Railroading Stories

[Scoot]

Well everyone, working with the railroad can bring in quite a few stories. Some good, some bad. Some exciting, some scary. And then there's the ones you just can't make up. So I figured I'd share them with you as they happen. Won't be sharing them all, but I'll certainly share the ones I feel are interesting!

And for you other railroaders out there, feel free to share your own!


On the Ground
Well isn't this great as a student conductor? We had a work order to pick up some grain cars from an industry in route, and I was calling the engineer back to make the joint. I had lined, locked, and checked all the switches as required. Derails had been taken off, and I was about three cars from the engines. I told the engineer I'd be getting on in about three, and the joint was in about twelve. Well pretty soon I had to give him the order to stop, and so did my instructor (who was probably about four cars further than me). It turns out the track was wide gauge, and we came off on the switch. Luckily nobody was injured, but the switch had to be taken out of service. Very scary for a student, especially since I was in charge of the movement!


A Hunting We Will Go
So where is the best place to hunt duck? I'll give you a hint - it's not the tracks! Speeding eastward at 49mph, we noticed something ahead on the tracks. It looked like this big orange blob from a distance. As we got closer, we were able to see that it was in fact two people and their dog. My engineer blew the horn, and the dog instantly ran off the tracks. The hunters? Well they just looked at us and casually walked away. And by walking away I mean they just stood about twenty feet away from the tracks as we went by -.- I opened my window and gave them that "what's the matter with you" look. They just smiled like idiots and waved, to which I just shook my head. There's a moral to this story, and it's sad I still need to mention it - Do not play, hunt, walk, run, sit, photograph, or ANYTHING, on the tracks. It is dangerous and can result in death. And if it doesn't, it can end up with very heavy fines. Don't do it. Be safe. Think twice. Stay off the tracks.




Well those are two for me to start off with. Any questions you have about railroading feel free to ask me!


Regards,
Scott

 

[cascaderailroad]

I could go on and on with horror stories:

Employees with no 2 way radios at all, or ancient non-working radios, that had absolutely no transmission / reception (that weighed 15 lbs, and were good for nothing but self defense, or paperweights.

Crossing over cuts of cars, couplers ... and suddenly the slack ran in.

Roller bearing railcars silently drifting up on you, unexpectedly at 3:00AM in a howling cold bitter 25 F ... 30 mph wind.

Freight crews shoving back blindly, startling the holy bejesus' out of you, derailing dozens of ore gennies, or dozens of empty TTX flats, tearing up 500' of track, turning it into a pretzel jumble of twisted kinked rails, shoved 15' into the air.

Blue hot wheel treads on stuck handbrakes, traveling down the main for dozens of miles with skidding the wheel treads irreparable with flat spots, so hot that they were smoking and smelled like burning steel, if you touched them with a bare hand it would incinerate your fingers right off, or ignite your glove lit aflame.

Closing plug door boxcars, (that vandals had opened when the train was stalled in the "Projects" and the entire contents of 40lb blocks of USDA Govt Surplus Butter was being wheeled around in stolen shopping carts, for sale on the on the city streets ... Closing all those vandalized plug doors on a highline bridge, that had rotten away walk boards, at 3:00AM, as the conductor had fallen through, and was now in the emergency room.

Working with a Hump yard operator, that had one arm amputated when he closing a plug door, and the plug door fell off on him.

Using a cable come along to close rusted inoperable boxcar doors,, then the cable snaps, and nearly cuts you in two, throwing the steel hook right through the MOW vehicle windows, and straight out the other side.

Working with employees that trained you to "Not Inspect" any of the 137 railcars, and falsify inspection reports saying that you did so. Their motto was: the train rolled into the yard without derailing, it will probably roll right on out without derailing, and if it derails 300 miles from you ... anything could have caused it, and by then it would be some other divisions problem ... and not yours anymore.

An entire train of 137 hotbox's, because the night shift carman did not add any journal lube oil at all to 1096 friction bearings ... not one fudgin' drop of oil... by the time it got to Valley Forge you could smell the burning cotton wadding 4 miles away ... and the road foreman had 36 guys from all over the system, oiling and repacking the train journal box's.

Entire consists of broken backed, sway bellied, 100 ton ore cars, with bent centerframes from being overloaded with too much iron ore weight ... causing the entire train to have "wheel contact" with the car body, emitting rings of fire on every wheel on the consist, screeching and singing down the track.

Watching yard crews shove 40 loaded hoppers backward, with all the handbrakes locked "ON" ... the wheels were stationary being shoved down the wet rail in the rain, emitting steam and sparks from the wheel treads and flanges.

Finding railcars with such huge flat spots on the treads, that they absolutely would no roll right, and instead skidded and occasionally Whump Whump Whumped down the track.

Working with 58 employees who were professional Lounging Lizzards, who hid out in some inconspicuous place all day, and parked their MOW trucks in the weeds and woods, and slept all day, coming back to life @ 45 min from quitting time.

Flat switching loaded petroleum product tank cars at 30 mph, coming slamming together so violently that the tank car ceramic top seal caps burst, and dozens gallons of caustic chemicals ruptured out, running down the sides of the tank cars.

Inspecting tank cars with 15 drops per minute leaking offloading valves, dripping on the ties, with a smell so acrid, having skull and crossbone safety placards with every warning maker, poison, explosive, caustic, oxidizer, highly flammable ... etc ...

Being sent right out into the job, with absolutely NO on the job training whatsoever, aside from working under the direction of a soon to be retired / fired old timer, that taught you to hide, and falsify inspection reports.

Having vandals roll junk automobile car tires down hillsides, aiming for between the couplers, so as to break the air hose gladhands apart, only to run away with glee, as a moving train went into emergency.

Gangs purposely setting the air retainers wrong, and purposely "cutting out" the trainline air control valves, as mischievous pranks of sabotage.

Houdlums raiding boxcars for loot to sell, and when they found it was only a wothless loaded boxcar of cardboard cases of Hunts / DelMonte Tomato cans, or wood products ... so they threw in a lit RR fusee, demolishing the entire railcar, making the wreck crew, having to roll the railcar off the rails, onto its side, in the clear, as the railcar was now totally scrap.

Being informed at a safety meeting that two car inspectors, who were crossing over couplers, without radios, were mowed down in the Oak Island yard, cut to smitherines by free-rolling silently roller bearing railcars.

One guy was told to go out to spread a bag of lime, to help saturate the aftermath of human blood and small body fragments, left behind by the EMT's.

Hearing over the radio, carman return to base, immediately ... as the local police were on the scene in the yard, as a RR Police officer was beaten so badly about the head, by gang members swinging air brake hose gladhands ... all because they were pee'd at the cop that had busted one of their gang members, for breaking into railcars in the middle of the night ... they set the cop up, cornered him and put him on permanent disability. end of his career !

Yeah ... The place was a real piece of work ... an accident just waiting to happen.

 

[Scoot]

That's unbelievable. It's insane how frightening this job can actually be! There's so much to look out for on top of what you have to be doing for the job.

Scott

 

[rjhowie]

Many years ago now as a young man, I was a booking clerk in a suburban station here in the Glasgow area. Booking clerks were essentially in charge as a station master looked after two stations and was more at the junction one past us. You also had two porters on each shift - one for each of the 2 platforms. It was the Local trades holiday weekend and a West Highland train was due to pass us at I think it was 5.45am so I had to be there sharp to open up. It didn't stop at our station but this was a special arrangement for half a dozen people heading for Fort William.

Although we were on the suburban eltric overhead system the fast train north was steam and I got a bit concerned when it was approaching as it sounded very fast. The booking office was up at street level and the rails came under us at the bridge then past the plaforms downstairs. So i looked out the back window dow to the platform and people were lifting their cases and bags and moved forward. By now I reckoned something was wrong and it hurtled below at a fast speed right past the non-plussed people and Willie the leading porter who was looking after them. The group gathered round Willie and were obviously harranging him although nothing to do with hi. Next thing he was striding along the platform to the stairs and slightly breathless (he was near retiral got on to me for the train not stopping. Once I had calmed him down i said I would phone control in the city centre which I did. I told the voice on the other end what station we were and it had been arranged to stop briefly for a group.There was a silence then he said "It didn't stop?.....of for (swear word). I was then told to hold on and when he came back he said there was an extra train scheduled to come our way for Fort William and it would stop but could I make sure my signalman put a red signal up!

So phoned the signalman (he couldn't understand what happened either) and sure as fate an hour later a red signal and this train stopped thankfully!

 

[JackieG]

One story my old social studies teacher used to tell me from his days working on the Middletown and NJ DR.

It was the summer of 92 and the MNJ had a lot of interchange traffic from Conrail. His buddy was working as a brakeman on a switching move, he was in front of the engine on a CR caboose moving through the yard. A local had just come through 15 mins earlier and picked up a car on a dead end siding, which was about 50 feet long. They came through the track with the switch to the siding at about 25, he was hanging on the end o f the caboose. Stupidly the local brakeman left the switch open, the caboose and engine came into the short siding and the caboose derailed and tipped over. My teachers friend couldn't jump of the caboose in time. The engineer came back to see if he was ok and found him clinging to the hand rails dead. My teacher wasn't on the job that day luckily, but it just makes you think. He was 28.