Western Railroad Discussion > Lots of horn passing fire scene that caused delay

Little delay on the post... Last Tuesday, I drove a tanker truck as my volunteer fire department responded to a hardware store fire in downtown St. James, Missouri.  For the fire, we had to shut down the Cuba Subdivision in order to lay a water supply line from a hydrant to a ladder truck.  Early on, a track inspector was on the scene (as he was out spotting for washouts ahead of a westbound due to recent heavy rains).  He ended up telling the approaching train to pull right up to the crossing, and watch the show.  5 hours later, we were able to break down the supply line and open the tracks back up.  Ended up that 3 westbound trains had been stacked on the main line due to our event...including an interesting consist of what appeared to be a conveyor belt ballast train.

As you can hear in the video, the engineer decided to make noise.  Lots of noise.  Not sure if he was trying to send a sarcastic message to us all for his delay, or was just giving us a show... but it was fun to hear at 3am. 

1 - Westbound train pulled up to the scene of the fire.  Bad cell phone quality... but you get the idea.
2 - Photo of the fire itself
3 - Video as one of the westbound trains pass the scene, with PLENTY of horn action.  Was lucky to be able to catch on film during a break..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/15 20:17 by djm448.

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Wow the pump operator must be really busy. only half his safety gear and on a cell phone
 

Tracklayer Wrote:
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> Wow the pump operator must be really busy. only
> half his safety gear and on a cell phone
>  
His title is "Engineer". He's not going into the fire and he may be talking to Dispatch on that phone.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tracklayer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Wow the pump operator must be really busy. only
> > half his safety gear and on a cell phone
> >  
> His title is "Engineer". He's not going into the
> fire and he may be talking to Dispatch on that
> phone.


Bingo.   He was calling into dispatch to request the additional tankers that the Incident Commander needed.  The alarm level system is not in use, so if you need help... you gotta tell dispatch who you want and what you want from them.    IC was tied up, and he was able to call on the phone to explain and not tie up the radio with lengthy traffic. 

In many departments, the engineer or pump operator is not required to wear his/her PPE since s/he is supposed to stay at the apparatus and tend to pumping.  I know for our volunteer department (also in Missouri), many times we pick the rig up, throw our PPE in a compartment and drive the rig to the scene in our street clothes.  From the looks of the photo, they are flowing deck guns/master streams/big water in a defensive aka "surround and drown" operation.  And I have used my cell phone in similar situations at incidents.  They actually provide fairly secure communications that cannot be overheard by most folks with a standard scanner!

Bruce

I'd say that engineer (locomotive engineer) was letting everyone know, "It's about time!"

John

wa4umr Wrote:
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> I'd say that engineer (locomotive engineer) was
> letting everyone know, "It's about time!"
>
> John

the engineer doesn't want to hear that horn anymore than anyone else ... he's not being spiteful, he was doing his job protecting his train and the RofW and the first responders who are hyped up into their job of working the fire not thinking of a train approaching ... there's a lot of noise and distractions in those type of situations and with the track being secure, OOS for 5hrs under the fire dept, the train engineer wants to let everyone know they're coming through ... there's a good chance the disp instructed the hogger to make a lot of noise going through the area ... that's standard practice ...

When you're flowing that kind of water and the tanker shuttle is spaced right, not a whole lot to do but watch the guages and the water level in the Porta-tanks next to him.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tracklayer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Wow the pump operator must be really busy. only
> > half his safety gear and on a cell phone
> >  
> His title is "Engineer". He's not going into the
> fire and he may be talking to Dispatch on that
> phone.

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

Out_Of_Service Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wa4umr Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I'd say that engineer (locomotive engineer) was
> > letting everyone know, "It's about time!"
> >
> > John
>
> the engineer doesn't want to hear that horn
> anymore than anyone else ... he's not being
> spiteful, he was doing his job protecting his
> train and the RofW and the first responders who
> are hyped up into their job of working the fire
> not thinking of a train approaching ... there's a
> lot of noise and distractions in those type of
> situations and with the track being secure, OOS
> for 5hrs under the fire dept, the train engineer
> wants to let everyone know they're coming through
> ... there's a good chance the disp instructed the
> hogger to make a lot of noise going through the
> area ... that's standard practice ...


The Engineer was being a DICK. There was no excuse for that. You can let everyone know you are approaching without going to extremes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/15 05:54 by bnsfengineer.

Could also be that he was seeing  more than what is shown and worried that someone may not know the train was moving. Glad that you werre there to see and know all.

Love to see Cuba sub action.  Thanks for posting. 

Another vote for excessive. Lots of warning is appropriate but the modern horns go way past that, breaking it into short sequences would have been plenty. Train may have been going a bit too fast as well, good luck on that.

Pretty serious on the Fire Truck, looks like it's layed out very effectively. Agree with the cell phone as an alternate comments. The favorite rig out here in California seems to be a 3 story ladder truck with a nozzle at the top, set it up and drown it as described. Seems like every town or District has one.

t4p.

I have another video of an additional train passing the scene.  Short blasts and constant bell that sent the message needed.