What is the name of a "safety" wildcat engine?

JonMyrlennBailey

Well-known member
Some American roads historically may have used a lone locomotive, or wildcat, to scout the tracks ahead for signs of trouble, as track damage, bridge damage, tunnel collapses or fallen trees, so that following passenger trains may safely pass.

Apparently, Amtrak, being cheap, provides no such service to train patrons in modern times or many deaths could have been avoided in some Amtrak disasters.

The infamous 1993 Sunset Limited Bayou Canot wreck is a classic case of serious lack of a wildcat safety engine ahead of the passenger train.
A boat had damaged the bridge but the RR signal gave the engineer of the train a false indication to "safely" proceed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU1gMaABA34

Is/was this called an "escort" engine or something else?

Do any Trainzers here run such scenarios in Driver?

It is like having an escort fighter plane for the security of large unarmed aircraft or
escort warships for merchant cargo ships in troubled seas for safe passage.
 
No there is no such widespread practice such as this except after floods, blizzards ... etc

It would cause twice as many trains on a track causing gridlock

The whole idea of a pilot train sent ahead of a consist is ludicrous

What if a MOW track inspection truck had passed over the bridge ... then minutes later the barge struck the bridge ... the train still would have gone off the bridge
 
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Most wrecks would not benefit from such a practice. Even the Sunset Limited wouldn't have, due to the timing of the bridge collision. In most cases, the wreck occurs due to a variable that occurs very close in time to the wreck. Most of the time when a track is damaged, it cuts the circuit and throws a signal.
 
I guess a single engine sent ahead without hauling a train might be called a "pilot" locomotive???

Perhaps lighting a train bridge well is the best preventative measure for such mishaps like the barge incident
as well as better equipping tug boats with more up-to-date marine electronics for navigation (GPS, sonar)
and having more comprehensive USCG-approved training requirements for the pilots of such boats.

Perhaps some kind of shock sensor that trips a signal whenever a train bridge is struck substantially might also have helped.
 
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In the UK we would call such an engine a pilot engine. They were only used when the royal train was in operation. The practice was that the pilot loco would traverse to route and when had been observed successfully passing a signal box the levers would remain in place, untouched until the royal train itself had passed.

A pilot locomotive also refers to the front locomotive of a double header, the second loco is referred to as the train engine.
 
In California's Feather River Canyon during the winter and during bad weather there are hi-railers used as pilots. They call them broncos. They proceed 1 mile ahead of the train through the areas that are prone to rock slides (a common thing in the canyon)
 
I guess a single engine sent ahead without hauling a train might be called a "pilot" locomotive???

Perhaps lighting a train bridge well is the best preventative measure for such mishaps like the barge incident
as well as better equipping tug boats with more up-to-date marine electronics for navigation (GPS, sonar)
and having more comprehensive USCG-approved training requirements for the pilots of such boats.

Perhaps some kind of shock sensor that trips a signal whenever a train bridge is struck substantially might also have helped.


It was pretty much a freak accident, and the bridge wasn't over a navigable river. Lights on the bridge would have done nothing since the headlight sure didn't help the crew when they saw the bridge being off kilter. And we already have a system in place to detect the rails being broken. Things just went wrong in all the wrong ways with that accident. Sometimes such events happen, and all of the safety things in place fail.

That being said, we do regularly patrol the rails with MOW crew in high rail vehicles. But they aren't in front of every train.
 
It was pretty much a freak accident, and the bridge wasn't over a navigable river. Lights on the bridge would have done nothing since the headlight sure didn't help the crew when they saw the bridge being off kilter. And we already have a system in place to detect the rails being broken. Things just went wrong in all the wrong ways with that accident. Sometimes such events happen, and all of the safety things in place fail.

That being said, we do regularly patrol the rails with MOW crew in high rail vehicles. But they aren't in front of every train.


I was going to say something similar. But I will add that with this accident, the barge pilot and crew were totally messed up right from the beginning. They tried to navigate in extremely dense fog, did not have a compass and had radar but didn't know how to read it. When they captain navigated up the wrong river and slammed into the bridge pier, he thought he had slammed into another barge and attempted to push it out of the way, thus knocking the bridge off its foundation just a tiny bit.

A westbound CSX freight then crossed over the bridge, causing it to move a bit more out of alignment, but not enough to trigger the signals to drop to red which caused the Amtrak engineer to continue on a full speed. If the track was completely severed, he would have received a red and stopped, but that wasn't the case.

It was an interesting accident and very sad one at that. I saw a program on it a couple of weeks ago on the History Channel.

I doubt that a scout or hi-rail vehicle in advance of this train would have prevented the accident.

John
 
John, how's the weather up there? I was wondering if any trainzers up north would have be able to access the forums. Only about a half-inch here, but my aunt, who lives not far from the Tennessee-Virginia border, got 5 1/2 inches of snow, while my sister, who lives in Atlanta, only got ice.
 
About 20 Inches here just South of DC... almost white out conditions... .gonna be a long time coming to dig out
 
Are you guys also getting sub zero temperatures as well, we people in Chicago had about almost a week of sub zero temperatures with the wind chill.
 
Got about 18-22 inches here in NW Jersey, the prediction is around 30" once it's done. Since it is a Nor Easter we are on the back end, it gets worse as you go east toward NYC.
 
It's a southern storm which will be heading out to sea below Cape Cod, which means everyone south of the North Shore is getting snow and we've been spared this time. We have the cold, burr-type cold, but little snow. According to the NWS (www.weather.gov), we might get an inch total.

I wish you all lots of luck digging out. I don't miss it since we had our share last year. :)

John
 
As I understand the bayou event the rails were bent out of position more then enough to cause a derailment and subsequent wreck but not actually broken so no faulty signal occurred. Plus being a fixed bridge it might not have had signaling at all (not entirely certain about this).

In Florida in the 60's there strike against the FEC got to the point sabotage was being done to track and bridges so every train was proceeded about a mile ahead by an automobile on flanged wheels. I saw them as I was stationed right by the tracks when I was in the USCG. The strike was finally settled a few years ago (yup - it went on that long).

Ben
 
As I understand the bayou event the rails were bent out of position more then enough to cause a derailment and subsequent wreck but not actually broken so no faulty signal occurred. Plus being a fixed bridge it might not have had signaling at all (not entirely certain about this).

In Florida in the 60's there strike against the FEC got to the point sabotage was being done to track and bridges so every train was proceeded about a mile ahead by an automobile on flanged wheels. I saw them as I was stationed right by the tracks when I was in the USCG. The strike was finally settled a few years ago (yup - it went on that long).

Ben

I remember hearing about that with the hi-railers running ahead of the trains.

From what I saw on the TV show, the bridge its self wasn't signaled but the line was so if the tracks were broken, the signal would have dropped, but in this case the rails were bent out of alignment, but not enough to break a rail joint.
 
I guess a single engine sent ahead without hauling a train might be called a "pilot" locomotive???

Perhaps lighting a train bridge well is the best preventative measure for such mishaps like the barge incident
as well as better equipping tug boats with more up-to-date marine electronics for navigation (GPS, sonar)
and having more comprehensive USCG-approved training requirements for the pilots of such boats.

Perhaps some kind of shock sensor that trips a signal whenever a train bridge is struck substantially might also have helped.

It is my understanding that the operator running the tug at the time the bridge was hit was not properly trained in the operation of the radar on that vessel. Because of that, the USCG required anyone having a valid USCG license to pass a five day radar course and have a radar endorsement put on their license. That endorsement has to be renewed every five years by taking a refresher course and having the license updated.

Maritime employees have yearly training and physicals they must pass to keep their documents up to date and licenses and seaman's documents are renewed every five years.

For most companies the USCG requires all personnel to have a valid and current First Aid and CPR card.

Bottom line is: You can have all the fancy electronics in the world stuffed in the wheelhouse, but if you don't know how to use it, it's just a bunch of junk.

Thank goodness I'm retired.

Regards,

 
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I saw a show about it a while back, and I do remember several things.
1. The pilot of the tugboat, who had experience with radar, had the relief captain, who had no experience with radar, pilot the tugboat. The relief captain was at the helm at the time of the impact with the bridge, while the captain was in his quarters, asleep.
2. The area in which the derailment occurred was covered in fog, which made the relief captain accidently steer the boat, and barges, down the canal where the bridge was.
3. The canal had a marker at the entrance that basically said 'do not enter'. However, the amount of fog obscured the marker, basically making the marker 'invisible'. The radar showed that the boat way straying from its path, but the relief captain was unable to read radar.
4. The bridge was actually built as a swing bridge, but was modified to stay in place.
5. When the barges hit the column that the bridge was position on, the force of the barges caused the bridge to 'shift' sideways on the column, causing the rails to 'kink'.
6. The signal was designed so that when the swing bridge was 'open', an electrical short would cause the signal to change from green to red. However, when the bridge was modified to stay in place, either:
A. rail joints were added to connect the track on the swing bridge to the track on either side of the bridge. Therefore, the signal always showed green. However, if they did that, the rail joints would have broken and the rails would have been aligned with each other, which would cause the signal to show red.
B. the rails on the swing bridge, including the approach spans, were replaced with only two rails running from one end of the track to the other. However, since the track was now unable to move, the signal would be removed.
C. they did the same as in B, but left the signal, letting it show 'green' constantly.
7. The train was running late due to mechanical problems with the air conditioning on one of the Superliner sleeper cars in New Orleans, which was fixed before leaving town. Had it not been delayed, the train would have made it over the bridge before the barge hit the bridge.
8. The area in which the derailment occurred was a very remote location, making it hard for rescue services to get there quickly.
That's all that I can think of now. But if I remember anything else, I'll go ahead and make another post.
 
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