S Photo Fun: Workin' on Labor Day

Very nice photos.

Rusty,

Nice vignette.  Thanks for posting it on the forum!

Mike A.

Nice photos, Rusty!

quote:

Nobody likes to work on Labor Day weekend, but the work of the railroad must go on.

Tell me about it. Come 5:30 AM Labor Day Monday I'll be up and at 'em and heading off to climb into the cab of an Alco and taking care of business. Why, what better way to celebrate Labor Day than laboring, eh?  Upside: They're going to pay me a mighty pretty penny for working on a holiday!

quote:

While switching in Iola, an NKP boxcar split a switch, creating minor mayhem.

 

Uh oh, that one hits pretty close to home. The last derail I was involved in a few weeks go was due to a car splitting a switch while switching in the yard.  Part of the train followed me, and the other part took the south lead... needless to say one of the cars was stretched between the two before I could get'em stopped.  Even plugging them at 8 MPH doesn't stop you immediately when handling 20+ cars.

Happy Labor Day all!

Hi John!

Nope, not a word.  Not much an Engineer can do when the wheels pick a switch.  After watching to the rear for a grade crossing, I turned back around to look at the train, saw it was splitting the switch a couple cars back and dumped the air, or it would have been even worse.

Some blocks of wood judiciously placed, some deft throttle/brake work, and we were back on the rail in short order.  (We had to drag one truck over two rails to get to the lead track so we could re-rail it.)  This sort of thing happens.

The worst low-speed split switch derail I've had was when easing down a 4% grade with several loads while switching at a lime plant on the side of a mountain.  The lead truck of the car directly behind the engine split a switch, I felt the tug in the seat of my pants, turned around in the seat to see what that was and instantly dumped the air. The weight of the cars pushing the derailed car pulled the rear of the engine's rear truck off the track as well as completely derailing (both trucks) the head car.  The rear of engine was about pointed about 25 degrees from the front of the engine. Pretty nasty derail for such a slow speed incident. Took the rest of the day and then some to right things and repair the track.