on ours gets placed where it's in the way of everything when it's folded up. When unfolded for use, it's way more in the way. I call it a Murphy Bed (No offense Murphy Siding) because that's what it reminds me of.
Air Conditioning and Heating can run "hot and cold." It seems to go in streaks. Some years the HVAC works as intended for the season. Some A/C cool the cab enough to hang meat. Some heaters will cook you out. Other years the preponderance of units will work halfway. Thank God for sidewall heaters, sometimes that's the only heat being produced. GE sidewalls are better than EMD sidewalls. GE's have a medium and high setting. EMD's have an on/off switch and usually don't get as warm as a GE. A few of the first orders of UP SD70m engines didn't have them. The natives got restless and complained, and now all new engines since have had them.
Tinfoil goes along way in toasting on the sidewalls, too.
Jeff
Chemical toilets (like on a Greyhound bus) and bottles or cups of drinking water have been the standard for some time. CN tried putting fold down sinks in the toilet room for a while back in the 1990s but it didn't catch on, though they are still in place on the units that were delivered with them.
We also get 'crewpacks', little sealed plastic bags of sanitary supplies. The cheapest wet wipes, paper towels and wads of toilet paper anyone has ever seen.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Latrine? Running water?
CN didn't get air conditioning on new locomotives until the mid-2000s, I think the last order of Dash-9s were our first units to come with it. Most of the secondhand Dash-8s and SD60s had A/C and a small number of older CN units have been retrofitted with it.
CP power has a fridge and hot plate, CN gets a microwave as well. We got the ammenites as a part the deal that allowed extended run/double sub crew districts, and we also lost the right to stop the train to eat at around the same time.
The strip heaters are pretty good at heating up canned food, but I wouldn't want to try toast or sandwiches on them (it's pretty filthy down there). Aluminum foil wrapped sandwiches toast quite nicely on the hot plate.
The hot plate uses 74vDC, but as far as I can tell our fridges and microwaves have always used 110vAC, the older ones just tend to have a round locking plug instead of a standard North American household one. Newer units have both a 74vDC outlet and some standard househould wall outlets, and the inverter module usually has a couple right on it. Not to mention some USB ports right on the computer screens. All the better for the mechanical guys to plug in their laptops when troubleshooting the thing.
I've heard that a lot of older household coffee pots and cookers would run just fine on 74vDC, and during the pre-outlet days some guys would adapt them with alligator clips so they could run off the main battery switch.
Overmod Only recently have we gotten to the point where 110V 60Hz power can be reliably provided in a locomotive cab for enginemen to plug in their own devices (there was a market at one point for things that would run on 74VDC).
Only recently have we gotten to the point where 110V 60Hz power can be reliably provided in a locomotive cab for enginemen to plug in their own devices (there was a market at one point for things that would run on 74VDC).
Kind of a shame that the 74VDC appliance market wasn't a bit larger as it would have been a great standard for an off-grid DC house.
As for ads, my experience with this site improved tremendously when I flipped the "https only" switch on Firefox settings.
Getting back to the thread topic: I've run across several mentions of an OSHA regulation limiting time spent in high temperature environments, which suggests that A/C is a "must have".
Canadians can be somewhat better off, as they get hotplates/microwaves and some other amenities.
There is certainly a burnt-toast setting on some sidewall heaters, but I'll let the railroaders comment there, now that this isn't a required family-friendly environment any more with the current crop of mandatory ads.
There is no entertainment radio -- no entertainment electronics at all -- by combination of rules. Much of that is nominally "safety" concerned, using the same rules that send you to suspension in school if your mom put an aspirin in your backpack. See the issue of naps in a reclining seat when waiting 6 hours for opposing traffic to clear, with no entertainment, no books, etc.
Any amenities 'historically' left on locomotives were often subject to a combination of wear, abuse, and vandalism for, let's say, an interesting variety of reasons. Only recently have we gotten to the point where 110V 60Hz power can be reliably provided in a locomotive cab for enginemen to plug in their own devices (there was a market at one point for things that would run on 74VDC).
Our MLW RS-18u's have a small refrigerator and a microwave. As I recall, hot plates (or other methods for heating water) are required in Canadian locomotives.
I don't know about modern power, but otherwise, yeah, heat (A/C? Open a window!) and a padded seat pretty much sums it up.
As I drove to work yesterday I was in a preheated car. The radio was on and I was sitting on electric bun warmers cranked up to burnt toast setting. Other than heat/AC and maybe a padded seat, what creature comforts do the folks in a locomotive enjoy?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
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