Passenger Trains > Only in Wisconsin

Today's Hiawatha 332 (29) took any unusual delay this morning.  At MP 63.6 on the C & M Sub, the train rolled over a deer carcass laying between the rails, causing the air hoses to part and putting the train into emergency.  332 took a 15 minute delay to put things back together and conduct an inspection, departing Sturtevant (MP 63) 18 minutes late.  CP track forces arrived about 20 minutes later and removed the errant deer's remains.

ADB

Happened to an NJT Raritan train about 2 miles from me about 15 years ago. 

This is the Borealis equipment (3 Superliners) that turns to 1333 at Chicago.  1333 was delayed 1:15 leaving Chicago this morning account "crews servicing the trainset", after a near-OT arrival of 332.  I wonder if the deer carcass had anything to do with it?

One coach was swapped to a coach-baggage. Was a snack-coach, coach and coach-baggage today. Guess there wasn't a straight coach at the ready.

often it is a herd of deer and elk, or cows

Wisconsin is the only state that has deer?

dan Wrote:
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> often it is a herd of deer and elk, or cows

I was on an eastbound Southwest Chief between Las Vegas and Raton, and we went into emergency..  After a delay, with the HEP off, the conductor and assistant conductor came through the train, a little worse for wear.  Turns out we had hit a live elk and an airhose had to be replaced.  Fortunately there wasn't serious damage.  It had to be messy under the cars.

Jim

I had read somewhere the UP or BNSF had developed an anti-deer procedure...douse the headlight and blast the horn.  The reasoning was deer see the headlight and it looks like eyes looking at them and their defense is to remain motionless.  Getting rid of the "eyes" and then the horn scares them into running.  Well, I used that procedure driving the Natchez Trace about dusk a few years ago in our motorhome.  I encountered several groups of deer that seemed frozen in place.  But when I turned off the headlights and hit the air horn, all we saw was a bunch of white tails running off into the woods.  Worked great.

Many years ago when in Mexico taking the train to Copper Canyon we hit a heard of cows. What a mess. Engine pipe air line broken. Took a few hours to repair. 

Folks sometimes ask if I ever hit  a deer in my 39 years as an engineer with BN  and BNSF.  Answer is always, "More than One". Some of us  if not at a grade crossing  or in a city,  basically out in country,  would turn headlight off and whistle,  the deer usually survive  that train.

PWM

I was riding the Sunset Limited back when it operated from Miami to Los Angeles.  We were rolling through the swamps east of New Orleans when the train made an emergency stop.  This was my first trip using a scanner, and it paid for itself as I listened to the conversation between crew members.  "What did we hit?"  "Wild boar".  They discussed locating which air hose had been knocked loose.  A few minutes later: "Are there alligators out here?" "Yeeup".  A. minute later.  "Snakes?"  "Yep". Poisonous?"  "Yep".   A few minutes later: "We're all set."  "Amtrak 1, highball".  

steve4031 Wrote:
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> I was riding the Sunset Limited back when it
> operated from Miami to Los Angeles.  We were
> rolling through the swamps east of New Orleans
> when the train made an emergency stop.  This was
> my first trip using a scanner, and it paid for
> itself as I listened to the conversation between
> crew members.  "What did we hit?"  "Wild boar".
>  They discussed locating which air hose had been
> knocked loose.  A few minutes later: "Are there
> alligators out here?" "Yeeup".  A. minute later.
>  "Snakes?"  "Yep". Poisonous?"  "Yep".   A few
> minutes later: "We're all set."  "Amtrak 1,
> highball".  

That's crazy!

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