RR Trip Report - sub zero

Called for the LAUPAS at 1200 noon.
FURX former BN green unit on the point and an orange repaint SD40-2 unit trailing = 6000hp
25L 2E 4500T 1600FT 2.2HPT 109.2TOB

Out of the roundhouse in under 10 min... on train at 1230... needed a new train list twice... still, we left in 1'10'... my asst. Engineer layed off but I had a good extra board guy... it was snowing and a brutally cold -8 at Toston but everything worked.... no signal trouble, no power problems... we had a 27 car train... didn't stop for a meet... just thru the yard at Livingston... caught a grain train on Winston hill... the Helena helper crew was dog catching it.... they went into the long lead and parked it... got the Carter crossovers for us... we parked in south 2... Total time on duty 9'00"

No evidence of the derailment that occured at Carter Ave. during my time off at home... fresh snow covered it all maybe... the track showed no ill effects.

take care,

http://BearSTOC.com/
http://mdturley.smugmug.com/
http://mtengr.blogspot.com/
I took a little phone movie as we were coming under I90 and over the Yellowstone River just east of Reed Point, MT....

RR trip report - More Winter Rules

Called yesterday for the LAUSPO
ON DUTY 1630
OFF DUTY 0740
TT 15'10"
BNSF1072 & BNSF903 (former ATSF sil/red)
62 cars 4455tons 4200ft

Out of the roundhouse in under 20 minutes... TOE and TOW were out of the way... on train at 1700... air test took 50 min, no BO's...
SPURLING 1840-1905 meet 2
soloed Bozeman pass, the BNSF1072 dynamic suges wildly, it might have been the rail was slick, I expected 15 mph up the hill and we got down as low as 12 mph with 1.86 hpt.
BELGRADE 2310-2330 meet BNSF7776
LOMBARD 0035-0050 meet BNSF4746
then a track light and a broken rail... we died right there and the section high rail came to get us at LOMBARD at 0600... Everyone keep calling us to let us know they were coming to get us, like they felt sorry. It was unavoidable, we caught a nap, collected some OT... no big deal.

EShuttle to Helena...
Tie up 0740

all nighter no photos

http://BearSTOC.com/
http://mdturley.smugmug.com/
http://mtengr.blogspot.com/

RR trip report - Winter rules

Tied up in Helena at 0450 after 13'50" on duty... on the Coal train
I'm going to bed... more later

We got on the 1500 coal train yesterday at Spurling. 3 big units, an older EMD SDMac70BNSF9956 to lead 2 new GE's. It ended up being poor slip prone power and 115 cars with 16425 tons. High wind and snow didn't help. The switches at Big Timber were snowed in. It took us 45 min of digging snow to get into the siding to meet the Q train and a Coal mty. Picked up the MRL313 at Livingston and waited just a bit for the helpers. Stopped to cutoff the helpers at West End. Train went down the mountain with no struggle but after the air release it took 22 lbs to slow for the 35 at Bozeman and 22 again to stop at Belgrade. A high speed dynamic brake fault caused a brake warning light requiring more air brakes than usual. We were relieved at Townsend by the helpers... It was minus 8 at Toston. I didn't want to leave Toston with only 20 minutes to work... I knew our train needed helpers on the rear... I told the helper engineer who was instructed to put the helpers on the head end, that this coal train was a break in two waiting to happen without helpers on the rear... the chief knew it as well, but supposedly we were 15 tons under the "cutoff" guideline for helpers on the rear... I knew there was at least 15 tons of ice and snow on the train
Sure enough they broke in two on Winston hill I found out later.

And while I was asleep in Helena there was a derailment in Billings.
We deadheaded home 1330-1640