Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS KY desk problems yesterday

Milepost/Diesel Unit Ratings are based on a 2008 Central Division Timetable.
As I understand it the 3615 and 1099 would be Class 6 units rated at 4010 tons, and the 9571 a Class 5 at 3400 tons.  Not sure how a unit in DPU affects the calculations.....

Yesterday morning ~ 0945 EDT NS 178 (3615, 9571 up front) (13500 tons based on radio comms) lost their mid train DPU (1099) while going through tunnels 24 & 22, stalling out at MP 243.8. The railroad is single tracked between Coleman (MP 249.0) and CW Tower (MP 244.2). Normally 178 has run with 2 DPU, but today only had one.

Plan A was for 171 to tie down their train at Lancing (MP 241.5), and cut away the lead unit to go down to 178 and pull them up the hill, long hood forward, all the way to Robbins (MP 221.9). No sooner had 171 tied down and cut away, they were told to couple back onto and untie their train, due to Plan B.

Plan B was that NS 174 at Coleman would tie down and cut away to push 178 up the hill..... That was a very short lived plan (possibly due to 174 tonnage?), which after maybe 10 minutes resulted in a return to Plan A.

Plan A was carried out (I'm sure 171 conductor was happy about tying down a 2nd time), with no success. 171 uncoupled from 178 and stood by to assist without returning to their train.

Plan C was that 178 conductor would walk back to the DPU in the tunnel and attempt to run it manually. That was another short lived plan.

Plan D was that 178 would back down the hill until the DPU cleared Tunnel 22, in the hope that they'd be able to reestablish a link with it. If that failed, they would back all the way down to Coleman, where 174 would protect the crossing. At Coleman, 55V would couple on to the rear of 178 and shove them up the hill to Robbins. This is the course that was eventually taken, with 55V shoving 178 as far as Andy Cooper Rd (~MP 238.5), where the DPU was stopped at the crossing for Mechanical to work on the DPU. This was successful.......

However, while 178 was being pushed up the hill by 55V, 174 called in to report that the lead motor was on fire. 55V was required to go back down and had to give their leader away to 174 once the fire department had put out the fire. 55V left their lead motor at North Oakdale, then proceeded back down to their train at Oakdale.

178 ended up stopping at Sunbright (MP 231.4) on Main 2 about 1545 to wait for a recrew. Six hours to go about 15 miles.

Based on my observations of 178, I counted 145 cars.  65 cars were ahead of the DPU, of which ~ 30 were loads.  Of the 80 behind the DPU ~ 65 appeared to be loads.  My estimates on these numbers are based on the springs on the trucks.  I certainly have to question the logic of having most of the loads behind the DPU, but I'm just a railfan, so what do I know.....

The KY dispatcher sounded like he handled the situation as well as it could have been.
Dan

Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.

Dan, Always like a detailed operations report on an area of the NS that I am familiar with.
Thanks for the detailed post Dan!!!

Attached is Diesel Unit Ratings for that line segment as of 3/15/2018
NSSpike

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/20 06:41 by NSSpike.

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It's bad on CSX 64 corridor....washouts and trees down somwhere around Alderson, WV....I've been first out for 36 hours and only now are things starting to move....maybe....

The thing NS forgets and its in the rule book, Your supposed to have only Group 6 engines to count them as group 6s, 2 Group 6s and a Group 5 is supposed to be counted as 3 Group 5s. What happens when you get slow the Group 5 slips and then the Group 6 will end up lunging with the change in forces and usually a knuckle gets ripped in half

You're going to have to point that one out in the rulebook for me.

NSDTK Wrote:
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> The thing NS forgets and its in the rule book,
> Your supposed to have only Group 6 engines to
> count them as group 6s, 2 Group 6s and a Group 5
> is supposed to be counted as 3 Group 5s. What
> happens when you get slow the Group 5 slips and
> then the Group 6 will end up lunging with the
> change in forces and usually a knuckle gets ripped
> in half

Posted from Android

Phil,
Glad to supply it.  My four year old was a bit disappointed in the lack of trains though.
Thank you for the updated diesel unit ratings.

Dan