Road Diaries 01-03-31

I have a feeling this topic may get too big. So I'll try to break it down, Week to week or something like that. Anyway Saturday Morning I was ordered as a Sperry Car pilot. We took it from London to Windsor Yard. As I type this they should be testing both sides of the Detroit River tunnel. I was ordered for 0700 in the morning, but we didn't get out of London until 0810. The car itself is restricted to 40 MPH, and 15 MPH over Diamonds. It took us three hours and fifteen minutes to get to Windsor, as we only had one meet at Belle River. Once we got into Windsor yard, we put the car on the turntable to spin her around, and then put her on a shop track. Before I forget, It was SRS 119. So then it was time to go home. I asked the ATC(assistant terminal co-ordinator) to call up Montreal about my ride home. They said that I had to go by train because I was alone. So 516/2922 was coming out of the tunnel at that time, so the ATC asked them to stop at Dougall Ave. for me. They had the 5550, 5536, and the(suprise)NS 3316 for power. As it was mostly a grain train and CP didn't have the power that train needed, so the crew got the extra unit from out of NS Oakwood yard.

 

As always, it is very interesting for us non-railroad employees to hear what the real railroad experiences you are having. It gives us a much better feeling about how to run our model railroads.
Thanks for sharing with us.

 

Oh the joys of getting ordered after Daylight Savings Time begins! I got called at 0520 in the morning, but of course my clock still showed 04:20! Confused as I could be at the time, I accepted the call for train 544-31 for 0720 in the morning. As I got ready in my morning stuper, I wondered why they were all of a sudden giving me a three hour call. It finally dawned on me after my shower! Anyway I show up to the yard office in London in time. The ATC then says, "What train are you here for"? I reply, "544". She then says, "Huh? - That's not showing ordered until 0830"! Sure enough that's when my hogger was ordered for(wish I could of got an extra hour of sleep)! Anyway we had two SOO's for power, the 6059 and the 6002 - SD60M/SD60. We were very short and heavy, 40 cars - 2620' 4719tons. We had a straight shot to Toronto Yard. We were off duty at 1250, as there was a string of trains waiting to get in and out of the yard. Any way got a call for 2000 in the hotel - I was deadheading home. They have a track block on today, didn't catch where. So no trains will be running duruing certain times this week.

 

Thank you for the update, I'm wondering what drives the track block? Is it a right-of-way, signalling, Maintenance issue or?? Take care, Bobby

 

'CHECK THE DATE'

I was ordered at 2000 hrs on 3/31 for a relief crew out of Saratoga, NY to taxi to CSX Selkirk for an outlawed train. This appeared to be a great call as it should only be about 5 hours on duty to get the train back to Saratoga (52 miles).
We boarded the train already made up at Selkirk, got immediate response from the Car Dept. for a brake test and were out of there in less than 20 minutes. For the 'Black Hole of Selkirk' that had to be a record. Train was a joy with 3 CP SD40-2s (5690,6024,5631) and only 27 cars. My conductor and I were happy and anticipating an easy ride. We took the train to Kenwood Yard at Albany, dropped the 27 cars and picked up 27 other cars for Montreal. Again no problems, in and out in 30 minutes. Nothing but green signals as we made our way towards Saratoga were the regular pool crew was supposed to take the train to Montreal. The time was just after midnight and my conductor was already putting his stuff away as we came to the distant signal for Saratoga Yard. Instead of an Approach indication signaling entry to the yard we got a clear. I immediately called the dispatcher to see what was up.
His reply was, "There's no pool crew rested, Saratoga Yard is full and they want the power for a couple of trains in the morning. Take those cars to Whitehall (42 miles) and bring the power back to Saratoga, check the date, HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY, but this isn't a joke.

So much for the early quit. We worked until 0545 (0645 with the time change) instead of getting done at 0100. That's life on the high iron!

[ 02 April 2001: Message edited by: Big Al ]

 

Thanks for the stories guys, especially you Al, since you work the area I'm familiar with. And I agree, that must be a record for getting out of Selkirk.

Don't know if you noticed, but you are emblazoned on the entry to this forum, when you came down on 1/21/01 to Kenwood.

 

Well I've had a busy week here. Sorry I haven't kept up here. On Wednesday morning, I got ordered for train 419 for 0500. Well I showed up to the yard office, I printed off the consist, and DOB's. The consist was showing we were 6340' long and we were 5156 for our tonnage. For power we had the 5536, and 5550, kind of familiar! But by 0530 I was wondering where my hogger was! I guess he had asked for an hour call, but Montreal had forgot to order him! So he showed up around 0700 and we were off. With this train, once you get to Woodstock. You have to check the CN transfer, wether there are cars there or not. In today's case there were two there for us to lift. We then got the train together and went out to Coakley storage track, which is about three miles up the road. We set off 28 cars, mostly CAMI multies. After these moves we were 3970' long and about 2900 tons. Our next move was at Galt, where we lifted four Toyota Multies, which brought us up to 4270' long and 3400 for tonnage. Then we were off to Lambton Yard. The ATC told us to yard the train into tracks seven and a cut into track four for proper marshalling of the train. This train can arrive here anywhere fron 4000' - 6000' long, but there's always more at Lambton for it. This day it was being filled out too 9000' long. Also they usually swap out power as the North end usually uses AC44's or SD90's. We left Lambton at 1215 and headed to Toronto yard about an hour later. We were off duty in the hotel at 0100.

Coming home We were ordered on train 507 at 2000. We had the 5940, and the 5917, as well abot 2500' feet of train leaving Toronto yard. We had one lift at Lambton, eight cars out of track six. This broght us up to 2366' and 4314 for tonnage. We had a nice run up the hill at Guelph Jct. at about 20 MPH. Lots of trains to meet though. Once we got to the top of the hill we had to let the Expressway pass us. We had to meet a train at Killean(Galt East), Go in the hole(take the siding) At Orrs lake for three trains. 122, 502, and the Ham turn. Then because the Expressway was ahead of us, he blazed us a path all the way to London. As all of our meets had to take the siding for him. By the time we got into London and off duty it was 0200.

 

Driver8, sorry for the ignorant question ... but what is a "DOB"?

Thanks, Hank

 

Well last night I was ordered for the Ham Turn, which goes to Hamilton. It is our only regulaur train that goes down there, so it has to lift all D&H traffic. It starts out of London at 2000 six nights a week. The train is supposed to be ready, and brake tested by the time we come on duty. But, as I came in the door the afternoon yard crew was on break, and told me they hadn't even begun it yet! Well got to hang out and chat in the Yard office for two and a half hours while the yard crew slaved away. By 2200 though they were finishing up, so my crew went out on the power (3038,3032)to break test it. Brake tests are very important on this job because we will be going down th steepest grade CP Rail has in the east. Hamilton mountain, actually a part of the Niagra Escarpment, has our tack winding down it for eight miles at a grade exceeding 1.5 percent. Some western railroaders may scoff at this, but we are used to it being flat! Anyway, the yard crew was done, and I told the engr to pull ahead, as the ATC told us we may have a cut. Well we had a few extra cars in our train! Well we switched them out, and brake tested ourselves. By the way the last car on our train was a CP flat, with a GM frame bound for Alstom in Hornell N.Y. It looked almost like a F59PHI frame, but I didn't know. It was painted Dark blue. Anyway it was 0012 when we left London, and we had to clear the main at Nissouri. The first siding out of town, for three westbounds. Then we were on our way to Woodstock, we set four cars off, and lifted one. We then cleared at Coakley to let 502 and 122 by us. Why hold up two 60MPH trains when we have special dangerous commodities, and restricted to 35MPH in places. Our next meet was at Wolverton. 507 Was going in the hole for the three of us, but they got scannered by a hot box detector at mile 64. So we waited in line for them to check things out, and get in the clear. The next stop for us was at Galt to lift 7 Multies out of Toyota. We then cleared at Killean after our lift for 737. Once we got to the Guelph Jct. we track released on the Galt Sub. and went for another clearance down to Hamilton. By the time we had arrived at the Junction it was 0505, it was getting twoards those difficult hours in a railroaders day. When we enter the main track at hte Junction it is mile 76.1 It is pretty flat in compaison to what we are going to encounter for the next eight miles. At mile 68 it starts to dip down, and by mile 66 it really starts. Very, very sharp curves, track speed is 15MPH, and not that I don't trust my engineer, but you do keep your eyes peeled on that speedometer. Well we got to the bottom in one piece, but once we were there were held for some GO trains. Well we got our final clearance into Kinnear yard, and instructions from the RTC. By the time we had arrived we were about 1550' long and about 1622 for tonnage. And we were off duty at 0805. We were over twelve hours to get over the road. We were on manditory because of going over our twelve hours. We all agreed we had a long enough night and told Montreal CMC that we were going to the hotel, and would call them once we woke up to get our deadhead home. Well I was back in London at 1430, so I went looking for a digital camera. Didn't buy one but by the end of the month....

 

DOB Stands for Daily Operating Bullitin. They tell us where we have speed restrictions, or any other type of restricion which in any way may inhibit our passage. Such as dimentional traffic. Ours are issued at 0001 every day and are good until the same time the next day.

 

We also use DOB's here at CN Driver8 , I am back on the Conductors board , first time since 1996 , I choose not to exercise my seniority at other terminals , but if Port Huron needs more Engineers , I will be the first added back .

My road diaries are non-existant , I have been cashing in on all the personal days I gained since becoming a Conductor . I took one yesterday , got one for Saturday , I haven't worked since the 31st of March

 

multi's are enclosed auto rack cars for carrying two or three levels of new autos. Multi-level auto racks.

 

I was thining that was what "multies" were.!!

 

Hello, everyone I'm back form Detroit, I was ordered for train 515 at 2200. It starts out in Toronto Yard and terminates in the NS Oakwood yard in Detroit. We were told by the ATC in London that we should hustle, because there was a 9100' 534 - 8560 approaching us from the CN! That once he got to Melrose, and on CP that we'd be stuck in London for a while, as he'd have the yard all plugged up. We had to lift 18 cars out of two tracks as well. We were all done our work by 2300, the RTC gave us a clearance to Lobo, the first siding out of town. He cleared, and the RTC cleared us to Glencoe, where we met three trains, 500 - 8503, 738 - 5567, and 502 - 5748. We were there for about an hour and a half. The Engr and I gave our 10 hour rest notice. So the RTC cleared us then all the way to Walkerville, where the CTC begins in Windsor. Along the way we had to set off 9 cars at Chatham. CP interchanges alot of Sarnia traffic to the CSX here. By the time we cleared at Walkerville it was 0450, at that time Windsor informed us that we'd be setting off in two locations on our train. We knew that there were two cars on the head end, but we had to set one off, 50 cars back as well. By the time wwe set off from both locations in our train, and I walked up to the head end it was 0630. With our notice given for 0800, our window for going over the border had closed. They give us 0130 to get the light for the tunnel, and yard the train. So I tied down the train on the connecting track to the Tunnel, and we called it a day at 0715 in the morning. By the way, it was a beautiful night to work. After some thunderstorms passed through our area, the temperature started to rise, by the time we got to Windsor it was 70 degrees out at 6 in the morning! Well spent a beautiful day in the hotel sleeping, woke up at around 1600, so I took a walk. Didn't get ordered until' 2130 for train 508, Detroit Oak - Montreal Hochelaga. It had the 6063, 1100, and a 5600 for power(that's where it went Jon!). Once we got over to the other side, there was a crew doubling out on train 500, Minneapolis/Chicago - Montreal. Our train was coming, but nowhere near. So 500's crew offered there train to us, since our round trip was at 24 hours so far. We had the 6071, and 5650 for power, almost 6200' of train. Well we pulled through Detroit at our usual pace of about 10 - 15MPH. As we rounded the curve at West Detroit, I see the signals first. So I called out that we had a Restricting, and a Clear to Limited signal. The latter meaning we were all lined up into the tunnel. well as we passed the old NYC/Michigan Central Passenger Depot we saw that in fact we wern't lined up for the tunnel at all. The CN RTC had given us a Slow to Stop signal next, but as we stopped she changed it to a Limited to Clear. Once the Engr. got the air back up we proceeded, we were only doing about 10 MPH and had just taken the signal when she threw a Red Board on us! It seems that she was confused as the Expressway was about to leave at the same time. Luckily for the both of us, we wern't going fast yet and stopped in time. Once we got to the other side we contacted our RTC and she gave us a clearance to Kent Bridge, but we had to take the siding at Walkerville for the Expressway to pass us, and blaze our path! At Kent Bridge 515, STL&H 5619 was in the hole. At Glencoe 921, 5808, and at Longwood 507, 5703 were also nicely tucked away for us. It's kind of nice to do a bag on - bag off(no work) trip somtimes! Off duty at 0300 in London, and 0415 of excess lay in the hotel. They have to pay us if we are in the hotel in excess of 10 hours! Anyway I'm getting tired, feel free to ask me anything if you don't know the lingo, or whatever.