Train on Fire (PICS)
 

It was a normal day in Sharon Springs, KS, when a Union Pacific crew boarded a loaded coal train for the long trek to Salina.

Just a few miles into the trip a wheel bearing became overheated and melted, letting a metal support drop down and grind on the rail, creating white hot molten metal droppings spewing down to the rail..

A very alert crew noticed smoke about halfway back in the train and immediately stopped the train in compliance with the rules.

The train stopped with the hot wheel over a wooden bridge with creosote ties and trusses. The crew tried to explain to higher-ups but were instructed not to move the train! They were instructed “The Rules” prohibit moving the train when a part is defective!

http://www.amateurdough.com/stuff/train1.jpg

http://www.amateurdough.com/stuff/train2.jpg

http://www.amateurdough.com/stuff/train3.jpg

http://www.amateurdough.com/stuff/train4.jpg

A friend just sent me this, sorry if it's not fresh news to some of you.

Rules that dont bend can cost Millions and more.

So much for wooden bridges.

Cool looking pix

The Little Engine that Couldn't. :(

That's depressing.
http://img.slate.com/media/97/020626_Amtrak.jpg

Sounds like some boss is about to get 'fired'.

Sweet, amazing pics

great pics

Damn, thats sad..

Yea, they should have said fuck the rules and moved the train.. Dumb.

holy crap
:(

It takes courage to do what you know is right in the face of your superiors wrath.

That happened in 2002.

Awesome pics!

Definitely

amazing.......

Tomud

Retarded bosses....

90% accurate. For the whole story - http://www.arizonarails.com/bad_day.html

Might seem like that right thing to do in the situation, but if they had broken operating rules, the entire crew would have lost their jobs. On the railroad the rules are strict, and you best fucking abide by them if you want to keep your job. From what I've read here I doubt anyone received any shit whatsoever.

It's not something that was under their control. Wheels lock up and drag on train cars regularly. It's why the railroad has what's known as a roll-by. Any time a train passes by a ground crew, the ground crew is expected to do a roll-by check, in Canada on CN track it's known as rule 110. The whole point being that you're watching for locked tires or anything dragging beneath the train that could cause problems. Generally you'll hear a bad bearing screaming at you from way down the track and it will make noise for a long time. That being said, bearings can fail and wheels can lock up very quickly.

The article said this happened on mainline track, which leads me to believe that they were probably traveling at fairly high track speeds. That wheels would have gotten hot very fast dragging along at 50-60+ mph. It's just shitty luck that they happened to stop the train for inspection with the hot axle right above a wooden bridge. But moving the train at that point would have broken their operating rules, and on the railroad, those rules are written in stone.

The other thing that should be mentioned is just how easily you can light up a creosote tie. A spark will fizzle on top of a tie for minutes before lighting up. I ran a spiker for a while and yu used to see it all the time. You'd miss a plate hole a little bit and chuck some sparks out. 10-15 minutes later you'd turn around and look back and a tie would be up in flames 200-300 yards behind you :1orglaugh During fire bans we had a guy in a truck follow up behind the crew watching for fires. I just hope nobody failed the ensuing piss test. :1orglaugh

Back when I was operating equipment on the track I once missed a day of work. We always had a trained backup for the operators as the machines were pretty specialized. My backup operator was an idiot, and at the end of the day shutdown the machine and didn't know how to get it started again. They wound up barring the machine to another and towing it down the tracks. Well, when the machine is powered down, the brakes autplock as a safety feature to keep things from runnign away when you're gone. Those back wheels got so fucking hot they lit up the floor mats and seats of the machine, and within minutes they entire thing burnt right in the middle of the tracks. I showed up to work the next day and my machine was a charred hunk of shit.

When something like that happens, really all you can do is get everybody out of the way to safety and watch things take their course. Maybe snap a few photos! And I'm glad someone did. Gonna forward these on to some buddies who are still working on the tracks.

nice pics, depressing scenerio though

I love how in stories like this the grunts always know more than those damn pencil pusher 'higher-ups'.

damn! that doesen´t seem right... cool shot anyways!

crazy stuff. Looks like they could have moved the train a bit.

wow that's fucked up.

cool pics :-)

In alot of cases THEY DO. Especially on the railroad. If you've been there you'd know what I mean. Trackwork is alot of "calling it as you see it". Who better to know the job than those who do it? If it were my call, I would have dropped the switch man and sent him back to count cars until the bridge had been cleared. But that is not operating procedure, and they did the "right" thing by not moving. Had they took matters into their own hands they could have pulled the train another half mile or so up, saved the bridge, and mostly avoided disaster, maybe burnt up a car or two and a few ties. No biggy. If the axles were hot enough to hit whitehot, they were being pulled with a locked up axle for a good few miles already. It sounds stupid but that's the way it is, railroad rules are enforced like law. Even though they likely lost millions in revenue while having a mainline track shutdown, and there was a likelihood that things could have been avoided simply by pulling the train ahead, you don't disobey the rules if you want to keep working.

Here's what would have went down. A hotbox detector or onboard sensor spotted a hot axle, train crew was alerted by radio (this is done automatically), train crew alerts RTC (rail traffic control) of the situation, train crew performs spot check, radios back to RTC the situation and suggests that the train be moved forward, operating rules forbid movement of the train and RTC politely tells them in radio-safe language that if that train moves they are all fucking done, train crew steps back and watches train and bridge burn down as they wait for emergency and cleanup crew to show up.

Seriously, had they moved that train, the whole crew likely would have lost their jobs, or at the very least been hit with heavy demerits against them. In Canada we have the CROR to dictate railroad operations, as well as strict company to company rules. Not sure what the States' equivalent of the CROR is, but I don't imagine they operate much differently. Around CN, the Rules book is known by alot of people as "the book of blood", it is full of FUCKING RETARDED operating rules. If you don't believe me, here's a couple prime examples.

There is an entire 2-3 page section outlining proper office operating procedures, with helpful tips like "don't stick your hand blindly into filing cabinets, this can result in paper cuts." "be sure to watch each step while ascending staircases to avoid tripping." Or my lifelong favorite "Do not dry work clothing in furnaces or bunkhouse ovens."

Failure to adhere to these rules, or ANY rule in the book for that matter can result in a reprimand. Now start thinking about what can happen when you break a serious operating rule!

Ahhh, I miss the tracks sometimes :Oh crap

Yeah once that wood gets burning it pretty much over with. That was a shitty day. That bearing just cost that freight company ALOT of money. Take out the rebuilding of the bridge cost, just the lack of trains moving.. WOW

Part of me would really like to have my camera at a scene like that.

I had a response to this all made up, but it would be lost on all but the OP. Damn the luck

Sometimes it's better not to obey the rules.Way better!

Wow pretty amazing pics thanks
You can never tell your superior that he/she is wrong ..they just dont listen most of the time and then wonder why things go bad on them

So fucked up. :(

Mainline track man, the money lost off trains not moving was an easy 10x larger than the cost of that bridge. Even with the cost of an emergency rush on the building of it.

Not if you want to keep your job. :2 cents: