Autoracks dragged under bridge (video question)

[eolesen]

Looks like it was within yard limits, so my guess is there are no orders.

Someone should have been riding the end of the shove with a radio. That's all on the conductor.

[talltim]

If they were riding on the end they could have been 20 cars from the autoracks

[Engineer Spike]

Usually the employee timetable will note any equipment restrictions. These range from height, weight, and length restrictions, to tracks where six axle engines are banned. All employees are responsible for making sure that no restricted equipment travels over these tracks.

These days much of the management is recruited by criteria other than experience. We have a track that restricts 6 axle power to one only running light. The timetable says a single light six axle locomotive. The trainmaster argued to a crew to take a SD40 in there to spot cars. His argument was that a SD40 was a light six axle locomotive compared to an AC4400. He had no concept of light meaning running without other equipment coupled to it.

[eolesen]

Spike, I'd guess part of the problem you have with management quality is that there's no incentive to leave conductor/engineer and go into management and lose money on the deal. I see that all over other industries...

[lvrr325]

Many moons ago, when telnet chats were still a thing, one that I frequented had a guy turn up who was a BNSF dispatcher who found he could log in through the system and used it mostly to chat with his wife while not busy with railroad stuff.

I recall asking him about having someone to protect when a train backs up and he acted like he had no idea what I was talking about; he basically said if the train is coming people have to get out of it's way at crossings and the like. This kind of situation, a clearance issue, never occurred to me to ask. Apparently under their operating rules, a man on the rear of a backup move was not required.

So the bottom line is different railroads have different rules for rear end protection on back-up moves. IC may not require a man on the rear, particularly if they know the track they're using is clear of other trains. Somewhere someone dropped the ball on the clearance at this bridge.


Oh, and eventually the BNSF guy got busted, and we only heard from him like once more when he was at home.