Joe wrote:Which of course is prohibitted when running.B&M E7 wrote:Engineer is up there all alone, sometimes not seeing ANYBODY for more than 3 hours at a time.That's why they invented cell phones!
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Toilets on trains?
- General discussion about locomotives, rolling stock, and equipment
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CSX Conductor wrote:"IF" this was enforced, how many would be fired? The railroads would be at a stand-still!Joe wrote:Which of course is prohibitted when running.B&M E7 wrote:Engineer is up there all alone, sometimes not seeing ANYBODY for more than 3 hours at a time.That's why they invented cell phones!
It's kind of funny, working on the regionals, and shortlines. When you go on duty, they issue you a cell phone, and that sucker rings all day long, with customer service whining about everyone who want their switch done first, the GM wanting you to do "his bidding", instead of what customer service wants, etc. One railroad I worked on in Texas didn't even have a dispatchers radio. there was a little "mobile" Motorola, on the engine, and walkie-talkies for the crews. All contact with DS, TM, customer service, etc., was via a company cell phone, permanently mounted on every engine! We even used them for switching industries, once the radios died, which they did almost religiously. Foamers "whine", on other threads, about crews using cell-phones while working, but those same guys will chase trains, giving a "blow-by-blow" description, of the action, to whoever they can reach on THEIR cell phone, while driving. At least I don't have to steer, or operate pedals, with my feet. I can lay back, watch the scenery drift by, and talk to the DS as long as I want. Things don't happen as quickly on the rails, as they do on the road. (I have never been running along, and suddenly have another train, or locomotive pull out in front of me, like he didn't see me coming. But this happens every day, on my way to work) A cell phone is no more of a hazard, to use while running, than the locomotive radio. If you don't run, or work on the train, you just wouldn't/couldn't understand. It's as simple as that. Regards
Traveling Engineer, Coast to Coast, Border to Border.
Any Train, Anytime, Anywhere.....
Any Train, Anytime, Anywhere.....
B&M E7 wrote:RAZOR: you wrote (asked):The alerter is there such that if the engineer falls asleep, he will not be awake to push the magic button. And if he fails to push it, the train dumps the air and brakes are applied...
Where does the Conductor/brakeman sit if NOT in the cab?.
ANSWER: I am referring to passenger trains where the Conductor and brakeman are back in the body of the train. Engineer is up there all alone, sometimes not seeing ANYBOSY for more than 3 hours at a time.
- - - Doesn't that make you feel real safe as you relax in the BISTRO CAR of the Acela, moving along at 150mph knowing that the engineer is all alone up there, with no "CO-PILOT" up there to assist him (or help keep him wake !)
Want a cab ride ? tee hee ![/b][/i]
With the topic being "Trains on Toilets", all the focus is on the crew ad locos/cab cars. Consider, however, a suburban passenger (Amtrak has toilets on trains and subways do not. Many moons ago when I lived in New York and commutted on the Long Island Railroad, I saw an employee timetable notice to the effect of: Toilets on trains must be locked closed at station stops as well as on the Atlantic Avenue viaduct, except for cases of passengers in distress" In the 1960's/70's of course, toilets in passenger cars simply let it all drop out on the track, and as you may know, the viaduct on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn NY was an open track subway-type structure. So if a passenger was "in distress" (presumably in a state of diarhhrea, trainmen were permitted ti unlock the toilets and let it all drop down in tops of cars and pedestrians! When the M-1's came in, I believe the toilets were then chemically retentive.
On another situation but in a similar vein, certain sections along some routes were notorious for trains being pelted with rocks by kids. A few times I got off at the next station and walked back to where those kids were continuinfg at the next train and told them off (today I'd probably be stoned to death by them for criticism), but my verbal spleening at them still didn't stop them from contiinuing their hostile activity. After a while the passengers and crew got so fed up that the crew took lidded coffee cups of urine from themselves and donated from passengers to stock up a huge arsenal arsenal in each vestibule that had a tranman assigned to it, like the proverbial water baloon bombs, before the departure of the trip (this was from Long Island City Terminal via the "Lower Montauk Branch", a diesel loco-hauled coach train with at the time manual doors and traps), and when the attack of rocks came, the engineer slowed down the train a bit to allow the trainmen in the doors of the train to throw vestibule-laden lidded cups of urine at the attackers, and they were pretty good at the aim. Most of the kids were drenched with urine as the cups hit and broke out the lids as each kid had been thrown cups by each passing trainman, with passengers reloading the trainmen's hands behind within the vestibules! The rocks somehow never came again. It may have had something to do with the stink that the mothers had to deal with in the laundry and the kids were not able to give straight answers to the parents as to why their entire bunch's clothes stunk urine! Back in those days, kids would have been grounded by parents for pelting rocks at the train and potentially injuring passengers and crew. Today I suppose the parents would be sueing the railroad for defending its passengers and crew, and probably saying that "their kids don't do such things".
Those were the days of REAL commuting, scatology and all!
Vytautas B. Radzivanas
Perth, Western Australia
On another situation but in a similar vein, certain sections along some routes were notorious for trains being pelted with rocks by kids. A few times I got off at the next station and walked back to where those kids were continuinfg at the next train and told them off (today I'd probably be stoned to death by them for criticism), but my verbal spleening at them still didn't stop them from contiinuing their hostile activity. After a while the passengers and crew got so fed up that the crew took lidded coffee cups of urine from themselves and donated from passengers to stock up a huge arsenal arsenal in each vestibule that had a tranman assigned to it, like the proverbial water baloon bombs, before the departure of the trip (this was from Long Island City Terminal via the "Lower Montauk Branch", a diesel loco-hauled coach train with at the time manual doors and traps), and when the attack of rocks came, the engineer slowed down the train a bit to allow the trainmen in the doors of the train to throw vestibule-laden lidded cups of urine at the attackers, and they were pretty good at the aim. Most of the kids were drenched with urine as the cups hit and broke out the lids as each kid had been thrown cups by each passing trainman, with passengers reloading the trainmen's hands behind within the vestibules! The rocks somehow never came again. It may have had something to do with the stink that the mothers had to deal with in the laundry and the kids were not able to give straight answers to the parents as to why their entire bunch's clothes stunk urine! Back in those days, kids would have been grounded by parents for pelting rocks at the train and potentially injuring passengers and crew. Today I suppose the parents would be sueing the railroad for defending its passengers and crew, and probably saying that "their kids don't do such things".
Those were the days of REAL commuting, scatology and all!
Vytautas B. Radzivanas
Perth, Western Australia
lutherkb wrote:Well thats almost right, it gives you a penalty application, doesnt "dump it".
The alerter is there such that if the engineer falls asleep, he will not be awake to push the magic button. And if he fails to push it, the train dumps the air and brakes are applied...