Yard & Lay-Up Trains

When traveling the LIRR, I have noticed something about trains at Hillside Maintenance Yard and on lay-up tracks around Jamaica. I have seen lay-up trains with some doors open. It looks like nobody is on the train. Sometimes it looks like the trains are powered down as well. Are the doors kept open so the crew can jump to and from another train?

I remember seeing those don't they generally only have one of the two doors open on those. I too would love to know why they do that.

For the most part, it's carelessness. In this world as we know it today, all doors and Conductor's windows should be closed while trains are in yards. It's not to say a bad guy can't get into a train in a yard if he really wanted to. But, don't facilitate it.
I've made it a point to always close up after I bail out of a train in the yard. It takes but 5 seconds.

BTW, the one leaf open you are referring to is the "Crew Door". That is what the key switches on the vestibule windscreen (inside) and outside the car are for. They only open that one leaf, and you'll notice there is a ladder under that leaf. It's how crews get into/out of trains in the yards.

[quote="N340SG"]For the most part, it's simple laziness.
[quote]

Yep it has to be those lazy crews , because it can't be a car inspector testing the doors. or working on the equipment.

Car inspectors and CAMS/car appearence maintainers do that. Cycling the doors is part of the things the CI's check, and the CAMS leave them open to drop garbage, air out wet mopped floors and also to indicate to drill crews/CI/crews that they're still onboard and to give them a chance to bail if the equipment gets moved. This is why you see this in the layup yards such as Hillside or the Jamaica vicinity...

That's why I said, "for the most part." The statement was not meant to be all-inclusive. I was thinking about including those possibilities. ( I was in a rush- finishing up to get ready for work.) As I look back at the post, the stuff about CIs and CAMs is a glaring omission. I kind of assumed everyone would know that if they saw a whole consist of cars with doors open, that meant someone was likely working on the train. I was really referring to one crew door open at end(s) of train.
But, let's face it. Employees, myself included, in the past have walked away from a train and left the crew door open. We should get into the habit of closing 'em up. It's not only terrorists we're trying to keep out. Assorted 2-legged vermin have climbed into cars through open doors/drop sashes in yards and stations. Vandalism, mugging, rape are things we have to worry about at all times.

I try not to inflame anybody here. Regrets if I did. I edited and downgraded the offending statement slightly,
although I know I'm still on the hook.

Tom

Gentlemen,

As a followup, I'd like to explain some additional reasons why I'm so edgy about doors being left open:

1) We've already had 2 guys go out the wrong side of the car in WSS and plummet to the concrete floor, because a door was left open on the non-platform side. I know they should have watched what they were doing, but, if only the doors were not open. One of the guys, they say, had a bone sticking out of his arm. After a long time out of work, he could not come back to M of E, and took a job as a ticket clerk.

2) A guy I started with as a CAM in 1982, who had a wife and 4 kids, fell out of a train in Babylon Yard on 17 track and hit the asphalt, because a door was paneled open where there was no ladder underneath. He had a huge bag full of garbage, and when he went for the ladder that wasn't there......
He has not worked for the LIRR since.
Yes, he should have been more cognizant of the situation. But, if only that door was not open.....

3)When I was a CAM, we had a commuter who slept past Babylon and ended up in the yard. I was walking him through the train to meet up with my supervisors at the west end of the train, where we would carefully get him down. He saw a crew door open in the middle of the train, and decided that he wanted to climb down right there. I told him to accompany me to the end of the train. But, as he began to climb down off the train, I wasn't about to try to physically restrain him from doing so.
If this guy had fallen and gotten injured or electrocuted, we, as well as the train crew that overlooked this fella, would have been embroiled in his (or his estate's) likely lawsuit. (Not to mention the horrible feelings that would invoke.)
Luckily for all of us, we don't have to say, "If only that door was not open".

Thanks for indulging me, and I'll be more careful with terminology.

Tom