New personal best

[Hawghead]

IG3SE 13
OX591 (Hermiston Or.) to OP500 (Portland Or.) 

13,100'  3x2 midtrain DPU.

Had to setout 3'100' at Portland because the BNSF won't take anything over 10,000' (wussies  )

Scott

[Jbub]

How many cars in the 2.4 mile long train? Just hope you don't get a hot box at axle one zero zero zero

[Hawghead]

How many cars in the 2.4 mile long train? Just hope you don't get a hot box at axle one zero zero zero

191 double stack container cars, 588 axles.  Depending where it could happen, having to walk that train could be a nightmare.  That's why it's good to be the engineer. 

Scott

[C855B]

Good for you.

Hate to be stuck at a grade crossing waiting for you to pass at restricted speed, however, since there are so many conditions mandating that. Not really fond of UP's pushing the limits of the technology and public tolerance like this. It's somewhat like the airlines packing every seat in every plane - no tolerance for failure, the whole house of cards comes crashing down at the slightest glitch. Airhoses break, knuckles bust, motors go offline unexpectedly. Yes, overall it's a damnsight more reliable than even 20 years ago, but with that reliability comes a certain complacency.

NS has a daily ~10,000' intermodal through here, and despite being the inveterate railfan I am, even I will go the two miles out of my way to use the overpass since there is a 10mph curve around the junction. Don't have all day, ya'know. 

(Last year the NS train busted a hose and dynamited going through the interlocking. Took nearly five hours to get it going again by the time mechanical showed-up to fix it, having blocked three RR's mainlines the entire time. Four if you include stabbing two Amtraks.)

[Hawghead]

Good for you.

Hate to be stuck at a grade crossing waiting for you to pass at restricted speed, however, since there are so many conditions mandating that. Not really fond of UP's pushing the limits of the technology and public tolerance like this. It's somewhat like the airlines packing every seat in every plane - no tolerance for failure, the whole house of cards comes crashing down at the slightest glitch. Airhoses break, knuckles bust, motors go offline unexpectedly. Yes, overall it's a damnsight more reliable than even 20 years ago, but with that reliability comes a certain complacency.

NS has a daily ~10,000' intermodal through here, and despite being the inveterate railfan I am, even I will go the two miles out of my way to use the overpass since there is a 10mph curve around the junction. Don't have all day, ya'know. 

(Last year the NS train busted a hose and dynamited going through the interlocking. Took nearly five hours to get it going again by the time mechanical showed-up to fix it, having blocked three RR's mainlines the entire time. Four if you include stabbing two Amtraks.)

Oh trust me it's getting bad in Portland.

Had three crossings blocked for more than an hour making the setout, railroad doesn't care.  When we pulled the cut over the last crossing to let traffic through before shoving the cut into the siding, guess what was waiting to get through...you guessed it, an ambulance.

All intermodel traffic now comes into and out of Brooklyn yard in Portland and we're now running Z trains in and out of Brooklyn at 8-9,000'.  That's a triple over that blocks three crossings for an hour or more and during morning rush hour.  Then to add insult to injury, about 3 miles north of Brooklyn yard the train goes through what we call the "alley" which is two tracks that run between rows of buildings on either side and across 9 street crossings.  Just as you get your head end over the last crossing, you come off the Brooklyn sub and onto the Graham Line.  That connection is a wye that the two legs connecting the Graham Line with the Portland and Brooklyn subs are 6mph curves. 

People wind up crossing through the trains, and while no one has been killed yet some have been seriously hurt.  One guy lost a foot when, while crossing through, slipped and got his foot between two knuckles just as the train started to pull.  I and others have been ordered by railroad management to move a train when we know there are people crossing through.  To my knowledge no one has ever obeyed those orders but it lets you know just how much the railroads care about public safety.

There have been several articles in the Portland news papers concerning this problem.  Unfortunately there is little the city can do to prevent these kinds of things from happening.

Scott

[Maletrain]

"Unfortunately there is little the city can do to prevent these kinds of things from happening."

This whole situation sounds like it is pushing people to the point that they might start doing things illegally to obstruct trains.  Which would be another bad idea.  Too bad the railroads aren't being a little more considerate.

[Missaberoad]

What was your tonnage? We have the occasional train that long out here, but they try to keep 10grand as the upper limit... Of course winter will shorten things up for us shortly...

CN is another story all together they run some long trains...

[Englewood]

I've doubled over a few 14,000 footers at the yard these past few weeks. We sent one out a few weeks ago that was 6+1, with the DP on the rear. The paperwork said it was wrong, but the manager said send it out anyway. Two days to travel 220 miles because they had so many problems with it. This whole 2020 thing is quite amusing to watch, except for all the guys losing their jobs.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Have you guys read this about all this mess?
https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2019/09/17/special-report-how-csx-is-changing-the-rules-of.html?ana=yahoo&yptr=yahoo

[Jbub]

Have you guys read this about all this mess?
https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2019/09/17/special-report-how-csx-is-changing-the-rules-of.html?ana=yahoo&yptr=yahoo

Long article but damn it paints an ugly picture of modern railroading and pins it right on EHH.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Long article but damn it paints an ugly picture of modern railroading and pins it right on EHH.

As well it should. He was a cancerous growth on railroading that is setting back 30 years of progress and improvement.

[narrowminded]

You may order a pepperoni pizza but you will like the anchovies and chicken liver pizza, whether warm, blistering, or stone cold, that we deliver when that's what is most convenient and advantageous to us.  Remember, we have moved on to a service economy.

[prr7161]

Have you guys read this about all this mess?
https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2019/09/17/special-report-how-csx-is-changing-the-rules-of.html?ana=yahoo&yptr=yahoo

It's a takedown alright.  I had to laugh at the "let's invent metrics to hide our problems" part...

[nkalanaga]

Concerning EHH and his ideas, it's interesting that BNSF is basically ignoring them.  They're also the only major railroad NOT beholden to Wall Street investors, who want maximum profits NOW, never mind the future. 

[Hawghead]

What was your tonnage? We have the occasional train that long out here, but they try to keep 10grand as the upper limit... Of course winter will shorten things up for us shortly...
CN is another story all together they run some long trains...

Tonnage was only just over 11,000.  Stack trains for the most part are fairly low in tonnage per foot.

It's a takedown alright.  I had to laugh at the "let's invent metrics to hide our problems" part...

That's another big problem.  The only data is from the railroads themselves and they make up the numbers as they go along.  Dwell was cited in the article as one of the metric the railroad use to show how quickly they are moving cars.  Well every yard or terminal where dwell is measured has a location before and beyond the terminal where the dwell "counter" starts and ends.  When dwell numbers start to get high, the dispatchers just hold trains outside the starting location and trains are "staged" outside the ending location, where they will sit for hours before actually arriving in the terminal or departing over the road.  Another is deadheading crews from one terminal to another, then having them dogcatch a train enroute so they don't have to show the dead train as being re-crewed.  The railroads have gotten very good at Enron like accounting.

I've doubled over a few 14,000 footers at the yard these past few weeks. We sent one out a few weeks ago that was 6+1, with the DP on the rear. The paperwork said it was wrong, but the manager said send it out anyway. Two days to travel 220 miles because they had so many problems with it. This whole 2020 thing is quite amusing to watch, except for all the guys losing their jobs.

At 14,000', I'm surprised they even were able to get the DPU to link.  We use a 7,500' rule between the head end and the controlling DPU, not because the company wants to, but even they have learned that if you have more than that, the train's not going anywhere without constant problems

Scott


Contract negotiations will be starting soon between labor and the railroads, and while the railroads have spent the last few years extolling their lower operating ratios, increased investor profits and better customer service, you can bet they will cry poverty when it comes to wages and health care.

Scott