Frozen ... weather & Locomotives part 1 in Tales of the Jointed Track

As a troubleshooter,I was working again, another night rotation. At the time we traded off at the 31st Street yard office. We locked up the truck, we had valet keys, hid the ignition and the phone. we transferred our work phone to a cell phone, and made it work.

Its a cold night…Icy, and the snow has let up and its a cold S.O.B. period!!

I am still in the leftovers of rush hour traffic, heading towards Big Lift. The cell phone rings, its the Chief Dispatcher, Gloria. With Gloria, it’s a crisis, she’s in Ft Worth, at the NOC, and there is no bad weather. LOL. I’m doing good to be at 25 mph.

The crisis, and alarm out of Palmer Lake on a DP consist, coming into Monument. I’ll get there when I can. RING RING..now its the DS 16, Ezra. “We have a problem”. “Okay an alarm on the DP?”. “YES” “I am still fighting, rush hour traffic, icy weather I am on the way”. “I have him meeting a empty at Monument”. “Great have the head end crew on the empty see what’s going on with the DP’s, lemme know I am still on the way”. “Okay I’ll call you back”.

I can’t hear the radio.. I am too far out still… I am getting bits and pieces, as I struggle further southward . .
Highway conditions are still terrible, start hearing the radio conversation. “There is a ground relay condition, for dynamic braking, we cut out the circuit, no other defects” Thanks for the help was the reply. I still head southward .

The trains leave Monument, each in their own direction. The load says we’re on the way. The load tones up the mechanical channel. They answer, now the round of questions. “Did you physically go back”? “No” “Who corrected the problem”?, “The crew we met at Monument” “What did they do?” Plasma physics “Did they cut out the Dynamic braking circuit and go through the diagnostics”? Answer, we don’t know… the killer, “Well unless it is verified, it needs to be set out” The DS hears this, the Chief and the DS are calling, the crew they are playing STOOOPID.

My phone is off the hook. Yes Gloria I heard…“How quick can you be there”? “There is ice, I am making 25 mph, “I’ll get there “. “We need to get them going, okay override the mechanical”. Silence. The crew doesn’t care, and after 45 minutes I arrive, at North Colorado Springs siding. Yes The dynamic brake has a ground relay, yes it is cut out. Yes there is no axle lock out, and I tagged it. I call the Mechanical, the Chief, the DS… Get them going…

This gets better … see part two