Running Long-Hood Forward

Humm, im still shocked about your view on the subject buddy. No responce on me telling you your doing wrong? when you do run backwards for a bit. I'm curious on some of the other things you have refused to do there buddy. Is backing a whole train up for miles another one? I never make a stand when it comes to the rules, or agreements. Giving them the idea that your Mr. Safety makes you a target, in my mind. Im the kinda guy that they can go to when things are messed up, because they know i can get it done, while still being safe about it, without complaining about the mission. I had alot of rough times when i was a third party switcher, i did alot of stuff that the railroad would never ask a guy to do. That to also might be the reason for our differences.

We were once asked to back a train up the branch for about ten miles threw Rock Springs at about one thirty i the morning when all the drunks were leaving the bars. I didnt refuse to do it, i just told the trainmaster there was a good chance of us taking a few of them out and i wasnt really feeling up to bailing off the cars just before impact. We accepted the trip anyways and later found a way where we could pull in insted.

Lets put this another way, so say it did meet all the new rule requirements, pick up bar on the end, ditch lights and what not, then where would you stand on the subject? Ever saw the movie The Edge with Anthony Hopkins, what one man can do another can do?

Im different, maybe this is grinding to a stop also. To each his own.

On my railroad, the LIRR, we ran Alco Centuries with the long hood foward because the steam boiler was in the short hood and in the event of collision, they didn't want to scald the Engineer to death.

When we got our Geeps, we would run long hood foward if we ran around the train where there was no wye..or to save time..or just as a goof to have fun. Personally I liked running that way. Just my opinion.

We used to have the BNSF 6126 as our regular yard engine til the remotes came. It was a former GN SD-9 set up for long hood forward. You should seen the puzzled look on a new hires face when they would give a great big ol ahead and she would take off the other way. It was hilarious

All this talk about safety regarding running backwards and no one has mentioned left handed signals. In the days of steam all signals were to the right of the centerline of the track to which they pertained. Later the FRA allowed the RR's to put signals on the left side. When you are running a high nose unit you have trouble seeing left sided signals on left curves. If you are running backwards (from the way the locomotive was set up to run) you have trouble seeing signals on the right on right hand curves. This is where it becomes a saftey issue. In steam days the engineer sat on the right and all signals and flags were placed to the right. If he couldn't see around a left hand curve it was not a problem. You just ran trusting that everything you needed would be on your side of the track. If you can't trust signals you'd better give it up. Also non-railroaders think you need to see crossings. Not at all. The whistle post is on the right side of the track and the engineer simply blows the whistle until over the crossing. What difference does it make if you can see a car trying to beat you? The only tool you have is the whistle and bell and you're already using those. You are going to hit the car whether you can see it or not.

As far as running backwards goes, the signals don't bother me as much as missing a flag on my blind side. I know where to expect each signal and I'll stop if I miss one. But the flags can be anywhere. Nothing drives me nuts quicker than having a slacker newbie brakeman sitting on the fireman's side while running backwards in an area of multiple track flags. This happened to me one time on a work train. The other guy was chowing down on a box of fried chicken and not even facing forward. I was highballing along when I realized I had 3 form B's coming up and couldn't watch for flags on the right hand curves. You can bet he got an earful.

Here's another case I had. Sent to pickup road power and return to the yard 65 miles away. The three units were facing the wrong way and were 2 C30'7's and an SD40-2. I was set up to run the miserable GE backwards looking through that miniature window in the back door which was covered in oil (it was a GE after all). The SD40-2 was clean and had a full size window in the door. I also had a pair of chop nosed GP9's back to back but without dynamic brakes. We were to pick up 20 or so loaded cars and the geeps. The route included a long descent down 2.2% mountain grade. The point I was starting from had a very spindly wye. What would you have done?

Options were (in my mind): 1.) Run the GE backwards. 2.) Swap out the SD40 and run it backwards in the lead. 3.) Turn the SD40 and place in the lead. (Those big GE's had stiff trucks.) 4.) Put the geeps in the lead and go down the hill without dynamic or enough cars to brake the train and five free rolling units. 5.) Put earplugs in and squeal around the wye at a crawl thus turning all the road power and leading with the clean SD40. 6.) Something I'm not smart enough to think of. 7.) Call the DS and refuse service on grounds of safety.--The wye wasn't really in any shape for big power, it is against the rules to use locomotive brakes while descending the mountian or too much train air, and running backwards is a pain in the neck on a GE. By the way this was in pre-ditch light days.

brokenrail wrote:If you are running backwards (from the way the locomotive was set up to run) you have trouble seeing signals on the right on right hand curves. This is where it becomes a saftey issue.

Thank God for cab signals.

brokenrail wrote:Also non-railroaders think you need to see crossings. Not at all.

True, knowing where crossings are is part of your qualifications, and if somebody ignores the warning apparatus, oh well.