Real Life Situations.

I

illinoiscentral

SARM Volunteer
Have you ever been in a pickle with a train?
I have.
I thought it would be a good idea to share some stories of our train experiences.
Sometimes the train will simply act up.
Such was the case last year at the museum.
Bill & Myself were in the cab of #1189 when we discovered the headlights were not functioning properly.
1189 has a standard headlight and a MARS that moves in a figure eight fashion.
The switches were set to "dim" and the MARS was not on.
However the headlight wasn't even dim.
We tried the MARS and it would not light up, it would move though.
However the number boards and class lights were running, but the headlights would not turn on.
We tried everything.
As we loaded Bill worked the switches and I stood at the front of 1189 looking at the lights. That were still not working.
So Bill called me back up to the cab to look in the front "crawl space" (anybody who has ever been in the nose of an F7 should know how small that area is) to look at the headlights and the wiring.
Everything was still in place.
Soon enough Paul and Kent were up there looking at the lights, they too were baffled.
Paul is our "fix all" person and Kent is our Chief Mechanical Officer.
Yes, it even confused them.
So time went by and we had to leave...running bell on the whole way...
All 4 runs went by and no lights.
Then we pulled into the yard, uncoupled the train and began forward into the engine house, as we pulled in, there was a light shining in the back window of the engine ahead of us and a light moving in a figure eight fashion.
The lights were back!
We've yet to figure out what caused that problem.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my story, I'd like to hear yours if you have one.

Cheers,
Woody:)
 
a bakfired rescue

i was at the swanton pacific railway's fun run day running one of the 19in gauge pacific locomotives the 1914 and my mom and dad was in the other pacific the 1912. me and my fireman were waiting for the 1912 to return to the station so we could take the next train but we got a call on the radio.
(1912)1914 this is the 12 were at the passing siding at cosgrove and we cant move can you come down here and tow us back to collage station.
(1914) well if we come and get you will you brake our loco to.
(1912) just get down here.
(1914) ok were on our way
so after we go down the line and turn on the wye we hookup to the front of the 12 the fire in the fire box starts flickering and then goes out completely i look at the fireman (pete) and say you wouldn't happen to know how much fuel is in the tank he looks and its bone dry so one of the crew walks two miles to the fuel depot to bring us some fuel.
after i had towed the 12 and the train back to the station and gave the 14 a through clearing workout up a 3% grade i towed the 12 to the round house. the next weekend we tore into the 12s smoke box and there was a 1in hole in the y pipe so the steam was not getting to the cylinders the steam was going right up the stack.
 
I only have one situation related to trains but id rather not remember it. It happened a year or two ago while i was at Werrington Station on my way to Penrith ( The main town in the area for those non Aussies ). I was looking down the tracks just watching the train come as you would we just before it wen't under the roadbridge someone jumped off... Im gonna leave it there because like i said i really don't want to remember it but yea...
 
Got a call at 1:00AM, "We need you at University City Highline Jct, to install a FRED (Radio Telemetry) on a ballast train, the Trainmaster will assist you"...I arrived eary...I waited...and waited...still no train...3:00AM the train and the Trainmaster finally arrive, and we install the FRED, and proceed to check the rear brake application on the last car, which is on a bridge. The Trainmaster notices that the brake cylinder is not on this end, but is on the opposite end, between the last, and next to last car. "Come on, up here", he says...and we go in between the double track RR gauges, to get between the two last cars, to check the brakes, on the bridge. Were at it, telling the crew to apply, then release the brakes, standing in a non-clearance pinchpoint zone between the train and the adjacent passing track. The train starts drifting backward...and the radio suddenly crackles to life..."Watch out there Trainmaster...EDPI is comming by you, fast"...and OH NO...here it comes...looming up on us, fast, suddenly without any warning. "Grab a handhold", he shouts...and we jump into the backwards drifting train, and hang on for dear life, feet dangling in the air, holding onto a handhold bar, as EDPI rips past at 45 miles an hour ! After we almost got creamed I shouted at the Trainmaster, "We should have been on the walkway, on the other side of the train" ! He responded "Nah there's holes all over in it, all rotted out and missing planks, missing handrail, it's unsafe over there, a 35' drop right onto the overhead cantenary of the NEC tracks, you don't wanna go over there". I walked away as he was still talking to me...he continued to talk, as continued to walk away from him..."Whatza matter, it wasn't that close a call, I didn't scare ya did I" ? "No I said...Which would you rather be killed by, a Polar bear, or a Grizzly bear" ? Right now I have to go change my brown pants, and they were blue jeans at the start of the shift" !

If he had half a brain, he would have asked the train to drift backwards away from the bridge, into a safe clearance zone, which was hundereds of feet long...If I took my foot, and shoved his brain, up a knats , it would be like puttin' a BB in a boxcar !
 
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I Have A Story Listen.One Day There Was An Engine The Was Nammed Dodgger He Was A Steam Engine And He Worked At The Docks One Day He Fell In The River Workman Never Found Him Again.Its Sad.
 
Matthew8888 said:
I Have A Story Listen.One Day There Was An Engine The Was Nammed Dodgger He Was A Steam Engine And He Worked At The Docks One Day He Fell In The River Workman Never Found Him Again.Its Sad.
Click to expand...

Ahhh i remember the good old days when i typed with capitals like that... Untill i got kicked by a few members for doing so ;)
 
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During the early 1980's when I commuted from Northampton to London for work, it was not uncommon for the evening return loco hauled train to be allocated one of the early "roarer" AC locos (Class 81 - 83 or 85). The Class 82's and 83's in particular were not all that reliable so you could almost guarantee at least once a month, somewhere north of Watford, there would be a big blue flash followed by silence then the sound of the vacuum brakes applying (wish someone could get that sound in TRS on the BR Mark Ones). Cue an hour or so wait while every other northbound express ran by on the Down Slow then eventually a "light" loco usually another electric but on one occasion a Class 25 diesel would go past, to crossover up the line ahead then run bang road on to the front of the failure.

An hour plus late and congealed dinner guaranteed.

I do seem to attract trouble when I travel by train - years ago (1976 I think) was doing a Midland Railrover ticket as one tended to do in one's youth in the summer holidays. Between Hereford and Shrewsbury the services were worked by an unusual combination of Swindon Inter-City Class 126 DMU's and Cross Country Class 120 DMU's coupled. Unfortunately these were not perhaps 100% mechanically compatible with the result that the formation failed just north of Leominster with neither set wanting to power. Two and a half hours later, Class 47 requisitioned off southbound freight to drag the sorry formation on to Shrewsbury.

I've also managed to be on board three trains when they killed someone (suicides) but guess that's not something to dwell on in a family forum.
 
Today, I was shoveling (well attempting) at TVRM. I was told to hit a dead spot in the front left. I swung it toward the firebox and actually hit the firebox door, dumped the coal right in the engineer's lap. I was also, accidentally aiming for the right front. I got a good "to the left!". Well, I made it to the right front. Then, I realized, "the LEFT". Whoops!:eek:

Also today, I was operating the turntable. No one cared to inform me to always go Clockwise, so the crowd can get pics of the front. I love how I was told to stop and go the other way, after I was Half way around! I grinded the turntable to a stop (quite literally) and went the right way. I went up to the cab and was told, "All this spinnin's makin'us dizzy up're".:hehe:

I'll tell you, I've heard the best stories running with the guys I've run with. Several came from the old SOU/NS steam program and one from even further back. I'm sure that none of the stories here can match their's, but know for a fact, to get the best stories, you got to work with the real people.:D:p
 
SR6900 said:
but know for a fact, to get the best stories, you got to work with the real people.:D:p
Click to expand...
Couldn't have said it better!
I should know, at MRM I am friends with Bill, he worked for the railroads for 40 years, NYC, then MP, then UP and seven weeks of CNW.
If any of you ever visit MRM on the last weekend of the month, ask Bill what working for the railroads is like...I dare you.

Cheers,
Woody
 
A few years back, I stopped by the Cumbres and Toltec yard in Chama. They had just pulled K-37 #497 out of service and were busy moving the tender around. They attached it to the front of a K-36 with a chain and got going. Then they tried to stop...and the chain snapped. So I got to watch twenty guys go chasing a tender halfway through the Chama yard at 5mph...they eventually had a guy jump underneath and shove a chock in, brave guy!
 
Not so much as entertaining as the rest, but here's a jingle:
We are in the continuing process of installing a 1400' siding at the Rochester And Genesee Valley Railroad Museum to store our 700ft long consist of Empire state cars that remained in Webster New York on the Ontario Midland for the past 10+ years. Well, in the spur's early construction stages, We didn't have alot of Ballast underneath the ties, just a fair amount. As you can imagine, as we spiked each tie, we had to use a lining bar to prop the tie up so a spike driver(not a machine, Muscle power here. :p) could send her home. Well, pretty much every one of us were very tired, even me, the young buck of the crew, from spiking. (One tie, all 8 spikes is not an easy task!!)

So, we decided to "Up" the process... By applying a Air driven spike driver, that looks like a jack hammer, and acts on the same motion principal, to a few ties.

Guess who got to balance the tie with the Lining bar?:hehe:

I'm sure I left the museum that day, with a scrambled brain, let alone still shaking, from all that vibration.

Would I do it again?

In a heartbeat. :cool:

Sean
 
In the Spring at Chi Town Union station, he 2 rail O scale model railroad I help out at, we had a group of people in form the Detroit Model Railroad Club (DMRC) on Saturday night. I had my train stopped in the main yard and was getting a slice of pizza they brought in for us, the oporators. James, a firend and fellow oprator, was helping a young member of DMRC run a 35 car mixed fright on the B&O. As the train, a C&O Berkshire 2757, came to the sumit on the B&O, the 5th car came loose and ran free throught the whole layout. Luckly the B&O is a 3 track loop, with 1 train on each track, so we didnt have to worry about it crashing in to any thing. We ran 2757 around and pushed the train to a spot where we could see it and noticed that the coupler had came out of one of the box cars. James and I then looked all over the track where the train had came loose tring to find the coupler. But all we could find was the plate holding the coupler on to the car, the screw, and the washer's. But no coupler. I took the car into the back room to put a new coupler on, and James worked on putting the train back together. Thats when James found the lost coupler. It has managed to stay coupled to the car that was in front of the broken box car.

After taking a good long look at every thing, we could only conclude that the screw had came lose and fell out, resulting in the coupler falling apart.
 
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