Western Railroad Discussion > Jungo Fever and the MNPFR Fiasco

A while after the steam special landed in Winnemucca, NV for the day, I saw that a westbound was coming and going to head out the ex-WP Winnemucca Sub. I was already looking for an excuse to go check out a twisted spot on the map between Jungo and Antelope, NV, so away I went racing ahead of the train to go scope out some photo spots. On the way out I noted to the two sidings on the Jungo Desert were full of storage cars, with Gaskell having gons and older grain hoppers, and Jungo being full of short wells (40' & 48').
I eventually found myself to the top of a hill looking at a series of reverse curves with a distinctive hill to the north of the tracks. I wandered around in the 104 degree and climbing heat, finding a old survey marker iron rod that would have dated to the construction of the railroad. After a while I could hear the train powering up the 1% grade out of Jungo in run 8. Just as the train came into view I heard the locomotives all drop to idle and the slack of the train ramming against the locomotives. The radio soon crackles to life with the crew informing the dispatcher they went into emergency for unknown reasons. This was just the start of hours of conversations with the dispatchers, corridor managers, operations desk, locomotive desk and some others. Early on indications were that the DPU was having issues. There were a few railfans roaming the area, and one older guy in a red pickup helped the conductor go back along the train to the DPU. The conductor was very grateful to not have to make that walk in the heat. The train was configured 3x2x0 with the DPUs about 3/4 of the way back in the train. The train was 17,000+ feet long and I thought I heard 17,000 tons too, but not sure of that.
The crew and various parties were doing all manner of things trying to get that brake issues on the DPU to resolve itself. The issue seemed to be the magnetic emergency valve on the controlling DPU had dumped and would not reset. The other DPU loco wasn't equipped with DPU radios, and could not be used as a controlling DPU. Not sure that would have mattered if you could not close up the dump valve on the one DPU. Surprise that no one told the conductor to go wiggle the wires on the mag dump valve to make sure they had not come loose. All their attention seemed focused on what they could do on the computer. The diesel desk was blind since they couldn't pull a download from the suffering DPU either, which I found odd since I had great cell and data service in this very remote area (which was even more odd).

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/24 01:55 by funnelfan.

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Well done!

Chuck 

The hours passed, and I kept hoping they would get underway again. So I went and explored the rest of the pass and the environs. I found plenty of great photo angles, but without a train they were not much use. The east side of the pass is a very twisted 1% climb, but the west side is a rather straight 0.8% climb.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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As more things were tried and failed, the situation was looking bleaker. They couldn't back down the grade because of the full sidings down there, so the hope was they could get to Antelope with the just the three leaders pulling the train. I had serious doubts about that. To me, about the only sensible move would be double the hill, but there was some valid doubt about the DPU still causing problems. They would need to run the rear part of the train separate until some DPU capable power could be found.
By the time I left, the sun had set and the crews was down to 3 hours, and the air was being very slow to charge in an attempt to move the train. Hopefully they can get the situation resolved by morning or the Steam Special will be delayed. After a long hot day where the temps reached 106 degrees, the desolate beauty of the desert takes on a special magic at sunset.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Very cool, and don't forget the "So Help me Ronda" location made popular by the Beach Boys.

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/24 06:16 by callum_out.

Just another SOP day in Modern North American Railroading. But, the OR is down (Not spending money is job #1) so the stock is way over valued and everything is hunky AND dory.

Rome burns.

Regards

Posted from iPhone

Drknow Wrote:
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> Just another SOP day in Modern North American
> Railroading. But, the OR is down (Not spending
> money is job #1) so the stock is way over valued
> and everything is hunky AND dory.
>
> Rome burns.
>
> Regards
Yes, correct comment.  Eventually UP and the others will have some sort of melt down. Who Will be first?

They're already doing the death by a thousand cuts thing. Look at what each of these incidents is costing
and multiply by the 100 or so times it happens per day. And as I said in another post, they just write it off
to operating costs and find people to lay off to cover it.

Out 

bluesman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Drknow Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Just another SOP day in Modern North American
> > Railroading. But, the OR is down (Not spending
> > money is job #1) so the stock is way over
> valued
> > and everything is hunky AND dory.
> >
> > Rome burns.
> >
> > Regards

> Yes, correct comment.  Eventually UP and the
> others will have some sort of melt down. Who Will
> be first?

It will take a while. They all have piles of cash and other assets that would have tempted Willie Sutton ("Why rob banks? Because that's where the money is!")  to commit the ultimate heist back in the day. Say, back in the bad old Bankruptcy Times of the 1970s. There's a lot of reserve in that - for a while. Funny thing about that though is that when things reach a tipping point and the cash burn starts, it goes very fast. And that tipping point can have a way of creeping up on you once the thousand cuts like this incident keep multiplying.

Once Rome starts burning, it can burn very fast. But whether or not it ends up burning, there will likely be some kind of reckoning at some point. And before that, shameful performance with incidents like this.

Thanks for telling the tale, Ted, and for bearing the heat and getting the images and hearing the story. An interesting place.

MC

That last picture is amazing.

Great photos!
Regards, Jim Evans

Very interesting series and narrative! Had to be rough in the hot temps!

Larry

I've made calls on the mine up at the top of the grade at Ronda on several occasions and it can go
from 110 to minus 20 over the span of months. It's really pretty out there but it's one of those be
prepared places. Oh and some years there's a mini-lake at Jungo.

Out 

Great series.  One of my favorite places.

Over 17,000 feet?  Holy mother of trains.  Imagine having to walk that in 106 degrees!

Your 4th photo looks familiar.  Hard to get now with almost all trains being westbound, but they were running detours back in 2013.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/24 10:15 by billmeeker.

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That first location would have been great, if things had worked out.

Very Very good place to watch the steamer climbing a grade, let alone for pictures.   Wonder what the incident would of been like with a one man crew? 

I feel really bad for the train crews that have to live and work like this, with the pathetic management of UPRR.  It's unthinkable, given UP's resources.  I really feel bad for them, and wish I could put all those A/C-comforted managers onto this train and let them suffer their own bad decision making.

Case in point about the weather, same spot as #1 for the 1991 doubleheader, snowing so
hard you couldn't even see the train!

Out 

Thanks for the Jungo/Antelope story Ted. Very informative about that stalled train.
Very nice pictures of that area.

Was one of my favorite places back in the 1990's, I caught 3985 here in 1992, They did A runby right from the base of Jungo, after letting passengers out at top of that grade, they backed 3985 and did a forward power move up the hill, it was spectacular!
I have posted videos here on TO sometime back.
Plus between Jungo and Antelope is a pretty good grade show too.



Was the road between Winnemucca and Jungo still "Wasboard Vibrator"?

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/24 01:58 by RailRat.

Interesting comment on the road Jim because the road was maintained by the mine all the way
to Winnemucca and was usually in really good condition. 

Out