Western Railroad Discussion > Routine Dog Catch (Not)

The assignment was simple: take the 1500 dog catch crew from Mandan to Dickinson so they can bring the previous day's H-LAUDIL east to Mandan - double over the train, run the air test and go. Then the adventure began. The wheel didn't match the cars on trac three. Call the trainmaster but it's Sunday and he doesn't answer. He finally called back and it gets resolved. Now go grab the power from the roundhouse. Oops, another train had grabbed the leader. The new leader didn't have PTC and the DS said you gotta have it even though it was intermediate terminal. No problem, there's a Y in Dickinson and the fourth unit, a warbonnet btw, did have PTC. That's about all it had (more on this later).

Now it's to the rear and hang the fred. But the Fred's battery is dead. So while it's changing, they do the air test on that cut. Now they move to the other cut, and put the train together. To do this, they have to enter the mainline. The  fred, now charged, isn't communicating with the leader. Back to the depot and grab another. At this point it should be mentioned that the train has four units, but two are dead and drained. Two units will be sufficient for 10,000 tons and 6,700 ft. of train.

While all this is happening, the next day's H-LAUDIL arrived. But they can't do their work while the other train has the East Dickinson plant tied up. Now ready to go, the lead unit will not load. The engineer tones up Ft. Worth mechanical and they walk through process to reset. But 5 minutes later same problem. So DS has them pull east to clear the east plant and the back westward on the mainline. The train does fit between the switches.Now trains holding can get through on track 1. 

After consulting the Chief, and with the crew down to 3.5 hours, the DS instructions were to tie down on the mainline and take the van back to Mandan. Just another routine day on the railroad. Here's some night scenes from Dickinson:

1. warbonnet 4716 after being Y'd to become the leader 
2. this MAC is the 4th unit and online of the 2nd H train 
3. This SD60M is regular power for the Dickinson local 

Bismarck Bill 

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You and the crew had quite the day and night of time consuming activity. Nice night shots Bill!

Larry

Yep...it’s all coming together now. Sounds like a routine day on the railroad.

You still use battery powered Fred’s out there? Haven’t seen one of those in 7-8 years.

Posted from iPhone

Texican65 Wrote:
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> Yep...it’s all coming together now. Sounds like
> a routine day on the railroad.
>
> You still use battery powered Fred’s out there?
> Haven’t seen one of those in 7-8 years.
>
> Posted from iPhone

rechargeable battery on fred is charged by air. If the Fred's been sitting in the depot left on for days...........

Sounds pretty routine to me. 

😂😂😂 normal.

Posted from Android

NIce shot of 4718!

RC Lundgren
Elgin, TX

Nice shots Bill! Reminds me of some of the  times I spent driving crews for 4 1/2 years. Really made me wonder how they made any money.

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

Nice story and photos Bill---good looking SDs.  Never a dull moment seems to be the ordinary anymore
Brian Stevens