600-million-herd-iron-horses-pasture-salt-lake-city-union-pacific-locomotives-ra

[John]

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/4/26/21230692/why-600-million-herd-iron-horses-pasture-salt-lake-city-union-pacific-locomotives-railroad

[Jbub]

I drive by this all the time. I've been wanting to take some pictures of it but I've been way too busy to do any railfanning. It's quite interesting to see a line of loco's longer than some of the stack trains that come through here. I figured that all the loco's had to do something with PSR but that article confirmed it. My favorite line was this “The railroads want to go to one-man crews,” he said, deepening the plunge in morale. “It’s probably at an all-time low,” he said. “There’s a reason why Money Inc. rated Union Pacific as the worst place to work in the country.” Ouch!!

Jason

[wazzou]

i can't even imagine the boredom that would be felt being the lone man in a train in the middle of nowhere.
Not to mention the obvious issues that could arise from a health issue without another qualified crew member aboard.

[nkalanaga]

Or, as BNSF CEO said a couple years ago, when the topic came up, what happens if you break a knuckle in the middle of nowhere?  One person, walking maybe two miles, one way, dodging rattlesnakes, carrying a big chunk of metal?  Or does he just sit there, blocking the track, until a mechanic comes out, who, in some places they serve, might have to helicoptered in?

According to him, one-person crews are fine for switching, where it can be done by remote control anyway, or for a commuter train, which is never far from help, but not for a mainline freight in the remote areas of the West.  At the time, he said BNSF wasn't considering it, didn't plan to consider it, and Warren Buffett hadn't suggested it.

[C855B]

They brought the media attention on themselves by parking all the idled iron in the middle of a big city for everyone and their brother to see. UP "in the good ol' days" was smarter than that. During the big business downturn in the late '70s the storage site of choice was Yermo, CA, east of Barstow. Miles' worth of DDs and "spare" 2nd-gen power stored there. Yermo was and is off the beaten track and then some, so little risk of accidental prying eyes. Plenty of minimally-used yard tracks available, and the desert climate means less deterioration.

[nkalanaga]

And less potential vandalism.

[pjm20]

And less potential vandalism.

Unfortunately that doesn't happen at Yermo.

[John]

i can't even imagine the boredom that would be felt being the lone man in a train in the middle of nowhere.
Not to mention the obvious issues that could arise from a health issue without another qualified crew member aboard.

Positive Train Control will fix all that ..  and the engineer could be at UP central driving the train from a computer .. you would just need the conductor .. 

[C855B]

And less potential vandalism.

Well, as @pjm20 noted (...good point!...), not exactly. Yermo is on the edge of an exurban area with a high proportion of a demographic steeped in tagging. This may have been factored into the decision to store in SLC - dry(ish) climate if you exclude the snow, a regional culture of personal discipline and respect.

Frankly, if traffic is down that much, there's certainly going to be unused capacity in North Platte, so why not store there? Certainly is a town close with, friendly to and dependent on the RR. When UP sneezes, North Platte catches a cold. Plus when (if) it's time to reactivate, their major shop is there. I'm sure the army of MBAs UP employs considered all of this.

[Jbub]

Well, as @pjm20 noted (...good point!...), not exactly. Yermo is on the edge of an exurban area with a high proportion of a demographic steeped in tagging. This may have been factored into the decision to store in SLC - dry(ish) climate if you exclude the snow, a regional culture of personal discipline and respect.

Frankly, if traffic is down that much, there's certainly going to be unused capacity in North Platte, so why not store there? Certainly is a town close with, friendly to and dependent on the RR. When UP sneezes, North Platte catches a cold. Plus when (if) it's time to reactivate, their major shop is there. I'm sure the army of MBAs UP employs considered all of this.

There's a lot of rail traffic where these are parked. UP employees are always present which might help in keeping tagging down. There is one 70m with a nice big tag on the long hood and they haven't done anything about it.  As far as "respect and self discipline" goes, there's plenty of people here who don't give a damn and I'm always painting over their "artwork"

[nkalanaga]

John:  why would you need a conductor?  The paperwork could be in a box in the cab, for whoever gets the train at the other end, or transmitted electronically.  Other than that, there wouldn't be anything for the conductor to do.  He isn't allowed to run the train.

[John]

John:  why would you need a conductor?  The paperwork could be in a box in the cab, for whoever gets the train at the other end, or transmitted electronically.  Other than that, there wouldn't be anything for the conductor to do.  He isn't allowed to run the train.

I doubt they will have unmanned trains any time soon .. I suppose they could have a "strike team" to check them out when there is a problem

[pjm20]

There's a lot of rail traffic where these are parked. UP employees are always present which might help in keeping tagging down. There is one 70m with a nice big tag on the long hood and they haven't done anything about it.  As far as "respect and self discipline" goes, there's plenty of people here who don't give a damn and I'm always painting over their "artwork"

What helps and doesn't help the Barstow-Yermo area is that they are military towns. Plenty of full ABCTs getting off loaded at Yermo for NTC rotations at Irwin, so there is a high military presence. At the same time, military presence usually attracts the less desirable aspects of society...

[nkalanaga]

John:  I doubt it too.  And, I agree with the BNSF boss.  Especially in the remoter areas of the West, a train almost has to have at least two people, for the safety of the crew.  They'll either keep running with two people, or go totally automated, and AI isn't that good yet.  Yard, industrial, or other "captive" service, maybe, but not the mainline.

[John]

Yard, industrial, or other "captive" service, maybe, but not the mainline.

Although -- if there was an industry that could go to crewless -- railroading is probably a good candidate -- on some routes -- the transcon mainlines where maintenance is better  .. yards as well .. you would need to have PTC in place, extra sensors at grade crossings, more grade separation ...





 considering we can drop a bomb down someone's chimney in AFG from a drone controlled from Nevada ..