River sub - slow speeds at Orangeburg?

Hi;
I have been monitoring CSX River sub traffic over the years, and able to pick up the EDD's at MP 7.2 and 20.5 (and sometimes Stony Point). For this past week I have noticed that trains passing over the EDD at 20.5 are not moving very fast - never more than 25 mph, and one northbound just a while ago was doing only 12mph (it was a long train). A while back (I don't recall how far back - I haven't been monitoring consistently) the detector at 20.5 was reporting trains at 49mph. The speed in that area has always been 50, so what's up now? I haven't been hearing of any slow orders. Usually for a northbound I would hear the orders being given at North Bergen.

Uh - sorry about the heading for this post. The detector in question is not actually in Nyack - it's Orangeburg.

CP

Can't answer your question really, but did fix the heading!

Charlie

The Orangeburg detector the last few weeks has had a speed restriction of 25mph. I forget the reason I was told, but i'll try to find out

waldwickrailfan wrote:The Orangeburg detector the last few weeks has had a speed restriction of 25mph. I forget the reason I was told, but i'll try to find out

Is the detector itself the cause for the speed restriction, or is it something else in the area?
I guess I could take a ride up there. It's not far from where I live, and Western Highway parallels the track in the area. I might be able to get a good view from the Orangeburg road overpass.
As a matter of fact, I am planning to take a bike ride up the Joseph B. Clarke rail trail one of these days. I could easily ride down Western Highway and watch a train or two pass the detector.

CP

CPSK wrote:

waldwickrailfan wrote:The Orangeburg detector the last few weeks has had a speed restriction of 25mph. I forget the reason I was told, but i'll try to find out

Is the detector itself the cause for the speed restriction, or is it something else in the area?
I guess I could take a ride up there. It's not far from where I live, and Western Highway parallels the track in the area. I might be able to get a good view from the Orangeburg road overpass.
As a matter of fact, I am planning to take a bike ride up the Joseph B. Clarke rail trail one of these days. I could easily ride down Western Highway and watch a train or two pass the detector.

CP

I know it's right on the detector, I forget the reason though. I believe it has something to do with the detector cause it was picking up false defects on higher speed trains last week. All trains were clocked between 39-49mph when the defect happened. That much I know. It went OOS for a few hours Thursday night I believe because of this.

waldwickrailfan wrote: I know it's right on the detector, I forget the reason though. I believe it has something to do with the detector cause it was picking up false defects on higher speed trains last week. All trains were clocked between 39-49mph when the defect happened. That much I know. It went OOS for a few hours Thursday night I believe because of this.

Seems like an inefficient way to run a railroad. I would just repair the detector right away rather than have trains run at slower speeds for so long. It wouldn't be an issue if it were just a few hours, or a day, but weeks?
Reminds me of how CSX handles the problems with the crossing protection equipment at New Bridge road at CP10. On several occasions over the past few years, the gates have malfunctioned, forcing the city of Bergenfield to close the road. Then a repair crew comes out, makes it work for a few more months (or maybe just weeks), and it fails again. Recently though, I haven't heard of any problems with that crossing, although there have been others.

CP

Defect detectors and blowing snow from at 50 MPH train don't mix. Blowing snow ends up confusing the sensors for both Hot Box and High Wide detectors to the point that the detector will report a 'detector malfunction' to the crew which, by rule requires the crew to inspect the entire train.

mmi16 wrote:Defect detectors and blowing snow from at 50 MPH train don't mix. Blowing snow ends up confusing the sensors for both Hot Box and High Wide detectors to the point that the detector will report a 'detector malfunction' to the crew which, by rule requires the crew to inspect the entire train.

OK. So it's better to slow the train rather than have to stop and inspect it. I guess no one wants to simply take the detector off line. Perhaps a better technology is available for this.

CP

CPSK wrote:

mmi16 wrote:Defect detectors and blowing snow from at 50 MPH train don't mix. Blowing snow ends up confusing the sensors for both Hot Box and High Wide detectors to the point that the detector will report a 'detector malfunction' to the crew which, by rule requires the crew to inspect the entire train.

OK. So it's better to slow the train rather than have to stop and inspect it. I guess no one wants to simply take the detector off line. Perhaps a better technology is available for this.

CP

FRA Regulations require a train to be inspected by a hot box detector every 50 miles - if a train exceeds 50 miles from it's last DD inspection the train must be stopped and manually inspected. CSX, when this rule was placed in effect located their DD's approximately every 25 miles, so that if one had problems it could be taken out of service and the trains would still be in compliance with the 50 mile rule. In recent years CSX has been adding additional detectors on high volume routes so they are being spaced approximately every 15 miles.

Blowing & swirling snow is a know condition of higher speed running - taking DD's out of service removes their potential for warning of catastrophic defects in time to take actions to prevent the catastrophy. Better to slow down, get the benefits of the inspection and continue.

High Tech sometimes gets too high tech and dear old Mother Nature presents conditions it is not designed to handle. High Tech designers have a recurring failure to account for Mother Nature. Satellite TV works so well in severe thunderstorms is just one example, there are thousands of others where Ol'Ma Nature beats 21st Century high tech.