Railroaders' Nostalgia > Slip up Saturday

This photo shows what happens when switching with a lead consist and you forget to isolate the remotes.....I imagine there were more pieces of rail like this all underneath the remote consist.  This photo was taken at the ATSF Topeka training center in about 1980.

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We put out new rail on our switching lead once, and the very next day the yard engines put holes in it like that......brand new rail!

This is why remotes were VERY short lived at BNSF former Santa Fe Watson yard in Wilmington, CA.
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> This is why remotes were VERY short lived at BNSF
> former Santa Fe Watson yard in Wilmington, CA.
> JB

I think he meant that they were on a train with DPU units on the rear and they didn't isolate them before they started switching with the head end consist.
At least that's how I read it.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/21 15:18 by PHall.

It doesn't just happen with DP units as I know a helper crew who managed to do the same thing at McCredie Springs, OR, they were so "out of it". 

I know of an instance that happened in UP's East Yard when it had a hump. Engineer was shoving a cut over the crest at 1-2 MPH and fell asleep. Train stalled and wheels kept turning until there were 8 perfect crescents carved into the rail. No, I won't name names.

trainjunkie Wrote:
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> I know of an instance that happened in UP's East
> Yard when it had a hump. Engineer was shoving a
> cut over the crest at 1-2 MPH and fell asleep.
> Train stalled and wheels kept turning until there
> were 8 perfect crescents carved into the rail. No,
> I won't name names.

Bet that made him popular with the Yard Master and the Road Master.

I know of at least one occurrence of this happening on the Southern in the late 60's or early 70's.  The hotttest freight on the Southern - First 153- stopped at Charlotte NC to pick up.  The power was all SD45's in a 3 X 1 Locotrol radio setup.  The slave SD45 was not isolated and had sufficent tonnage behind and ahead of it to keep it still while the head three SD45's picked up.  The slave's spinning wheels melted the rail as shown in the pic.  It was discovered before the train pulled.  The Locotrol boxes of my day had an added slave wheel slip alarm. to alert you of slips and slides on the slave, but perhaps not sychronous slips as probably happened that day.  In other similar occasions with lighter tonnage coupled, the not -isolated slave moved the cut some trying to mimic what the head end power was doing.

Imagine the stench.
(I have worked in a machine shop)
...Lorenzo

When I was in the training program, I was on the Emporia-Ark City local for a couple of weeks. The engineer always let me run both ways, thats how you learn. I was dead-ass tired, could hardly keep my eyes open. It was just me and the brakeman, the engineer was riding the 2nd unit. The DS called and told us to hold back at Custer Ave at Augusta, because he had an eastbound on the Douglas Sub, and we'd be there for a while. Perfect I thought! I could crank the seat back, put my feet up on the heater and get some shut-eye, I needed it. I'd just got comfortable, almost asleep, and the engineer came in the back door, quietly reminding me I was still in R-1. From that moment on, I never stopped anywhere, no matter how long, without centering the reverser so that couldn't happen again when nobody was watching me.

Posted from Android

LocoPilot750 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When I was in the training program, I was on the
> Emporia-Ark City local for a couple of weeks. The
> engineer always let me run both ways, thats how
> you learn. I was dead-ass tired, could hardly keep
> my eyes open. It was just me and the brakeman, the
> engineer was riding the 2nd unit. The DS called
> and told us to hold back at Custer Ave at Augusta,
> because he had an eastbound on the Douglas Sub,
> and we'd be there for a while. Perfect I thought!
> I could crank the seat back, put my feet up on the
> heater and get some shut-eye, I needed it. I'd
> just got comfortable, almost asleep, and the
> engineer came in the back door, quietly reminding
> me I was still in R-1. From that moment on, I
> never stopped anywhere, no matter how long,
> without centering the reverser so that couldn't
> happen again when nobody was watching me.
>
> Posted from Android

Leaving the throttle engaged.....easy enought mistake to make.....forgetting to turn headlights back on....there's another....

I was guilty of both, leaving the throttle in #1 and forgetting to turn the headligh backk on.
I solved that by every time I stopped throttle in ile, center reverser, and turn off the generator field. The headliight, I took a paper towel when I first got on the engine, wrote "OFF" in big letters, tore a hole in it, and would hang it on the throttle when I stopped. That worked.

Be safe.

Sam