Western Railroad Discussion > what happens when you throw a switch under a car?

Today, at Pacific Container Terminal in Long Beach, while a BSNF job was doubling a train togather, one of PCT's employees lined a switch under the middle unit of this three well stack car while it was stopped in order to lock the switch to prevent movement into a track being worked with this result. Apparently there is some additional training required for this individual? Too bad the track centers are a little wider than normal on these two tracks, streatching the car a little too far. It took more than three hours to get this car back up.
JB

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LOL! I've seen that on model railroad layouts, but that's the first time I've seen a photo of this happening for real.

What a catch! Our man, JB, on the spot once more.

Be safe out there!

- Kit

I've heard of this happening with a locomotive before...the offending employee was a rookie brakeman on one of his first trips, and the place was somewhere along the old Northwestern Pacific, either at Island Mountain or Fort Seward. This was many years ago, and it was night. The crew had to spot some cars in a facing point siding, and the conductor elected to do a flying drop simply because he did not have too many other options available to him. The rookie was placed at the switch with instructions to throw the switch after the power had passed over it so that the cars rolling along after the locomotives would be diverted into the siding. The brakeman got a little nervous and ended up throwing the switch between the front and rear trucks of the trailing SD-9, which tried its best to stay upright before the laws of physics took control and flipped the unit on its side. It came to rest across both the mainline and the siding. Things really got messy when the cut of cars caught up with the derailed unit...

JDLX
Elko, NV

One line answer:

Nothing good!

Cheers,

Ron

OOPS!

There was a posting on TO a couple of years ago with Baghdad Bob photoshopped in standing in front of a switch locomotive that had similarly split a switch asserting that "There is no derailment here. There is no derailment within a hundred miles of here."

There is a prototype for everything on a model railroad.

Great catch.
Wonder what the chain is for, from the well car to behind the worker. Notice the straddle crane logo says Port of Seattle, it's obviously in LA/LB Harbor.

To answer your question Re: "What happens?". S**T happens!

ddkid Wrote:

> There was a posting on TO a couple of years ago
> with Baghdad Bob photoshopped in standing in front
> of a switch locomotive that had similarly split a
> switch asserting that "There is no derailment
> here. There is no derailment within a hundred
> miles of here."


http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,235998

The chain was an attempt to get/keep the truck headed in the right direction toward the rerailing frogs. Because the car was "tweaked" so much, it was rather diffucult to rerail.
JB

ddkid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There was a posting on TO a couple of years ago
> with Baghdad Bob photoshopped in standing in front
> of a switch locomotive that had similarly split a
> switch asserting that "There is no derailment
> here. There is no derailment within a hundred
> miles of here."

http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?MMR.jpg

LOL!

We at the Napa Model RR Club acutally have named this little "Maneuver" after a club member who managed to do the same thing at the same switch on the same night FIVE separate times. Needless to say his club "term-of-endearment" nickname is "Mr. Maneuver." (-:

best regards,
Mark G.

Watched a second day brakeperson do this at Keddie on the WP in the middle of a consist. Front truck on one track, rear on another, at least for a short time, then a load snap.

Another way of accomplishing this I've seen is to stop midway through a spring switch after trailing through and then make a reverse move. That lit up the red warning light on the lead unit.

Jim