@Rule292 posted:Not sure if you know how railroad maintenance works. Railroads really do have experts to do these things and they do them day in and day out. Twenty four hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
And a ton of specialized equipment to spot defective equipment, rail, track structures, and the like.
Yes, they really do have people who know what to look for. And equipment to spot the things people can't see.
Nope, they don't look for a little sticker on the car and take it to the dealer or the corner garage to have an inspection mechanic look at the tires, brakes, exhaust system and windshield wipers before the sticker expires at the end of the month.
Actually, this USED to be true, but isn't any longer. Because of PSR they've gotten rid of many of those "experts" and what they're left with is a handful of poorly trained, unexperienced people with too large a region to cover and not enough time to do anything they SHOULD be doing. Over 20,000 railroad workers were laid off in 2020 alone, over 3500 of them at NS. Maintenance suffers. Inspections suffer. Safety suffers.
On the UP, trainmen are instructed to not bad order cars because it increases dwell time, with no concern for safety. Odds are this happens at other class 1 railroads that subscribe to PSR as well.
