About the Author J. D. Santucci (a.k.a. "Tuch") began his railroading career in 1978 as a trainman on the Missouri Pacific. After a round of lay-offs in 1985, Tuch embarked on a railroad odyssey, working in many different situations for different roads. This column tries to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the job and also demonstrates what we have to deal with on a regular basis within and without the industry. Tuch currently works through freights out of Chicago for Canadian National/Illinois Central. ©1999, 2003-2007 JD Santucci. Logo ©2002 The Railroad Network. By J.D. Santucci

January 19, 2005
A reader recently wrote me asking about the effects of snow and cold weather on railroading. Being that I haven’t done a wintertime railroading column in a while and also being there has been some huge snowfalls in portions of the country already, I guess the time is right to delve into this topic yet again. So today we are going to deal primarily with snow. Usually a little bit of snow or some colder weather doesn’t pose much of a threat to railroading, when we begin to get some accumulation of that powdery white stuff and/or we get hit with some severely cold weather, even the best plans can get wiped from the slate.

Recently here in the Midwest there has been several huge snow storms. About 15-20 miles east of me here in Northwest Indiana, that great snow machine known as Lake Michigan kicked production into high gear. Who gets hit with the most is dictated by which direction the wind is blowing. With the first two major storms to occur here, the wind was enough out of the northwest to keep the worst of the snow from hitting my area. We did get about 3-4 inches here in Schererville though. Now just a few miles west of me in Dyer, they got very little and eight miles west of here at the Indiana/Illinois state line it was barely a dusting. Those folks 15-20 miles east of me however got nearly two feet of snow in the first storm.

One of the fallacies of wintertime is that line of it being “too cold to snow.” From first hand experience I can tell you that is a myth. I used to have to drive directly through the heart of the southern Lake Michigan snow belt to reach Michigan City, IN and my job at the South Shore. When it was bitter cold, ten above zero and colder and there was any kind of wind coming south across that big pond, there was snow. The water was drawn from the lake into the cloud cover in the atmosphere overhead. The lake is not usually frozen and normally the water is warmer than the cold air above it. These conditions feed the snow machine and when the now saturated clouds hit land, the snow begins to fall. Depending upon exactly which direction the wind was coming from determines the western edge of the storm. Sometimes I encountered snow in Griffith, IN where I lived at that time. Other times I might go as far east as Portage before hitting snow.

I was working one particular assignment at the South Shore that allowed me to ride together with my buddy “Cabbie.” We would meet at a restaurant along I-80/94, have a quick bite of breakies and then head east to Michigan City to report to work. On more than a few of those mornings it was to our benefit to have two people in the car. The passenger became the navigator as the snow was falling so fast and furious. More than once when I was the navigator, I had to actually open my door and look down at the road to determine that we were still on the roadway and not the shoulder. We were probably out of our minds to make the journey under such extreme conditions, but we were younger and dumber then. Now though, we’re just older. But alas, we always made it and somehow on time too.

The South Shore equipped four of their GP38-2 locomotives (the 2000-2003) with snowplows. When the snowfall was heavy, the Shore would operate snowplow moves using a pair of the Geeps, one facing each direction. These moves would go and plow the snow from the tracks. The MU electric passenger cars did not have plows of any type. They were also not designed to be plowing heavy snow and could conceivably derail from excessive snow pack.

Snow, as I have mentioned in previous columns, presents all sorts of problems for railroading. We have several rock cuts on the Gilman Line and when the snow gets deep enough in those cuts, CN has to operate a plow train. We have several wedge style plows that are holdovers from IC days. They are gondolas or hoppers converted into plows. A wedge plow is mounted on one end of the car with the interior of the car filled with ballast for weight. There is a headlight on the plow end mounted above the plow itself. This is powered through an MU (multiple unit) connection with the locomotive coupled to it. The plow is pushed, usually by two or more locomotives coupled to it.

Using this style or a Russell Plow to clear snow from the track can become a hazardous situation. In the offices at Waterloo there are photos on the walls depicting just what can go wrong sometimes when plowing snow. There were six, count ‘em, six GP style units shoving one of the ICG’s homebuilt wedge plows after a massive snowstorm in Iowa. This plow train hit an immoveable bank of snow and ice in excess of 40 MPH. The plow was crushed and five of the six locomotives wound up on their sides.

In my Wisconsin Central days, a plow train using a Russell Plow was being operated on the Shawano (pronounced SHAH-no) Sub in the winter of 88-89. In Black Creek, WI, a tractor/trailer pulled out onto the crossing in front of the rapidly approaching plow train. When all was said and done, the trailer lie in two separate pieces as the plow train cut it in half. Fortunately for the plow train crew, the trailer was empty. A fellow employee commented that “This was one way to cut the competition.” Nobody on the plow train was injured and I believe the trucker did not receive any serious injuries.

Ice can and does form on the rails, particularly at crossings after the salt shakers and snowplows from the local highway departments and municipalities have come through. This stuff will freeze up quickly if the temperatures are cold enough. I’ve heard plenty of stories of snowplows derailing at road crossings.

In my WC days, we were the first train through to Chicago after a big snowfall one afternoon. The plows and salt shakers had been working the roads that crossed our line for hours before we came along. There was a considerable amount of snow plowed up onto the rails at the road crossings and the temperature was quite cold. This stuff was quickly freezing and freezing up quite solid. So here we come at 50 MPH approaching a crossing where the snow is piled high from the plows. I blasted through the pile and it looked like it had exploded. We usually make comments when such an occurrence takes place as it is fun to blast through the snow and watch it go sailing in every direction.

At one particular crossing there was a car stopped, patiently waiting for us to pass. This guy was parked fairly close to the track with the hood of his car sitting underneath the gate. When we blasted through the pile of plowed snow, it went flying everywhere as we expected. Some of it nailed this car again, just as we expected. We thought nothing of it until later when we got a call on the radio from the Dispatcher telling of some damage we caused to an automobile at a crossing. We had to contact the Claim Agent upon our arrival at Schiller Park and discuss the situation with him.

We then learned that when be broke through the snow bank (really pretty much an ice bank by this time); we had sent large chunks of ice and snow in every direction, just like normal. However, there was one rather large chunk that came crashing down and nailed the windshield of a car; in this case, the car that had parked his nose under the gate. The unscheduled landing of this large ice chunk produced a large crack in this motorist’s windshield. He was upset and contacted the railroad about the episode. He felt that we did this intentionally and then “drove off without stopping.”

Well ya, we did intentionally hit the snow/ice pile at the crossing. What did he expect us to do, stop, get out and chop it up with shovels and picks? As for the not stopping part, we didn’t stop because for one thing, we were not aware of his windshield getting broken. For another, we are not required to stop after we plow through snow and ice at crossings. Of course, anybody that stops that close to a crossing, particularly when there is snow and ice all piled up at such a location is almost begging for something bad to occur.

The snow and ice that builds up at a crossing can cause damage and problems for the railroads too. In my first winter on the railroad my assignment was involved in a derailment at a crossing. I was working a transfer job that was about to pull a train out of the Belt Railway of Chicago’s Clearing Yard in Bedford Park, IL. This was that infamous winter of 78-79 when we had the record snowfalls and sub zero weather. We were shoving our caboose towards the east departure yard at the Clearing. As it would happen, we had the Vice President of the Eastern District with us. He had been assigned to Clearing Yard in an attempt to facilitate and expedite the movement of MoPac trains in and out of the this horribly congested yard. He was on the caboose with the Conductor and Flagman and I was up on the engine with the Engineer.

While shoving back into the east departure yard we engaged in a conversation of some sort. All of a sudden the Engineer says “Oh sh*t” and quickly dumps the air. We stopped quickly and he tells me to come over and take a look. When I peered out his back window I could see the side of our caboose and we were on nice tangent track. This friends, is never a good sign. The Conductor, Flagman and Vice President were all okay, just a bit surprised by the event. The cause of the derailment was a build up of ice on a crossing in the yard. The caboose being fairly light, about 25 or so tons rode up over the ice and just climbed right off the rails at this crossing. Even though we were going slowly, only about 8 or 10 MPH, it didn’t take long for the caboose to turn away from the rails. All that snow and ice built up all around the right of way worked as a guide way to turn the caboose.

Being that this was a no fault sort of event, we never even filled out accident reports on the episode. I guess it was also good that we had the VP riding with us to see first hand what had transpired. We never heard a word about this little event despite the fact that the caboose was damaged. With all that snow piled up all around us, I guess it was quite easy to cover this one up.

Plowing snow, particularly when there is a fair amount, will cause that snow to rise above the front of the locomotive. I have plowed through deep enough snow to have it create white out conditions immediately in front of me. All that snow has to go somewhere when being hit at any appreciable speeds. Some of that snow will land in the flutes of the whistle. This will often plug up the whistle as a result. Normally when blasting through snow like this I will immediately begin to sound the whistle. By doing so, it helps blow that snow right out before it can pack into the flutes. When they fill up with snow, they clog it all up and may cause the whistle to fail. In some cases, it will cause the whistle to freeze up completely.

When the whistle plugs up, you can use a lighted fusee (flare) to melt out the snow pack. However you need to be careful as you may sometimes melt the diaphragm inside and then the whistle (or at least that flute in which the diaphragm had been melted) is of no use.

Sometimes the snow gets sucked in by the air intakes located right behind the cab on EMD built locomotives. The result of this event will send snow right to the traction motors as it goes into the ductwork that forces air to the traction motors to cool them. This snow, which as we all know is nothing more than frozen water, gets ingested by the traction motors. I’m sure you are all fully aware of what happens when water and electricity mix. The motor will then ground out and you now have a high voltage ground which kicks the ground relay. In much simpler terms, the traction motor or motors affected are now toast, and not the kind that you eat with butter and jelly.

Some railroads, particularly those that operate exclusively in the northern climates will mount snow shields above the air intakes on their EMD locomotives in the attempt to prevent the ingestion of snow. It does work pretty well.

Another problem with all that snow flying up over the front of the locomotive having it pile up on the front said locomotive. I’ve had it pile up two or three feet high on the nose, pile up on the catwalk right below my front window, high enough to begin to impede my vision and also in front of the front cab door. We’ve had it pile up enough that we cannot get the front cab door open. And in some cases, that snow will swirl around and pile up against the rear cab door as well. I’ve never had it occur to me, but I know plenty of guys that have had to have somebody come and dig them out of the cab as the result of all that snow piled up against the doors from all that plowing.

The snow will also pile up on the headlight mount as well. I’ve had to actually stop the train and go out and clear off the snow from in front of the headlight as it piled so tightly against it that even the heat from those twin sealed beams would not melt it all off.

And of course, all that snow on the ground fills up the switches as well. In some cases it just piles up everywhere rendering the operation next to impossible. Some railroads are smart enough to equip their locomotives with such handy utensils as switch brooms, shovels and picks. Others will apply such hardware to some, but not all of their locomotives. Still others will consider it a gift worth millions to even give you one single switch broom. You would think these things cost hundreds of thousands of dollars based on the way the managers will act when you request the badly needed broom.

One winter in my MoPac days we had a huge storm come blasting through the Chicago area. I was working a train into Clearing Yard. The BRC had a rule that the crews of the trains would sweep out the switches they needed to use. The BRC had a jet blower to blast everything out initially, but any of the lighter stuff that built up would be left to the crews using the switches to clear out before operating the switches. No big whoop.

“You know, just sit around and drink coffee and talk, no big whoop.”

Well I roll the train to a stop at the first switch leading into the east receiving yard. There is at least a foot of snow on top of the rail. Everything was buried and you could not even see the switch stands or even the reflective banners on them as they were completely covered with snow. The jet blower has not been through here at all and it had been snowing for hours. The Brakeman, a big Irish kid looks at me and informs me that this may take awhile. He grabs the broom, the only snow fighting piece of hardware issued to us and heads out the door. After about ten or fifteen minutes he comes back into the cab stating that the snow it too deep, too wet and now too frozen to clear with merely a switch broom. He uttered some well chosen words that I will not repeat here in our little family forum with regards to the Belt’s switch sweeping policy. To paraphrase it though; he did make reference to a portion of the anatomy on the managers of the Belt where the policy could be inserted and done so in a horizontal manner. Yes, he was just a wee bit upset.

He then went back out and made a second attempt. He managed to successfully break the handle of the broom, thus concluding this venture. The destruction of his only snow fighting tool really brought his Irish out and he came back into the cab now making references to fatherless children, mothers of loose manner, sexual acts that Belt management could perform and the like. Yes kids, he was now officially furious.

He then went back out and walked over the East Sub office, which was in very close proximity. He was going to contact the East Yardmaster on the phone to explain our dilemma. I suggested that he walk around for a bit to cool off first. I didn’t think the Yardmaster would want to get an earful of the Brakeman’s Irish temper when he answered the phone. I was then told that the Yardmaster could join the rest of the Belt management in sexual activities. My my my, and you kiss your mother goodnight with that mouth?

After a bit of time he came out of the sub office and told me the Trainmaster was en route to assess the situation. What is there to assess? The snow is deep, heavy, wet and now starting to freeze. And we have no tools in which to combat the problem. He told me of attempting to explain this all to the Trainmaster on the phone to no avail. He went on to mention the Trainmaster’s use of vocabulary made his outburst sound like a preacher’s wife.

I decided to step out and take an up close and personal look. The snow was above my knees as I stood in it. No simple switch broom was going to clear this out.

The Trainmaster arrives, immediately boards the engine and begins to read us the riot act. I love those folks that shoot first, doing so from the hip and then asking any and all questions later. This is a specialty of railroad management. He then starts giving us the first degree about not having any shovels or other hardware in which to mount an attack against the elements of nature. He told us he could not believe the MoPac was too cheap to give us such implements. I told him that it was quite obvious he never worked for the MoPac. With that the Trainmaster decided that he would go out and assess this situation we were supposedly whining about first hand. With this statement were threats of pulling us out of service and the like. Maybe he did work the MoPac at one time as their managers were legendary for such statements, particularly when they didn’t have any idea about what was going on, just like in this situation.

So he heads out and quickly discovers that the Irishman was not just whining about having to sweep a little snow. He gets back on the engine and starts carrying on about how he cannot believe that his section people have failed to do anything in the east receiving yard and how he’s going to fire the section foreman and blah, blah, blah. He then gets on his radio and starts yelling at the section foreman about getting his crew down to the east receiving yard immediately and why haven’t they been down here yet. We hear the foreman respond that he was instructed to make sure the switches in the hump and west receiving yard were cleared first. The Trainmaster then started screaming at this poor guy to get his boys down here ASAP as he had us stopped with an N&W coming right behind us and now nobody could go anywhere because the switches were all buried. He then trudged back over to his car and drove away.

Good riddance.

The section crew finally arrived and began to have at it. They used shovels, brooms, picks and other implements of destruction to clean out the switches. The foreman told the Irishman that the blower had broken down earlier and they were now out there cleaning everything the old fashioned way. He also went into a tirade about the Trainmaster, using many of the same references the Irishman did about his family and where he could place his attitude. He did take his observations a step further though and suggested the possibility of the Trainmaster’s mother and father actually being sister and brother and references to a semi-mountainous region from which this guy’s family might have hailed. He was no more pleased with this Trainmaster than we were.

After over an hour of digging as well as bringing in a good sized propane fired torch to help melt some of the snow and ice, they finally got the switches cleared to where we could safely use them and get our train yarded.

If nothing else, I guess we could say the industry tends to stay consistent with regards to wintertime operation. Every winter they seem genuinely surprised that winter has occurred; like this year again is the first year there ever was winter weather to occur.

Stay tuned for a second part to accompany this piece with the intent of looking at the cold weather impact on life on the high iron. So don’t touch that dial.

And now for something completely different:

I’ve been doing my Locomotive Engineer recertification the past couple of days which is one reason I’ve had the time to complete this lesson. With the completion of the final exams this morning and my physical this afternoon, I am now officially good to go for another three years or 36,000 miles; whichever comes first. My present certification actually doesn’t expire until November, but they put me through now instead of later in the year. I figure I should have three more recertifications to achieve before I retire in 2016. The latest retirement countdown shows me having 11 years, 10 months and 12 days left until I conclude my career, but who’s counting? I mean besides all the guys that follow me in seniority?

I even used some of the time away from work to enjoy life and pursue my interest in hockey. Last evening the beautiful bride and I attended the annual Chicago Wolves season ticket holder dinner. We ate, talked with fellow Wolves fans, talked with players and added some autographs to my jerseys and pucks. Yes, we had a good time. And I didn’t have to worry about getting up at 0245 this morning to go to work. I stayed up until midnight putting the finishing touches on this column and then got to sleep in until 0620 as I did not have to be at the recertification class until 0800. The class was held in the training room at Woodcrest Shops which is only a thirty minute trip from the house.

Saturday we will also be away from the grind of steel wheels on steel rails as a group of us Wolves fans hop on a bus and do a day trip to Cincinnati to see the Wolves take on the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks at the historic Cincinnati Gardens.

This gives me a three day work week this week. Man, I could easily become accustomed to this kind of lifestyle.

And so it goes.

Tuch

Hot Times on the High Iron and HTOTHI are both ©2005 by JD Santucci