Well, after a couple of months back in the yard, I decided(primarily due to the lack of overtime)to go back on the road, to my usual assignment, Q109 between North Bergen and Selirk and Return. Some may recall my earlier posts as "Mainline Misadventures" in another forum, and I figured it wouldn't be too long before the opportunity for more story telling would appear. It only took two trips. Here we go....
Signed up at 11PM for Q109-07 on Friday, August 6th(Train departs after midnight, hence the date difference). Upon arriving at the yard office around 10:30PM, I noticed the afternoon YM(who's due to retire within 30 days) still in the office. He usually is gone by about 10:15 with the night time yardie in place. Turns out he had no relief. the normal 3rd trick YM had car trouble enroute, but never called anyone to say he would be late. At about 11PM, the afternoon guy faxed his turnover to South Kearny, told the TM there that he was going home and that was that.
So now it appeared we had no YM at North Bergen at all. The night yard crew comes on duty at 10:30, my train is on duty at 11PM, and with no one in place nothing can move. As it turned out, a Trainmaster came up from Kearny while a YM was called in off his respective extra list. Next order of business was to get our dispatcher bulletins. Unfortunately, the printer that spits these things out was out of commission, and the fax machine was out of ink in its cartridge, and where do yuo think the new ink cartridged were? Why Kearny, of course, where(by CSX thinking, it would seem) they would be better secure!
In the meantime, the TM got the printer to work, the regularly scheduled YM made it in, as did the extra man, but he was sent home, and we wewre soon on our way north with 18 cars and 10,000 HP. The remainder of the trip was uneventful, and rather quick, as we departed North Bergen at 12:30, and was at Selkirk at 4:4oAM, and off duty at 5:15AM. As for the trip back......
We were rested at 1:15PM, and were called for Q118-06, on duty at 1:40PM. We had to pick up four TOFC's for North Bergen, add them to our train, then get out of town and come south. This all occurred rather smoothly and we were heading south through CP SK at about 4:30pm. After a few meets enroute, we were told that we could come right down to CP-5, and the NYS&W would take our train.
As info, the Q118 normally has blocks for NYSW Little Ferry and CSXI South Kearny. This particular train had the blocks all mixed up instead of seperated, so this meant that the train would have to be drilled upon arrival at Little Ferry before we could head to Bergen to drop our first four cars(Off Q119 for connection to Q173), and then take the rest of the train to Kearny. We call the NYSW on their channel, and get permission into the yard, from the dispatcher. The NYSW yard crew on duty says not to bother, as Q161 is being assembled, and when he leaves we can come in. One problem with that.
The connection track between the NYSW and CSX comes out to track 2 at CP 5 and there is no crossover between tracks 2 and 1 at this point. Of course, we're on track 2, and south of the last interlocking, so he can't go until we move, and we can't move until he goes.... He had 8200 feet of train and we had 8400 feet of train. A real mexican standoff. So we are stopped on the CSX main just north of the interlocking and connection to the NYSW, not blocking any crossings, but listening in as a plan is developed. We came to a stop at 9:20PM and didn't get into the yard until 10:40(approx).
Once room was made, we them worked our way into the yard, and the 161 went north the way we came south. Our train was then drilled ouit, seperating the Kearny cars from the Little Ferry cars(all done by an NYSW crew), and we were soon ready to go at 11:35PM. As we still had four cars to drop at North Bergen, and we were only good until 1:40, and we originally signed up at North Bergen the night before, what do you think happened? we were held for traffic on the CSX main before we crossed back out to the River Line at CP-3. We then pulled down to CP-1, where control of the two mains reverts to CR's North Jersey Shared Assets DS. After waiting another 25 minutes while the dispatcher got the OK from North Bergen to let us in the yard to shove off our forur cars, we then began the set off move at 12:45AM. We were done with te move and back against the train at CP-1 at 1:10AM, but as we were only good until 1:40, we were told to tie it down and call it a day! And by some miraculous coincidence, our cars were at North Bergen, so all we needed was the yard jitney to ferry us back to the north end of the yard where our cars were. we then signed off at 1:40AM and went home.
Not exactly a "Mainline Misadventure", but a rather entertaining trip nonetheless. lets see what this week holds in store... more tales as they develop.....
Signed up at 11PM for Q109-07 on Friday, August 6th(Train departs after midnight, hence the date difference). Upon arriving at the yard office around 10:30PM, I noticed the afternoon YM(who's due to retire within 30 days) still in the office. He usually is gone by about 10:15 with the night time yardie in place. Turns out he had no relief. the normal 3rd trick YM had car trouble enroute, but never called anyone to say he would be late. At about 11PM, the afternoon guy faxed his turnover to South Kearny, told the TM there that he was going home and that was that.
So now it appeared we had no YM at North Bergen at all. The night yard crew comes on duty at 10:30, my train is on duty at 11PM, and with no one in place nothing can move. As it turned out, a Trainmaster came up from Kearny while a YM was called in off his respective extra list. Next order of business was to get our dispatcher bulletins. Unfortunately, the printer that spits these things out was out of commission, and the fax machine was out of ink in its cartridge, and where do yuo think the new ink cartridged were? Why Kearny, of course, where(by CSX thinking, it would seem) they would be better secure!
In the meantime, the TM got the printer to work, the regularly scheduled YM made it in, as did the extra man, but he was sent home, and we wewre soon on our way north with 18 cars and 10,000 HP. The remainder of the trip was uneventful, and rather quick, as we departed North Bergen at 12:30, and was at Selkirk at 4:4oAM, and off duty at 5:15AM. As for the trip back......
We were rested at 1:15PM, and were called for Q118-06, on duty at 1:40PM. We had to pick up four TOFC's for North Bergen, add them to our train, then get out of town and come south. This all occurred rather smoothly and we were heading south through CP SK at about 4:30pm. After a few meets enroute, we were told that we could come right down to CP-5, and the NYS&W would take our train.
As info, the Q118 normally has blocks for NYSW Little Ferry and CSXI South Kearny. This particular train had the blocks all mixed up instead of seperated, so this meant that the train would have to be drilled upon arrival at Little Ferry before we could head to Bergen to drop our first four cars(Off Q119 for connection to Q173), and then take the rest of the train to Kearny. We call the NYSW on their channel, and get permission into the yard, from the dispatcher. The NYSW yard crew on duty says not to bother, as Q161 is being assembled, and when he leaves we can come in. One problem with that.
The connection track between the NYSW and CSX comes out to track 2 at CP 5 and there is no crossover between tracks 2 and 1 at this point. Of course, we're on track 2, and south of the last interlocking, so he can't go until we move, and we can't move until he goes.... He had 8200 feet of train and we had 8400 feet of train. A real mexican standoff. So we are stopped on the CSX main just north of the interlocking and connection to the NYSW, not blocking any crossings, but listening in as a plan is developed. We came to a stop at 9:20PM and didn't get into the yard until 10:40(approx).
Once room was made, we them worked our way into the yard, and the 161 went north the way we came south. Our train was then drilled ouit, seperating the Kearny cars from the Little Ferry cars(all done by an NYSW crew), and we were soon ready to go at 11:35PM. As we still had four cars to drop at North Bergen, and we were only good until 1:40, and we originally signed up at North Bergen the night before, what do you think happened? we were held for traffic on the CSX main before we crossed back out to the River Line at CP-3. We then pulled down to CP-1, where control of the two mains reverts to CR's North Jersey Shared Assets DS. After waiting another 25 minutes while the dispatcher got the OK from North Bergen to let us in the yard to shove off our forur cars, we then began the set off move at 12:45AM. We were done with te move and back against the train at CP-1 at 1:10AM, but as we were only good until 1:40, we were told to tie it down and call it a day! And by some miraculous coincidence, our cars were at North Bergen, so all we needed was the yard jitney to ferry us back to the north end of the yard where our cars were. we then signed off at 1:40AM and went home.
Not exactly a "Mainline Misadventure", but a rather entertaining trip nonetheless. lets see what this week holds in store... more tales as they develop.....
I know I'm getting old... My insurance company sent me only half a calendar this year!
