Frozen ... weather & Locomotives .. part two. in Tales of the Jointed Track

The load leaves, all is good or is it ? NOT.

I am close to a 7/11, my dinner is cold. I go for a BIG Coffee, and the next best thing, “ROLLER FOOD”. A well done, over cooked, shriveled up Hot Dog, on a stale hard dried up bun, with packet Mustard. What did Patrick Henry say? !! “Give me Roller Food or Give me death !!!. Okay, he didn’t. Plus he, and the British would have killed themselves over this … “What you call this food ?” lol .

The Cell phone rings, its the trick dispatcher. “I have a train out of the Air Force Academy , are you close”? “Yes, I am at Monument” The dispatcher says he is going to re-crew at Monument, and the crew states they have an alarm, coming into the Monument siding. I tell him, I’ll head for the south end at Baptist road, and take the M.O.W. road to the siding. I’m 10 minutes away. I put the truck into four wheel drive, and slog up the road next to the railroad tracks. A few drifts, but the section has been through, during the day, so its sort of easy going. I call the crew,” I need to attach, and if you trade off with the relief crew, they need to know I am back here”. “Okay Set and Centered..mentor attaching”. It is cold, the cab had really cooled, the unit is D-E-A-D, dead. The alarm bell is ringing, I silence it by placing the run switch into ISOLATE. I reset what I need to, I go into the electrical cabinet, hit the diagnostic switch, which will give me access, deeper into the engineer screens. I’ll mess with this later, I want to see if I can get this pig to fire over. I look at oil and water levels, they are where they need to be. The engine is still operating temperature, and I don’t smell anything odd. I prime the diesel, there are a lot of air bubbles, coming through the sight glass, usually this clears, within a minute. I run the switch to start, and it cranks, but I can’t hear, the diesel wanting to fire off. The cylinders aren’t popping like they do. I’ll bet its out of fuel, or due to the grade, what ever minimal fuel, cant reach the pumps. I get on the ground and walk around both sides of the fuel tank, yep at zero, both gauges. Yes, they don’t run too, well with out fuel.

A typical BNSF C-44 EVO (Evolution Locomotive

The rear end of the EVO GE Locomotive. Where the “B” is the access for water sight glass and filling. Look to the left, The small air intake square there are two latches. Inside are magnet valve relays for the water control system. Pull off one wire of of each the water dumps into the tank and sight glass. This will give you an “actual reading of the water level.. Another story.

The other unit ahead, is dead as well. It is stone cold, and it is tagged, the battery switch, is pulled, all the circuit breakers are down. I look, in the engine room, at the water sight glass. REALLY, really, its February, it is 12 degrees, its going to be even colder as it heads north!! No one drained this locomotive. I don’t know if is frozen, but its been riding in below 30 degrees Fahrenheit weather for some time. The auto drain, didn’t activate, why, ??, because the battery switch was pulled, and the circuit isn’t hard wired. I open a vent, and open up the drain valve. I hear water rushing out the side of the locomotive. There is no steam, no trace of heat, but it is flowing. I stay until I am sure its drained out. Hopefully its not frozen, but if it is, its now a BNSF problem. So what its only a 1 year old $ 7,000,000 , or more piece of equipment…Chump change . Yes sir, and it went through the former BN shop fuel facility part of Amarillo, TX. They fueled the lead unit, but what part of maybe the remote, needs about 2500 gallons maybe. Like the quote from a famous western.. Fuel…FUEL !!! we don need to stink’in FUEL!!

I hear a grain train calling the helpers, that they were lined over, on the pack set radio. I get to the other dead one, and get on the radio. I call the helper crew.. “I need your help, what unit do you have?” “It’s a 9421… Shoe” …fuck, it is not DP equipped. I ask them to hold, and not go past the Palmer Lake house track. “You good on hours of service?” “yes we have 3 hours left”. Well something is sort of going right.

I hear the relief crew call, Mike Labonte, is the engineer. I tell Mike, we have major problems back here. both units are dead and the “link” is out of fuel. He tells me the second unit is dead on the head end. One unit 123 cars, 12 degrees…what a frigging joke this is turning out to be.

I call the Chief, and the trick DS. Here’s the deal, here are the options, and you make the decision. Okay.. did I just drop the atom bomb here…?? I tell the Chief, per rule, and Mechanical operating procedures a dead locomotive on the DP consist, cannot be the last car. Plus now it is working on battery only, that’s going to last so long. There is no way to get a contract fueler in here. I tell the chief, the helper crew, can shove up and remain with the train, to Denver, place an ETD on in Denver..bring the helper, and the dead ones up to the head end. NO not happening.. okay fine with me. There is a 6100 series, coal unit, as an emergency motor, at Palmer lake house track. It is DP equipped.. The helper crew, can pick that up, bring it down and head north with the unit they have. The chief says, well have them set out the helper unit at Palmer Lake, pick up the other, and bring it down to Monument. Okay, what about the helper crew ?… I have a ride called for them. I tell the Chief, “The van will get stuck, I’ll ferry them down to Baptist Road, when we’re done.. Have the driver call us”.

I call Mike back, don’t remove the handbrakes just yet, we are going to have to “unlink” and “re link” to another unit. Okay.. I’ll kick this one out, as soon as, the computer will let me. I hear the air reduce, and the magnet valves open. While I wait for the train-line, to reduce to zero, I drain the locomotive as well. I tag it, showing that it is drained and out of fuel. The locomotive tells me, “end distributed power” and the touch window opens. I end it and wait for the add-on.

The helper crew shows about an hour later. we cut the train-line angle cock, between the last coal hopper and the locomotives. We make a locomotive air brake test, and get it set up for the new DP link. I call Mike with the new number and verify his head end. “Mike we’re set up for DP remote operation back here and dial yours in. He says, “we show ‘linked” I hear the brake pipe, come in, a whoosh of air, and the magnet valves resetting. The brake pipe ( train line ) is coming up and at 45 lbs, The magnet valves, start taking over and the brake valve kicks in. Now the train is charging from the rear, and the head end consists. I tell Mike, once we start the “brake pipe test” do not touch anything or change screens, till prompted. Or we’ll start all over again. The brake pipe flow winks to zero… Mike can see that as well for the DP consist, but I let him know anyway. He states he’s ready, and the computer is ready for the brake pipe test. We make the brake pipe test, and it runs through its cycle, and reports okay.

What is the brake pipe test? When these locomotives, the head and rear link up, they need to “know”, that they are in the same train. The locomotives not only “communicate’ via radio, but through the train line as well. The computer synchronizes the magnet and brake valves, so they work in unison. One brake valve is not fighting another, and they set and release the air brakes as a joint effort. Same way with the independent brakes as well.

I tell Mike, when it tells you to do the air test, then the Conductor can remove the handbrakes … I’ll let the Chief and the trick DS, know your about ready and you can contact the train dispatcher as well. I let the Chief know, and take the helper crew to the waiting crew van. They head back to Denver, I head for Big lift.

I write up the incident, but I include a separate email to my Supervisor only. I let him know, they may or may not be fortunate, on that locomotive, but they’ll find out if there is freeze damage anywhere. It will leak like a sieve, in the shop bay, when they get done with the other repairs. And how can they fuel the head end and not the remote? How can this get past the Diesel Service Facility (DSF), and not have anybody figure out that the other unit is dead and not even drained ?

I’m retired, but the more rules and regulations, they make, the stupider the work force got. There is no more common sense anymore . Grrrrrr !!!!

Last updated February 05, 2015