Railroaders' Nostalgia > Another way to make the Chief Engineer Mad

Over on the Nostalgia board on a NWP post I mentioned one way to make the Chief Engineer of the SP quite angry.
Here is another.
In may of 1982 Harry Berkshire came to Texas to see how we were doing in several upgrading projects. We spent the night in Hearne, and found this the following morning. An over-sized car had been shoved onto the turntable and it did not clear the bridge assembly that routed electrical power to the turntable. Apparently the car had an "unload this side" tag (and there is no wye close).

The level of pain he felt, when he was squeezing dollars to get more rail and ties, then to see his budget spent fixing things like this, burned within I think, his jaws were clenched for the rest of the day. (We were doing pretty good work out in the yard and on the DALSA line.)

Actually, this is an operating lesson: Why do they paint the tops of oversize cars white?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/14 17:12 by railstiesballast.

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Quite an unusual accident. But... didn't the repair cost get charged back to the Operating Dept., which caused the damage? As an example, mainline derailments were like a 3 ring circus between the Operating, M of W and M of E to determine blame.

I always thought it was the department that showed up last to the derailment took the blame…

Two related threads:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1766220,1766440#msg-1766440

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1093535,1094160#msg-1094160

Mark



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/14 20:17 by mwbridgwater.

Saying that the cost would be assigned to another department is like saying the insurance company will pay when your son/daughter hits the garage door with your car.
The point isn't just the cost, it is that employees (or student drivers?) are not supposed to run into things.
However you slice and dice the costs, in the 1980s the SP is continuing to show a very high operating ratio, and now we know how it ended up....

Westbound Wrote:
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> Quite an unusual accident. But... didn't the
> repair cost get charged back to the Operating
> Dept., which caused the damage? As an example,
> mainline derailments were like a 3 ring circus
> between the Operating, M of W and M of E to
> determine blame.

yes quite unusual. The car generally wound up in the turntable pit after seriously damaging the turntable truss.
Unless you have not been exposed to the ramifications of the, "Survival of Fittest" contest following an asleep at the switch accident while occupying one of he three Division positions. Division Engineer,MofW scapegoat for any thing that did not move, Master Mechanic, Mech Dept scapegoat for maintaining anything that did move, Assistant Superintendent manager of the Division transportation Dept. protecting the best employees he had working so the fault had to be cars,locomotives or track, not train handling. The complexion of these meetings changed somewhat with the advent of event recorders if they were recoverable after the incident.
These three positions composed the Division Operating Department and all three reported directly to the Superintendent who reviewed all documents and assigned the blame for the accident.
I recall one Division Engineer that made the statement to the Chief Dispatcher that if he arrived first at a derailment it would not be track caused.
These discussions would never be a "Three ringed Circus" but more accurately a 10 in. sharp bladed knife fight

That oversized car on the turntable reminds me of the D&RGW finding out the hard way that the Hanging Bridge in the Royal Gorge could not accommodate double-stack containers of a certain size. In the photos attached, note the notches that were involuntarily pounded into the steel support beams.

That would have been quite ugly if the impact was enough to dislodge those beams from their supports on the rock sidewall.

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on Amtrak it went this way for non mainline wheels off incidents with minor damage ... all dept heads arrived and there'd be a little pow wow ... then they'd walk the derailment to search for the cause ... once the cause was found there'd be another pow wow and the discussion went with whoever took the hit for the previous derailment saying well we bit the bullet on the last one which one is taking the hit for this one ... the system worked well unless/until somebody higher up the corporate ladder got involved ... of course with mainline high profile incidents everything had to go by the book

Posted from Android

So, the OP asked, why are the top of overheight cars painted white? Well???

Kimball Wrote:
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> So, the OP asked, why are the top of overheight
> cars painted white? Well???

with the words "EXCESSIVE HEIGHT CAR"

Posted from Android

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> That oversized car on the turntable reminds me of
> the D&RGW finding out the hard way that the
> Hanging Bridge in the Royal Gorge could not
> accommodate double-stack containers of a certain
> size. In the photos attached, note the notches
> that were involuntarily pounded into the steel
> support beams.
>
> That would have been quite ugly if the impact was
> enough to dislodge those beams from their supports
> on the rock sidewall.

By the time of the photo, the bridge was supported from below with concrete and steel. It is probably more work to remove than leave the beams where they are. They are a tourist attraction to this day.

Rob

I thought the DRGW did run doublestacks via Tennessee Pass. No?

coach Wrote:
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> I thought the DRGW did run doublestacks via
> Tennessee Pass. No?


Yes, standard height boxes only

Out_Of_Service Wrote:
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> Kimball Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So, the OP asked, why are the top of overheight
> > cars painted white? Well???
>
> with the words "EXCESSIVE HEIGHT CAR"
>
> Posted from Android

To draw attention to the excess height. An extra step of safety for anyone involved with handling the excess height car.

Jay

Jay