Twice in the last month I have seen a coal empty parked on the mainline on the east end of town with no crew onboard. The train sat for at least a half hour that I saw, thus plugging the main. The yard didn't seem to be plugged, so maybe dispatch ran a crew too close to their dead time? Haven't seen this kind of thing too often, and heads usually roll when it does. This was at Glendive, MT. :wideeyes:
It happens a lot here in gold bar with the empty coal trains except they stay here in the siding for 10-12 hrs almost like they are trying to keep the train in a load cycle as most the empty's that follow the 1st one also do the same thing here in gold bar so don't know what to say
Another possibility- I believe demand for coal is down right now. Winter mostly over. Moving those trains may be a lower priority now. Using crews for other purposes more important. I have heard some mines are slowing production and also laid off some personnel.
Its not unusual to let low priority trains choke & die but not usually on the main. The crew probably outlawed and a fresh crew probably wasn't rested at the time. This is a holiday weekend so most carriers try to run as few trains as possible to give the employees time off. Is this single track territory or multiple main track. Most of those coal district trains are on multiple track CTC so it's rather easy to run trains around on other tracks. Charlie
Yep! BNSF tried to maximize time off on holiday as best they could. They did pretty good around Thanksgiving,Christmas & New Year. Of course we always had the old head board hogs at Eola weep and wail when their job was annulled. They weren't going to get holiday overtime pay. I held a West Yard 1st shift job(7AM start) for a couple of weeks over a Christmas/New Years holiday period cuz the regular guy was on vacation and my seniority was enough to hold it. We worked Christmas Day. The YM gave a handful of switch lists, told us when we got that done, go home. The hogger was already out readying some power. The foreman and I looked at the lists, looked at each other...he said "Let's go"!We moved some cars that morning,safely AND carefully. I was home by 1PM helping my wife prepare Christmas dinner. When I worked commuter service and was able to hold #1232 regularly,we had all holidays off since holiday schedules were Sunday schedules and worked by the jobs that worked Sundays. Our job worked every other Saturday. I really liked that job and it paid well! When I finally did get set back up, it amounted to a pay cut for me. However I went on sick leave and then retired so I really didn't suffer all that much. Charlie
We actually annulled yard jobs here on the J over Christmas. Said they were going to do the same for New Years, Nope! I worked overtime even and was in the seat for a YEAR! ( bad joke I know)I did get "falshed" by two young ladies though so Happy New Year!!
