Western Railroad Discussion > Portland & Western Radio Controlled Local Switching

Hopmere, Oregon is a crossroads with a railroad and a grain elevator (Marion Ag Services) about 20 miles north of Salem. I caught a Portland & Western southbound switching there this morning and watched the one man crew make a couple of moves literally during the few minutes the sun was out. PNWR 2302 is a GP39-2.

1. The train is on the mainline. The engineer has just unlocked the siding switch, is walking back to make the cut, and is turned looking at the switch (10:56 am). Note the FRED on the diesel's front coupler. I assume the engineer's control pack can communicate with it.

2. Here he has made the cut and is moving the locomotive and cut forward (10:57 am).

3. Now the cars he cut off the train have been taken past the siding switch, the switch thrown, and are shown being backed up on to the customer's siding (11:00 am).

All very efficient. Comments?


Enjoy,
Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/14 15:18 by MartyBernard.

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One man RCO operation? Wow...

Mr. MRL

Remote control belt packs communicate with the remote control equipment installed on the locomotive, not with the EOT.

Then why is that FRED there? Has G&W maybe modified some control packs or on-board electronics?

Marty Bernard

The CAL-NORTHERN tried that 1 man remote control crew crap several years back in a conductor lost a leg. And we all know what happen with that 1 man crew oil train up in CANADA. Now BNSF is trying the same damn thing.

Those don't look like grain hoppers but maybe they are aggregate hoppers. The car are lettered MBIX which is assigned to Morse Brothers. Are the Morse Brothers shipping aggregate by rail?

Marty Bernard

Looks like they are setting out a B/O car in the siding. Those Rock cars go to a rock pit on a spur a couple miles west of the mainline north of Hopmere.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/14 19:10 by funnelfan.

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> Then why is that FRED there? Has G&W maybe
> modified some control packs or on-board
> electronics?
>
> Marty Bernard


I think you answered your own question: the engineer mounted it there, not on the end of train where it belongs. So much for one man crews.

Serously, the last generation of freds have an air turbine battery recharger powered by the air line to charge up the FRED battery while in use. The FRED batteries can go dead quickly so train crews will keep them charged up on the closest convenient air line ready for use: in this case the front of the engine. They wouldn't need it to dump the air because the remote belt packs have built-in fail-safe features to stop the engine movement if the operator falls or doesn't move the controls within a specified time limit.

However, it is entirely possible that G & W may have rigged up a FRED Remote air dump switch (normally on the Lead engine control console on Class I RRs) as a back up should the remote packs built-in safeguards fail...

This is the P&W's Rock train which does load at the quarry just West of where you were. It does indeed appeara that they have come out of the quarry, backed down to Hopmere to set out a BO car. This is a unique push/pull trains set that has two units on the North (RR East) end of usually 19 cars. This pair is usually a GP39-2 adn an SD-9, but can alos be a pair of GP39-2s. On the South (RR West) end is one of their half dozen or so remote controlled GP39-2s. Coming out of the quarry, they engineer is on the East end and will use the remote to add some push up the hill out of the quarry. At Reed Junction, they get on the old OE main line and head East to the unloading facility at Tonquin or the otehr at Hillsboro. Once unloaded, the train is operated from the lone Geep on the West end. There are Fred's on both ends. AFAIK, this has always been a one man job, just like most of the locals like the Corvallis, and Willamina jobs.

Photo is a going away of the empty train headed back to the quarry, passing through Beaverton. Note the Fred on what is the rear of the train.

Rob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/14 07:26 by SilvertonRR100.

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A FRED can't control a locomotive other than to monitor or dump the air. There are no electrical or radio connections to the locomotive. The belt pack does all of that control type stuff.

If you go online and read the mfrs instructions concerning the air freds you will find they are supposed to be plugged into a charging station when not in use just like the old ones. It seems like the RRs skip that paragraph since they no longer provide working charging stations nor instruct crews or carmen in how how to properly store them. Then they wonder why battery service life is so short. RTF maintenance program.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

What SilvertonRR100 said - and I add to that: The Rock Train has been running remotes since its inception in 1998. The company bought the mother/mate sets (3002/102 & 3001/101) specifically for that job with the original intention of having a shoving platform on one end with just the mother/mate for power. That didn't quite work out for best speed up the hill from Reed Pit and over the road so a conventional unit was added to the north (RR east) end. Over the 16 year the job's been running, things have changed and been refined by the RR and by the operator. For the most part, that job has been a high senie job with just three different engineers more-or-less holding it over the years.

Roustabout out

SilvertonRR100 Wrote:
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> This is the P&W's Rock train which does load at
> the quarry just West of where you were. It does
> indeed appeara that they have come out of the
> quarry, backed down to Hopmere to set out a BO
> car. This is a unique push/pull trains set that
> has two units on the North (RR East) end of
> usually 19 cars. This pair is usually a GP39-2
> adn an SD-9, but can alos be a pair of GP39-2s.
> On the South (RR West) end is one of their half
> dozen or so remote controlled GP39-2s. Coming out
> of the quarry, they engineer is on the East end
> and will use the remote to add some push up the
> hill out of the quarry. At Reed Junction, they
> get on the old OE main line and head East to the
> unloading facility at Tonquin or the otehr at
> Hillsboro. Once unloaded, the train is operated
> from the lone Geep on the West end. There are
> Fred's on both ends. AFAIK, this has always been
> a one man job, just like most of the locals like
> the Corvallis, and Willamina jobs.
>
> Photo is a going away of the empty train headed
> back to the quarry, passing through Beaverton.
> Note the Fred on what is the rear of the train.
>
> Rob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/14 13:46 by roustabout.