Mainline Misadventures (10/29)! More Fun on the River Sub!

After what seemed to be an extended absence due to several reasons
(not the least of which was several uneventful trips on the River
Sub), CSX has decided to liven things up by throwing a brand new(OK,
an old but re qualified) dispatcher to the wolves on third shift, and
the games have begun again in earnest. So, without further adieu(what
is "adieu", and why should there be no further of it?), its time for
another "Mainline Misadventure", and the title for this one is: "New
Dispatcher, Same Old Games"
This past round trip was interesting to say the least. it started
on Wednesday night/Thursday AM while on Q109-28. Departure was
uneventful,and we were heading north at about 1AM, about 15 minutes
past the advertised, but nothing that couldn't be made up enroute. We
were told to stop at CP-5 account congestion ahead, and soon we were
advanced to CP-10, where we found out the source of the congestion.
It seems there was a track circuit out, causing all intermediate
signals between CP-22(Nyack) and CP-10(Teaneck/Bergenfield) to
display "stop and Proceed" indications. We were stopped on track 2,
with Q159 stopped along side on track 1. The dispatcher, fully aware
of the situation, allowed Q417 to proceed south from CP-22, with one
little glitch. The crew outlawed on the single track above CP-10,
with Q162 behind them! What to do?
Why, the solution was to have the yard jitney from North Bergen
come north 7 miles to CP-10, pick up the Q159 crew, take them and
place them on the Q417, pull the trin south to CP-3 and get it out of
the way. This was done with some enthusiasm on the part of the 159
crew, as this constitutes handling another train and thus a penalty
time claim. They eventually completed this maneuver, and then
deadheaded to Selkirk and an extra crew took the 159 north. We lead
the parade after the 162 came south, with the 159 following, and then
the Q165, Q418, and Q157. we departed CP-10 at 3:15AM(!) and arrived
in Selkirk and were off duty at 7:00AM, a bit late, but still a
decent recovery. As for the return trip[, well here's where the fun
begins(or continues, I suppose....)...
We were called for Q409-28, on duty at 3:30PM. Power was CSXT
5016 and CSX 8008, we had 103 cars(including a 22 car drop for North
Bergen), and had 9842 tons. I should have suspected something was
amiss when my conductor informed me after arriving at the yard office
he left his travel bag back at the hotel, and would have to wait for
the next hotel shuttle to deliver it to him. not the end of the
world, as the power wasn't ready for a bit, and we were awaiting all
our paperwork.
Anyway, we soon were tied onto our train, and after chaning the
marker acoount a dead battery, we were ready to go, at about 5:45PM.
But this was not to be. While we were preparing for our deaprture,
several trains were run south ahead of us,and these were Q417, Q162,
Q262, V806, and the most important of all, Q100. After he came in
changed crews and depparted, we were soon on our way, having cleared
the yard at 8:10PM(!). We had on board with us a road relief crew,
who we were to drop off at CP-121 to recrew Q404. We did this, and
soon were heading south.
We continued uneventfully until CP-55 where we caught up with
Q417, and went into the siding behing him. Dispatcher informed us(2nd
shift was still on duty as it was about 10:20PM) that it was
congested down below and he had no idea how long we would be held. As
it turned out, we met Q438, and then followed the Q417 south from CP-
52 to Havestraw(CP-35), where we again went in the siding behing 417
to await opposing traffic. It was now just after 1AM(Oh yea, did i
mention the Q417 outlaws at 2AM?), and we soon were moving(after
meeting the Q161)again, and then we both went into the siding at Nyack
(CP-26) to await the "parade" north. The Q417 was recrewd at 2:25
(approx)AM, and we pulled down to the "chrome-alloy" grade crossing.
At this time Q109 and Q418 came north.
I informed the DS( the 3rd shift dispatcher as mentioned at the
top of all of this) of our time limit and was told "we don't know
what to do with you, but we'll let you know"(Translation: "You're
gonna rot where you are!")OK, so we put our feet up. we were told
however, the road relief crerw that took the 417 south ahead of us
would be back for our train and the van that returned them to Nyack
would bring my conductor and I back to our sign up point of North
Bergen.
Tick.....Tick.....Tick.....Tick.... 3:00AM....3:30AM(when we
outlawed).....4:00AM.....4:30AM......5:00AM.....5:30AM.... TIME
MARCHES ON!!!!!
I should note that a couple of other elements added to the
festivities out on the River Sub. A Broken rail was discovered at MP
86.3(just south of the high Wilber bridges over Rondout Creek just
south of Kingston/CP-87). this then resulted in trains having to be
walked over the broken rail, as well as all signals between CP-69 and
CP-87 defaulting to "stop and proceed" indications!!!
We were able to pick up some of the details over the radio, and
while we bided our time, Q157 came north, as did Q165, and Q163. teh
the flys started to drop....
In some order(although the exact order escapes me) thr following
occurred: Q162 outlawed in Teaneck(MP 8), Q262 outlawed at North
Bergen(hopefully after dropping the 5 hot TOFC's from Boston he
picked up in Selkirk for connection to Q173!), Q433 was already dead
in Teaneck, Q273, picking up auto rack empties at CP-5 hit the Hich
car detector at MP 7(Bogota), and Q 159, on duty at 7PM the night
before never even gets past North Bergen before outlawing!
As for us? Well at 5:45, with no sign of the relief crew or the
van, the DS stops the Q160 along side us, and they ferry us back to
North Bergen, where we finally get to our cars and head home. we were
off duty at 7:30AM this date(Friday, 10/29)for a total of 16 hours on
duty! Sheesh!!!! So, can someone explain the "ONE Plan" to me??? this
new dispatcher informed me she (you heard correctly) would be off
Friday and sat night, so maybe, just maybe things will get back to
order.... who knows.... Stay tuned.......

RCB

Hehe, I can't WAIT to get on the road extra board!

Holy Cow, this reads like early CR or PC days.....sure hope no shippers read this!! Oh, yeah, almost forgot.... the only ones who ship by rail have no other choice.

Seriously, what's the cause of all this? The rails finally have the biz, and can't handle it. Double track the River Divn? More crews? Closer signals? More yard crews? More yard track? sd45, we await your opinion! After all, you're out there every day (and night), and should know what's needed to "break on through" and get the trains moving.

What do you guys do during the dead times waiting for a block to clear in front of you or when you're out there in the middle of no where and outlawed? Suare theres conversation but after 3 hours it must die off, are you allowed to have books or the like in the cab? What about a walkman type radio for music or something i guess younger crewmembers might under those rules be allowed to bring along a gameboy or something?

Well that sounds like another fun night and morning on the Riverline. If only i saw those parades of trains when i railfan down there. Was there any specific cause for the signal woes?

To answer a couple of questions, the signal probems were caused by a break in the circuit and in one specific instance this was due to the broken rail at MP 86.3.... the other instance could be from a broken bond wire or something of a similar nature. Either way, delays are the general result as the signals then default to their most restrictive indication.
As for killing time, I've learned to read quite a few books and usually bring a couple of newspapers along so I also have the crosswords to do as well. usually, one of us will take a nap(CSX has a policy alllowing for napping in certain circumstances) while the other one keeps thier eyes open. Conversation tends to suffer after a while, to be sure, but its best sometimes to close my eyes and not think about the time passing.... oh, and keep the radio turned up... some guys bring other materials to keep them occupied and others will talk on their phones on occasion, but all in all it can still get pretty boring sometimes

I could certainly see how sitting for 3 to 4 hours could get boring. I guess as long as other trains keep going by while you cant move its not all to boring. But if this were to happen during daylight and you would have known that you would have been sitting for a while could you walk the train just to stretch your legs and burn off time?

I'd bump my own mother on Christmas for this kind of overtime!

Looks like you're buying lunch for us this weekend!



H.J.S.