Railroad Forums 

  • Engineer on the right?

  • General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.
General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.

Moderator: Robert Paniagua

 #491683  by GOLDEN-ARM
 
The PRSL Geep 38's had the dual stand set-up. Conrail disconnected the controls from the "wrong" stand, but left them in the cab, in an effort to cramp the crews, and cause discomfort........ :P With a three man crew, it made for a very unhappy brakeman. Two control stands, and an icebox. At least they didn't have dynamics......... :(

 #491712  by concordgirl
 
Noel Weaver wrote: Many railroads in Europe and elsewhere had and may still have the
engineer/driver on the left rather than the right...During my career I ran all kinds of electric and diesel electric equipment and it did not really matter too much just what kind of controls the engine or MU car had, I seemed to be able to adapt to it.
Thanks :-) That's what I was wondering about.

 #491715  by concordgirl
 
GOLDEN-ARM wrote:Conrail disconnected the controls from the "wrong" stand, but left them in the cab, in an effort to cramp the crews, and cause discomfort...
Why would Conrail do that (if you're serious)? Were they trying to cut down on the number of crew members in the engine, by making them want to quit? Not too nice!!

 #491723  by pennsy
 
Hi,

Nice to see a young lady on board for a change.

The idea was to break the union, and eliminate the fireman. They wanted only the driver up front.

Another piece of trivia that I picked up from my buddy Frank, who used to drive the A train and E trains on the Far Rockaway line. Power to the MU units is controlled with the LEFT hand, brakes with the RIGHT. At one time an attempt was made to change it to what they thought should be normal operation of the controls. They soon found out differently. Those forced to drive such trains were seen to cross their hands and control the speed once again with the left hand. They soon corrected their error, and went back to "standard operation".

 #491735  by DutchRailnut
 
In Europe most newer cabs have the engineers position dead in center.
like this ICE3m
Image

en Thalys PBKA

Image

 #491738  by concordgirl
 
DutchRailnut wrote:In Europe most newer cabs have the engineers position dead in center.
[/img]
That first one looks like something from a Star Trek episode ;-)

I wonder if the dead center one works better-- i.e., more effective/safe/practical for the engineers to use? They must think it has some advantage or they would not have designed it that way...

 #491739  by concordgirl
 
pennsy wrote: The idea was to break the union, and eliminate the fireman. They wanted only the driver up front.
Thank you! If I can make a brief side comment.... What happened with that? Was Conrail successful in trying to break the union?

Feel free to PM me if the answer is more involved than makes sense to get into within this thread :-)

 #491825  by Noel Weaver
 
Firemen were gone from freight and yard jobs for the most part long
before Conrail took over.
Firemen also came off the commuter trains at least in the New York City
territory in the early 1980's and after Amtrak took over their own crews
the firemen came off most of the trains too.
The effort to remove firemen began during the period of diesel electric
locomotives replacing steam locomotives but fortunately (at least for me)
it took a long time before it happened on most trains.
Noel Weaver

 #491945  by TB Diamond
 
On our seniority district on the BN, there was a fireman roster until the early 1980s. And yes, those dual control units made for both a very unhappy head brakeman and fireman, unless one or the other chose to ride a trailing unit, with the engineer's permission, of course (rarely, if ever not granted).

 #491960  by David Benton
 
What did the fireman and brakeman do ??? . Argue over whose turn it is to make coffee???
I can see an arguement for having 2 people in the cab , but 3 ???

 #491995  by conrail_engineer
 
David Benton wrote:What did the fireman and brakeman do ??? . Argue over whose turn it is to make coffee???
I can see an arguement for having 2 people in the cab , but 3 ???
Actually, two men on the ground can save a lot of time, in road-switcher or local work. Having one man to ride the point on shoving moves or to make ties, and another to line switches on the head-end or to get derails, page the dispatcher, whatnot...it's a great help.

It all depends on how much work a train does. The through stack trains...could easily be run with a single man, were it not for safety and emergency needs. With a train that works in several outlaying yards...a three man crew is a big help and even four wouldn't be overkill.

Unfortunately there's not that sort of manning flexibility.

 #492014  by David Benton
 
they could do what they do here . the shunting assistant(s) (usually only on though ) travels by automobile form yard to yard , or to sidings etc . that way , he can either cover more than one train , or get things ready for the train to arrive .

 #492015  by David Benton
 
they could do what they do here . the shunting assistant(s) (usually only on though ) travels by automobile form yard to yard , or to sidings etc . that way , he can either cover more than one train , or get things ready for the train to arrive .

 #492081  by concordgirl
 
conrail_engineer wrote:[
Actually, two men on the ground can save a lot of time, in road-switcher or local work... It all depends on how much work a train does... Unfortunately there's not that sort of manning flexibility.
Why not? Sounds like it would make more sense/work better that way :-)

 #492121  by TB Diamond
 
As a fireman, I threw more than one switch while making setouts and pickups on local freight service. Also hit the ground when making meets to inspect the passing train for any defects. The job was easy, but the pay rate was well below that of both the engineer and conductor.

Was last set back to the fireman roster in 1985 when the C&NW took away approximately 75% of the coal business through our terminal. Remained set back until I bid a terminal where I could hold a engineer job, this in early 1986.