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 31 , 2007
Before we dive into today’s lesson there are a few items that I need to address. First off, I’m a little late for getting this edition out (as if you hadn’t already noticed). It has been an eventful month. To begin with I spent several days in New Orleans during the week of the 5th. I went with a group from my church, St. John the Evangelist in St. John, IN. We went to assist with the clean up from Hurricane Katrina. Contrary to what you may have been led to believe by some in the media or in politics, the place is not back to normal, it’s not even close. There is an incredible amount of work to be done. We spent three days completely gutting a house and making it ready for the next phase, mold remediation. While it was some of the hardest work I’ve done in a long time, it was several of the best days of my life.

If your church or any organization that you might be affiliated with is talking about a trip to the Gulf Coast for clean up or other services in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, by all means go. Make that GO! There is a tremendous amount of work still to be done. It will be years before things are really back to normal there. These folks need all the help they can get and one thing is for certain, both their state and the federal government have really let them down. Believe me, the folks in New Orleans and throughout the Gulf Coast truly appreciate the people that are coming to assist them.

We were coordinated through Catholic Charities of New Orleans and that is one of several organizations that are lending a hand to get clean up work completed and homes ready for rebuilding. If you have some free time, I strongly urge you to take part and lend a helping hand. They need more than just cash contributions, although they will accept them too as the tools and equipment they are using do cost money.

On the morning we were preparing to depart for home after our last night there, I was informed of the passing of my mother. I learned this fact at about 5 am while I was gassing up one of our vans as we were getting ready to embark on the 911 mile journey home. Mom was in pretty good health not even taking any kind of prescription meds, so this was a huge shock. So once I returned home it was planning for the services and taking care of other business, and then of course, the services themselves.

The good news is that my arm held up quite well in New Orleans. I worked it hard with no problems and no difficulties, so I guess the doctor that performed the surgery did indeed know his stuff. Not that I had any doubts, but Mom sure did. Before I departed for the Gulf Coast she kept reminding me to be careful and to protect my arm. She was Mom right up to the end.

We’re also planning a birthday party for the wonderful baby too. She will turn one on Super Bowl Sunday. Can you believe it, she is one already. Isn’t it nice that they’re going to play a special football game in her honor?

And to finally top it all off, the disk I was originally using to write this piece broke trapping this and several other works on that disk. Thus, I had to start from scratch to get this one written. “It’s always something!”

And now on with the show.

Wintertime has made its official arrival for this year doing so right on schedule in December. Prior to being official as based upon the calendar, we had a serious blast of rather cold air come roaring through the Midwestern portion of the US in early November. Then it got really warm and we even had some 70 plus degree days in December. Go figure. Now it is January and we are finally getting real winter weather with some consistency; snow, cold temperatures, wind chills, all that fun stuff as God intended for winter to be. As I am a proofreading this, it is 9° F with a wind chill factor of about -4° F and it is supposed to get even colder over the next few days. Yee ha it’s wintertime in the Midwest.

And of course being that winter does tend to occur every year around this time one would think that those industries affected the most by such weather and conditions would be prepared for it. One would think. But as I’ve often been told by many railroad officials over the years, “We don’t pay you to think.” As I’ve mentioned more times than I can recall since I began this little diatribe way back in 1999, every winter you’d think this was the first winter ever to occur on the railroad.

Unlike previous years instead of profiling all the things that go haywire when winter strikes the railroads, we are going to look at something different; heat in the locomotive cabs. Heat in the cabs in winter is a good thing, a very good thing.

As you probably recall, a couple of years ago I did a piece on how hot the temperature can get in the locomotive cabs during the summer. See it at http://www.railroad.net/articles/columns/hottimes/hottimes_20050822.php

For as hot as it gets then, it can get equally as cold in the winter in those same cabs. Like your automobiles, a locomotive is essentially a large steel box on wheels. Unlike your car though, the steel on a locomotive is of much heavier gauge than that of your car. The older locomotives have very little in the way of insulation for those cabs. While the Canadians opted for extra insulation in their cabs, most of the US roads went with the standard package. Now some roads have rehabilitated some of the cabs and added more insulation in the process, but it is still a battle of cold weather cooling that steel cab and then combating that by trying to warm it up with forced air heaters.

Now add to this mix, drafts. Years of service, the banging, bouncing, rough couplings, slack action and the like can warp or knock the cab out of its original shape. This will cause the door frames to bend out of shape creating gaps around the closed doors. There have been more times than I can remember that I can see daylight around the gaps. In other cases I can easily fit a finger through these gaps. Doors may also start to hang up so excessive force is required to open them. This force can bend them out of shape resulting in them not closing tightly. This allows air to leak in. Oftentimes not only air but rain and snow will also come blowing right in as well. Weather stripping around the doors wears out or comes off and this also allows for air the blow through as well as snow and rain.

Within the cab interiors, modifications made over the years may leave holes in walls where air can easily find its way in. They are not always quick to fill holes left behind. Oftentimes rust and corrosion take their toll as well and holes will develop in cab walls, usually around the floor or window frames. Window frames may have been replaced over the years leaving behind holes from previous the framework. These holes will provide for still more entry ways for cold air to find its way in and the warm air to get forced out. The doors to the high voltage cabinets, particularly those on EMD units built post 1972 have seals around them. These seals wear out or come off and cold air will blast through them. Pre-1973 built EMD units employed a different type of door on the high voltage cabinets that could warp creating gaps and again, more drafts. The seals around the front and rear windows also fail. Wind, rain and snow have been known to blow through such gaps.

Most locomotives have no heat in the nose where the toilet is located. While some railroads have added a heater unit to the nose be it an electric strip heater or even a hose running from one of the forced air heaters, it is the exception rather than the rule. As a result this means it gets quite cold in there. Many have been the times I’ve observed it get so cold that the chemical solution used in the toilets will freeze. There are often rust spots around the base where the nose meets the floor allowing the elements to enter the nose. I have observed snow, ice or sometimes both on the floor in the nose that has blown in through such holes. Doors to the nose also tend to warp or get bent out of shape over the years and again, another source for a draft.

Why all the attention to drafts? For the same reason you try to eliminate them in your home; they let cold air while allowing warm air to escape. Try driving your car with the windows rolled part way down during the dead of winter. Not just one of them cracked a little for some fresh air, but all of them open several inches. Then drive around down the interstate highways at 60 or 70 mph. Even with the heater cranked up full blast it will get cold in there. And when you are sitting and cannot escape it, that cold has an effect on you, generally not a good effect either. While sitting in your house during cold weather, if there is a draft you will know it. And if you don’t find and fix it, you cannot escape it.

The deck under the cab floor is also not insulated or heated. In some cases there are gaps in the floor between the boards or even holes left behind from equipment previously removed. Cold air will enter the cab through such holes and gaps. There is supposed to be filler material around the base of the control stand where the piping and electrical wiring passes through. Sometimes this material deteriorates or falls out and still another path for cold air to enter the cab is born. I’ve had many locomotives over the years with cold air blowing out through the open space around the throttle handle and dynamic brake controller.

Within this deck under the floor the air brake equipment is located. With nothing to insulate it from the cold, air brake equipment has been known to freeze up and malfunction as a result. On some older locomotives sander relays are located under here too and I’ve had them freeze up causing the sanders to stick in the on position. This can lead to problems as they draw main reservoir air pressure to operate and when it is bitter cold, you don’t want the system to get robbed of desperately needed air pressure. And there is nothing that one can carry with them to thaw out frozen equipment or prevent such equipment from freezing in the first place.

And of course, there are the sliding side windows. They too will bend out of shape, the weather stripping around them wear out or fail off. The latches on them break or come off. The frames on which they are mounted may also bend out of shape. As a result these windows will often not close properly or tightly allowing for air to enter through the gaps. Such gaps around doors and windows, especially when moving down the main track at appreciable speeds can create a mini wind tunnel effect in the cab.

As you can clearly see there is quite a bit of competition here for the heat provided by the cab heaters. We want it to stay in the cab at the same time nature is trying to claim it by forcing it all out and back into the great out of doors.

The windows on most American locomotives are manufactured of lexan. These windows are comprised of two pieces of high impact glazing pressed together with a plastic sheet in between them. From all appearances it looks like a regular piece of window glazing. Canadian locomotives generally use a much thicker piece of glazing on their sliding side windows, appearing twice as thick as the regular glazing. This adds a bit of insulation from the forces of nature. Such glazing requires heavier frames which tend to warp out of shape less frequently, close properly and seal better most of the time. Newer locomotives use a thicker side glazing than older models, but there are still oodles of the older models in service and will be so for many years to come.

Federal law requires the minimum temperature in the cab not to be less than 55° F as measured eight inches above the Engineer’s seat. 55° is not exactly the tropics. And that temperature is measured when the locomotive is standing still. Think 55 isn’t bad or cold? Here’s an idea, turn the thermostat in your home down to 60° and let it stay there all evening while you are just sitting there. You will get cold, very cold. Or set the heater in your car at 55° if it has temperature setting or just at the lowest amount of heat. Your feet will begin to get cold as the car is also a steel box with little insulation. Once your feet get cold, the rest of you will become uncomfortable as well.

Now sure, most railroaders dress for winter, long sleeve flannel type shirts, longs johns, coveralls, heavier coats and the like, but I should be expected to have to wear everything I own when sitting inside what is supposed to be a heated interior, and sit like that routinely for ten our twelve hours a day. Sitting in this big steel box with little insulation, extremely cold temperatures and lots of drafts, ain’t it great? Trust me, it isn’t the best experience and is certainly rough on the joints. Now let’s study what heats these cabs.

For years most locomotives used hot water to provide heat. The cooling system of the locomotive that cools the prime mover (diesel engine) had piping that extended to the cab heaters. Heat was drawn off this piping and forced in the locomotive cab, oftentimes with electric motors blowing air. Older General Electric models didn’t use the high powered forced air. Instead you regulated the heat by opening or closing the heater vents and by opening and closing the valve that regulated the flow of the superheated cooling water.

Locomotives built by EMD used two forced air heater units in each cab. Over the years this system changed. In early models, particularly Geeps, the heater motors were set into the wall of the high voltage cabinet behind you. They forced heater through vents at the top of the cab. It worked well but that heat didn’t make it to the floor as heat rises. So you legs and feet would get cold in bitter cold weather. Early switchers used what looked like a radiator and had a fan blow air through dispersing the heat throughout the cab.

Throughout the years EMD changed heater styles and in the early 60’s they adopted floor mounted heaters. First they placed one in front on the Engineer’s side and one behind on the Fireman’s side. In the early 70’s this changed and the rear heater on the Fireman’s side was moved to the front of the cab as well. In the 70’s GE also went with the two forced air heaters as well. Air was forced around the hot piping using electric motors and this heated air was then forced into the cab using these same motors. It can get quite warm, very warm with this system. However, like everything else, it has drawbacks. If the locomotive is not working very hard, the cooling water does not get very hot. This means your source for heat is lacking. When locomotives sit and idle for extended periods of time, the cooling water doesn’t get much above 100° F. While this sounds hot when providing for heat in a large area, this temperature is lacking.

I’ve boarded engines with hot water heat that were sitting idling for hours in bitter cold temperatures. The cab temperatures were often 40 something degrees. Warmer than outside, but couple the drafts with the minimally insulated steel box and we’re talking cold on the inside too. To compensate for this some railroads would allow the locomotives to idle in throttle position run 3. This kept the engine revving constantly allowing the water to warm up a little bit so it might not be quite as cold in the cab. Now on the chance you had to stop and sit for awhile such as in a siding, it was common practice to rev up the engines to throttle run four or five (or higher) to keep the cooling water warm in order to keep heat in the cab. It seems that more often than not you were sitting in a spot where there was no break from the wind and you had a drafty cab to boot. While sitting and revving the engines appears quite wasteful from a fuel consumption point of view, fuel conservation dropped far down the list when it came to self well being. I’ve often stated they don’t pay me enough money to freeze to death.

Another problem with hot water heat is the build up that occurs inside the water lines. Water is full of minerals and iron. In some parts of the country the mineral and/or iron content is higher than others. I’ve lived in places where the iron content in the water was so high I’ve frequently kidded that you could hold a magnet over a glass of water and the water would come out of the glass and stick to that magnet. Both iron and minerals are enemies. Mineral deposits, known as scaling will build up inside the piping. Iron will also build up in the piping and rust causing the piping to deteriorate and eventually fail. All the banging around locomotives are exposed to takes its toll on the piping as well causing stress fractures which results in leaks. Attached to the piping are fittings. These fittings also go bad over time and have to be replaced as well as water leaks from them too.

When scale builds up inside the piping less water flows through it and what does flow has a harder time transferring the heat. The scaling can and does act as insulation. Scaling can be eliminated by using an acid based solution pumped through the piping to remove the scale. Railroads do not use an antifreeze/coolant solution in the locomotive cooling systems as they are not set up for such. They use water and an additive that inhibits rust, usually a boron solution.

As you can clearly see hot water heating systems require more maintenance. Over the years most railroads have eliminated hot water heating systems and replaced them with electric heaters. We’ll discuss electric heat in a bit. In my career I have had plenty of exposure to hot water heat. While much of it has not been favorable, some of it has. We’ll look at some of the bad episodes.

As I mentioned when scaling builds up within the piping the flow of water is impeded and the transfer of the heat is likewise impeded. So one cold night on the Wisconsin Central in its early days I get a former Burlington Northern SD45 as my lead unit. It has hot water heat. This particular unit had been sitting in storage, unused for several years prior to its being acquired by the WC. Two points about stored power, the power most prone to failures or the most expensive to operate is what usually gets placed into storage during downturns in business. The SD45s were both for the BN. And all that sitting in repose as it were is also never good for a unit either, especially where there is water involved.

WC had obtained forty ex-BN units from National Railway Equipment (NRE) in Dixmoor, IL. Some of these units spent a couple of months in service on the Southern Pacific immediately prior to heading to the WC while the rest sat stored at NRE. When the WC commenced operations these units were pulled from storage, made operable and sent to Wisconsin. They got ‘em running and out the door. They didn’t check the heaters for proper operation in the process. Several of these units already had been converted to electric heat, but the majority of them still had hot water heat.

And now, back to our story.

On many nights in those early days we got these units. One night in particular I get one on a very cold night. We were cabbed to Waukesha to get the power. As luck would have it, the heaters were producing very little heat. We had them on the high setting and we were barely getting lukewarm air from them. Now even after working the power hard pulling the train up the hills of the Dairy State there still was very little heat. Who am I kidding there was no heat. We froze our butts off even though we were all bundled up. Even going around trying to seal off the leaks and drafts, we still froze. When you are forced to sit in the cold like that, even when all bundled up, you get cold and your joints begin to ache.

Another time in my MoPac days we had a hot water heat unit in the lead on a bitter cold night. We had relieved a crew that went dead on the hours of service. The Engineer of that crew reported to me that his lead unit had developed high voltage ground problems (ground relays) and he had to isolate the unit. This is never good on a hot water heat unit. Being isolated means the unit is not working at all, just idling and along for the ride. This translates into the water not getting heated. It didn’t take long for the temperature in the cab to begin to drop. With little heat coming out, the front windows began to frost up as well. I had to devise a window scraper in order to scrape the ice from the inside of the windows so we could see. Freezing and frosted, it gets no better than this. I’ve actually had such an occurrence on more than one occasion over the years.

Now when hot water heaters are working well, it gets almost like an oven in the cab; well, almost. Working the units hard will provide plenty of heat when all is well with the system; no water leaks, no scaling issues. However, like with electric heat there are other variables that can also affect the capabilities of the heating system. We’ll study them after looking at electric heaters.

Electric heaters do not depend on water; they use coils operating with electricity to create their own heat. Air is forced through these coils by the use of electric motors. There are usually two or three different heat level settings, low and high or low, medium and high. Unlike your automobile, SUV or truck, it is not a sliding scale or thermostatically controlled. Some brands of heaters are superior to others and as a result, can actually provide a little too much heat when it is cool, but not cold. Still though, I’ll take too much over not enough any day of the week. So will all my arthritic joints. If it gets too hot, I can always crack a window open.

Electric heaters will also fail, the heater coils go bad or the motors may quit. These are problems. I’ve had the blower motor fail on electric heaters. The coils will continue to get hot but the heat will not be forced out and about the cab; radiant heat but no way to move it. Or the heater coils will fail and no heat is created. Then you just have fans blowing around unheated air. Or the entire unit will simply fail and not work at all. On occasion something will really go wrong and either the coils or the heater motor will catch on fire. Not just a little smoldering but out and out fire. Of course once extinguished, the heater is now dead; no heat all from it now. While I have had several begin to smoke, I have never had one burst into flames. However I know plenty of railroaders that have. One even had to resort to pouring his thermos of coffee onto the flames as the fire extinguisher in the cab didn’t work (imagine that) and the cab floor was actually starting to burn.

Locomotive builders have made attempts to overcome cab heating problems. Sidewall heaters, also known as electric strip heaters have become standard equipment. In 1973 EMD began equipping all locomotives built with such heaters. These heaters are mounted along the sidewalls on either side of the cab. The have two settings, low and high. They also employ coils that glow when energized with electricity. They are a radiant type of heater that does not use fans. They are used to assist the forced air heaters. They also help heat the side walls of the locomotive to fend off the cold. This is huge as you are not sitting up against an ice cold wall. Years of doing this has rewarded me (and many other Engineers) with arthritis in the hips or leg joints. I have it in the right hip, the one normally up against or near that cab wall.

Sidewall heaters can be used in lieu of the forced air heaters when the temperatures are more moderate. There are times when the forced air heaters can be too much but some heat is still needed. The sidewall heaters in addition to their support of the forced air heaters can also be a great place to cook. Over the years I have heated hundreds of meals on the sidewall heaters. Why eat a cold meal on the engine when you can eat something hot? A sandwich, pork chops, chicken you name it can be heated. Plus they toast bread or bagels quite nicely too.

At the start up of the WC they also obtained a group of former MoPac GP35m locomotives. These wereGP35s MoPac rebuilt and modified in the very early 80’s. MoPac applied sidewall heaters to these units as well as converting them to electric heat. In between the time MoPac disposed of them and WC acquired them, some of these units lost their sidewall heaters. There were holes in the floors for the wiring and brackets on at the base of the walls where they were once mounted. On a couple of them the control switches were still in place only now connected to nothing.

The electric forced air heaters were also in sorry shape on some of them. One of the few that still had the sidewall heaters in place had the forced air heaters fail en route one evening. We about froze to death as the temperature had dropped to around 0° F. With only the sidewall heaters we had minimal heat. Both the Conductor and I were bundled up. I had insulated coveralls on as well as my parka and was still cold. Without those sidewall heaters to give us at least a little heat, it might have been much worse.

Today with the now standard “North American” or super cab, a central heating system is employed. One switch with three or more heat settings operates one fan that sends heated air through ductwork to various vents throughout the cab. One can open or close any or all the vents as needed. These cabs have far more insulation and will stay warmer longer. However, just like their predecessor heater cousins, the heaters on these units can and do fail. And drafts still manage to occur. Just recently, January 24th to be exact, I had a Union Pacific unit with heater problems. It only produced heat on the high setting. As luck would happen, the speedometer also failed so it could not be our lead unit. We turned the power and wound up with a much better and warmer unit to ride in as our leader.

During 1989 the WC began a program to upgrade locomotive cabs. They dubbed it the “cab winterization” program. Insulation was added, cab doors were repaired or replaced, worn or missing weather stripping replaced, windows repaired or replaced including new frames, nose doors were repaired or replaced, numerous draft points addressed and repaired. Heaters were also upgraded to electric heat and those units not equipped with sidewall heaters had them applied. To complete the process the cab received a fresh coat of paint and a stencil stating the cab was winterized with the date it was applied. Initially this was great. Complaints of cold cabs dropped dramatically. However, like everything else, cost-effective measures took priority.

Instead of replacing doors they were getting adjusted. In some cases it appeared they were getting completely ignored. I was assigned a unit as my leader one evening that had just been out shopped from the program. The front cab door had a large gap at the top, large enough that I could fit a finger through it. It also had a bad latch so when it was closed tight it still had all kinds of play in the door as if it was ajar. This meant a great deal of draft would occur as we began to move. One of the heaters only worked on low speed. One set of sliding side windows were not repaired, they only had the frames painted over to cover the fact. Several others were released in the same manner. It seemed all they began to do was simply add a little insulation and repaint the cab. I quickly dubbed this “winterized by Earl Scheib.”

Today the industry still does a poor job in maintaining cab interiors. It usually takes reports to mechanical services to get problems addressed. They seem to get overlooked during routine maintenance and one would think nobody at the roundhouse can read a work report when simply writing up such problems.

To counter drafts and other such problems I, along with thousands of other railroaders carry duct tape. Duct tape is truly one of the greatest inventions to come along rating right up there with round wheels, indoor plumbing and wireless radio. Millions, make that billions of yards of duct tape have been applied over the years to seal leaking doors and windows. It has been used to cover holes in cab walls to stop drafts. I have used it around the doors of high voltage cabinets along with rolled up paper towels to seal leaks there when the seals have deteriorated or fallen out.

There is a way to tape up doors and windows to allow them to be opened and closed without tearing the tape off. This allows it to last for weeks, sometimes even months without coming off thus preserving my efforts and serving others as well.

Now over the years when lacking tape, some have resorted to desperate measures to keep from freezing to death. Wetting down paper towels and applying them directly to the drafty area such as a gap around the doors will freeze when it contacts the cold steel. It creates a seal that stops the draft. However, it may cause the door to be stuck closed requiring excessive force to get open. This, in turn, can cause the door to bend out of shape even more compounding the problem. Also, the patch comes off when a door or window is open which will require a new one to be made and applied.

One problem that cannot be overcome is the locomotive that dies and cannot be restarted. Dead batteries or a serious electrical or mechanical problem may prevent the locomotive from being restarted. No mechanical power from that diesel results in no electrical power for operation of the heaters. While there are batteries that will provide power to operate the headlights, radios and certain other electrical functions when the locomotive is dead, there are no provisions to operate heaters. It takes very little time under such circumstances for the cab to get cold.

In my days at the MoPac I was coming north one morning on FCZ, a very high priority intermodal train operated daily between Fort Worth and Chicago. The temperature was below zero that morning. Even though it was nice and sunny and bright, it was bitterly cold. As we swapped out crews on the fly at Villa Grove and began to depart, I glanced back and noticed water on the side catwalk. It was way too cold for water to be standing out there. A quick check showed me a leak in one of the cooling water lines. It wasn’t just a drip, it was a stream. Looking at the sight glass which indicates how much cooling water there was in the system I saw there was very little left. What this meant that even though it was extremely cold, the prime mover will overheat, just as your car will when it is low on coolant, in this case cooling water. And working the engine would force the remaining water out of the system causing the overheating to occur sooner.

Knowing that I could lose this unit well before reaching the train’s final destination of 37th Street Yard some 140 plus miles away, I chose to isolate the unit letting it just go along for the ride and to preserve our only source of heat this bitterly cold morning. As a result, we did operate at less than maximum speed most of the trip. But hey, self preservation was a bit more important than time.

Around Grant Park, IL the voice of the road foreman of engines calls out from over the ether and asks what my speedometer says. I give him the reading, which as I recall, was about 52 MPH. Apparently this agreed with what his radar gun said and he was somewhat pleased. However, he did question why we weren’t moving along a little faster. I explained the cooling water leak and how I decided that heat was more important than speed (until that locomotive overheated and died) and how I chose to isolate it instead. He agreed that this was a good idea and signed off. Well I’ll be a little logic in the air today.

I vividly recall another situation where logic was left at the office door. It was a very cold night, in the single digits. I had a Road Foreman of Engines riding with me. I was working a turn around assignment, one that goes out over the road, turns and comes back to the home terminal all in the same trip. At the turn around point where we swapped trains, I wanted to look over the engines to assure everything was alright with them. Trust me, after all these years of being an Engineer, I know what I’m doing and I know that I should give them a look over before hitting the road. But no, the Road Foreman insisted we didn’t have time for that and that we needed to get going. Not enough time to do it right the first time. We skip the inspection and hit the road.

In less than ten miles the lead unit dies. Of course once dead, we lost our heaters. Add a little draft with the bitter cold temps and the poorly insulated cab and in no time, it was getting cold in there. We had a meet coming up so it was decided to wait until we stopped at the meeting point to investigate the problem.

Upon inspection I discover the problem; the inspection covers on the prime mover were not properly secured allowing the lubricating oil to be forced out through the openings. When I opened the engine room doors where several of the engine protective devices and the starter switch are located, I noticed lube oil all over the place and I mean lots and lots of lube oil all over the place; all over the prime mover, dripping down from the walls and on the floor. This is not good. That was when I noticed the latches to the inspection covers all unlatched and the highest concentration of oil was right at the points where the covers meet the engine block.

After properly fastening them I checked the dip stick to see how much oil we had left. There was just a little at the top of the stick meaning there was not enough oil to work this unit, but enough to start it and let it idle. I restarted the engine but with a significant struggle; the batteries were very weak and it was all I could do to coax it into finally cranking enough to get it to fire up. It built up sufficient lube oil pressure to keep it idling. We had three locomotives this night so I figured we would leave this unit isolated to keep the heat. While we would lose the ability to make faster speed, we would not freeze to death. But no, the road foreman decided that we needed to get as close as we could to track speed. Despite my protests that we would likely lose this unit again and for good, he insisted and used his rank to so assure that we would work it. Even when I suggested that it may not start the next time it dies, he ordered me to put it back on the line. So I comply; sometimes you just cannot fight stupidity.

We roll along for about five or six more miles and the engine dies again. Gee, what a shock. The road foreman goes back to try to start it and guess what? It won’t crank. There wasn’t enough juice left in those batteries to turn it over. I killed everything electric that I could and he tried it again; nothing. Now we are deep in it; only two working units but now, no heat. Within minutes it started getting quite cold in that cab. Now unlike the one in charge, I was prepared for this. I possess two items some railroader managers seem to lack, logic and common sense. And years at this Engineer thing have taught me to always be prepared for the unexpected. Oh yes, I was also a Boy Scout as a kid.

In bitter cold weather I put on the trusty long johns. I also bring a heavy coat like a parka. So I put on the parka and my insulated work gloves. The road foreman has a much lighter coat that he puts on, regular gloves and I’m betting no long johns. Maybe a half hour passes and this guy is getting cold. He stands up and begins to pace around the cab trying to warm himself up. I had some coffee left in my thermos and as much as I wanted to be rotten and keep it for myself, I offered him some. He took it graciously.

By the time we reached our final destination the road foreman was about half frozen. It took us longer as we only had the two working units, but because he took command, we did it with no heat. While I was cold I wasn’t miserable like he was, this guy was really suffering. Inside I was laughing my head off at him. His brilliant leadership abilities lead him to his misery. He bailed quickly upon our arrival to head into his office to try to warm up. I guess that is why he was in charge and I wasn’t. For what its worth, this guy was relieved of his title several months later. Imagine that.

Now there are times when the industry can also be our enemy with regards to cab heaters. In my MoPac days Yard Center, their yard in south suburban Chicago was a joint facility with the Louisville & Nashville. The L&N provided us with some of the yard engines required to operate the facility. One winter the L&N sends up a GP7 that has one forced air heater placed at the middle of the front bulkhead in the cab and two electric sidewall heaters. I suppose this arrangement might work well in the climate of say Atlanta in the winter, but in Chicago it was dreadfully lacking. Even with the locomotive sitting still, in the bitter cold you could not get heat in the cab to even reach 55. This unit was shipped out shortly after arriving.

The IC rebuilt a bunch of its older NW2, SW7 and SW9 switchers in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. In doing so they applied a single electric forced air heater on the Engineer’s side and a single sidewall heater on the Fireman’s side. They neglected to apply much in the way of insulation. When it gets bitter cold, the cabs of these units do not get very warm at all.

The forced air heaters in the cab circulate the air in a clockwise motion. With only one forced air heater and only that sidewall heater on the other side, by the time the air makes the rounds in the cab and returns to my side, it is cold. This requires the forced air heater to have to work that much harder.

Now in some cases, our help is the problem. Some trainmen will bundle up for the weather, as they should. Only an idiot will not dress appropriately. Some of these guys will get on board and not peel off jackets, coveralls or vests once we hit the road; they stay fully suited as if they were still outside. They get hot with the heaters running and shut off the heater on their side. As a result, the lack of warm air returning from their side and the drafts will make it cold on my side. You have to get on them to take off the jacket or coveralls and turn on the heat.

One individual I’ve known over the years seemingly has very thin blood. He is cold when it is 75 degrees. He has been known to wrap himself in a blanket while running. On more than one occasion he draped the blanket around his area on the side of the cab trapping the heat from his heater on his side of the cab. His Conductor became aware of the decreasing temperature in the cab as the air was not circulating properly. He had to jump all over Mr. Thinblood and tell him to adjust his blanket so as to allow the proper flow of air.

And finally, there is one character that thinks it’s hysterical to leave the next guy a cold cab. Whenever he gets off the engine during the dead of winter, he opens all the doors and windows and turns off all the heaters. Needless to say, it doesn’t take long for it to get cold. He has done this in the snow as well allowing for the snow to actually accumulate in the cab. In the summer he has been known to close all the doors and windows and then turn the heaters on full blast too. Again, he thinks this is quite amusing. I’ll just bet though that if somebody should do this to him he would fail to see the humor in the gag. Once cooled off, especially in bitter cold weather, it takes a long time for the cab to fully heat up again. That is, if the heaters are working properly.

Now as much as I would like to, I have never resorted to such tactics in order to get even. I guess we can’t all be five year olds.

And so it goes.

Tuch

Hot Times on the High Iron and the HTOTHI initials, ©2005 by JD Santucci.