Railroaders place to shoot the shit.

Cy Valley · Upgraded Condition

Sad News

Snippy · Force Majeure

Damn, thats awful.

Ive seen swinging container doors thoroughly fuck up the weak ass corners of an SD40 cab. You got to wonder what the object was and which window it penetrated.

Pipes FC · Enemy of the State

I wonder why it says Conductor and Trainee on a train and not a member of the crew in the cab?

Cy Valley · Upgraded Condition

I've hit an open trailer door once long ago, didn't really do anything but we weren't going very fast.

BESSEMER, Ala.
Police in Bessemer are investigating after a Norfolk Southern train conductor trainee was killed early Tuesday morning.

A large pole or rod pierced through the front of the train around 1 a.m., killing the conductor, according to police.

https://www.wvtm13.com/article/train-conductor-killed-in-bessemer-accident-train-crash-death/42226121

Snippy · Force Majeure

Pipes FC wrote:
I wonder why it says Conductor and Trainee on a train and not a member of the crew in the cab?

____________________________

I read that first blurb a couple times figuring that they probably were really on the ground watching one by. I guess from the update, they were in the cab. That's an ex-Conrail SD40-2 leader in the picture. Notice the CR cab signal box blocking the engineer's view of the short-hood steps. The rebar or pipe probably came in through the short hood door or its glass. I try not to imagine the horror in that cab, but I can't stop thinking about it. It will be tough for the surviving engineer and conductor.

When they were doing the luxurious LAMCO Altoona rebuilds, they were supposed to install an additional or larger corner post to replace the original small EMD 'seam posts' to weld at the four corners of the cab. We couldn't call them corner posts because it didn't meet the FRA definition of corner posts. They weren't required on "recabbed" locomotives, but they were required on remanufactured locomotives. They were also supposed to remove the view blocking cab signal boxes that were empty. LAMCO is careful define everything to meet the very minimum standards in rail cars and locomotives. Our view was that they were better than nothing to prevent the can opener effect from shifted loads. Of course, these probably didn't have any effect here.

Calvin · Upgraded Condition?

Those GONERail standard cabs had the old Volkswagen bus seats and the trainmens seats

were side by side instead of front and back. This was to Union Specks.

After watching video of what happened when the strap rail broke free from the ties and went

on a trip thru a railcar, no question where the term snakes came tu be.

It was definately hell on earth. My Condolances to all involved.

I was always told as a trainman to stand and move to the middle when passing a train, even

as a Hawg there were places I stood up and kept an eyeball peeled ready to try to duck/manover.

When you hear a loud bang and a ripping noise and the awning that used to be above your

window is gone, or the mirror/window is smashed, ya get a little jumpy. There was a tunnel

had a speed restriction for autoracks, you could look back and occasionally see sparks flying.

Pipes FC · Enemy of the State

I never understood why they're allowed to load pipes above the bulkhead. You always see them set out because they have shifted.
You also see concrete rebars fall off to the side, but those are lower. Tragic

Snippy · Force Majeure

Capt Oblivious here missed that apparently that white horizontal object is the pipe that pierced the cab sticking out. It seems like that's what it is in the enlargement. Maybe drilling pipe?

www.wbrc.com/2022/12/13/train-conductor-trainee-killed-bessemer-railway-accident/

Cy Valley · Upgraded Condition

Holy PHUKK, how do you avoid that?

I know I've said it before but old head Lima engineer Walter Aughe, who was a UTU general chairman for years from his days as a loyal BLF&E member, told me they were passing another train on double track at a good speed and he dived out of the seat in time for a pipe to go right through the front window and out through the back. I believe this was in NKP days.

Poor ol' Walter was another one who retired and barely lasted a month, gone about forty years now.

Freddie Krueger · Unstable & Irrational

While passing a train tonight, there was dunnage sticking out of the passing train about 6ft, and 15 ft above the rail. The tracks are 30 ft apart where I saw this. Reported it to the passing train but no further info about that yet.

FMB · Board Modification Mediator

What I saw the most of was the flat metal banding used to secure sheet rock & lumber cars dragging in the ballast. If it will take out a switch stand I hate to think what it would do to a person.

Snippy · Force Majeure

FMB wrote:
What I saw the most of was the flat metal banding used to secure sheet rock & lumber cars dragging in the ballast. If it will take out a switch stand I hate to think what it would do to a person.

_____________________________

We had a young Trainmaster who sported a BBM (Band Beauty Mark) starting on his neck, under the jaw and across his face. That was back when Trainmasters weren't very young. Everybody's Math went: 1+1 = Part of a FELA settlement. He wasn't the worst we ever had. Because he wasn't a total prick (and probably because of the FELA Math), they tried transfer-hopping his HAWT!!! wife and young family around every 18 months or so. I heard he quit to become a stock broker after the third bang-bang move.

His HAWT!!! wife made railroad investigation lore when an engineer stuck a note under the guy's windshield wiper saying that she was out banging every swinging dick in town while he was spending all his nights out trapping trains. Engineer had been caught speeding, OOS Pending, and they knew he did it. Dismissed to never return at a time when speeding was usually a 179-day Green Team timeout to a leniency reinstatement. 180 days was loss of seniority.

The Krink · The Forum Celestial Advisor

Sun square Neptune accident.

Calvin · Upgraded Condition?

Safety Bulletin 2022-1.pdf (dot.gov)

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is investigating a recent fatal accident when a train operating on the mainline struck a piece of angle iron protruding from a freight car on the adjacent main track. Based on FRAs preliminary results from its ongoing investigation, the piece of angle iron appears to have been part of the freight car (not lading, but a repair to the carbody side top cord of a scrap metal gondola car) that was starting to dislodge from the carbody. It appears that the piece of angle iron was in this state when the car was pulled from the customer, moved to a yard, and then added to a different train on the main track. The angle iron, which was protruding into the foul of the adjacent track, pierced a locomotive cab window and fatally injured a member of the crew.

The purpose of this Safety Bulletin, which is informal in nature, is to provide almost-immediate awareness to the industry that an accident or incident occurred resulting in a fatality or significant damage to property or the environment. Its purpose is to also provide the industry key information with which to brief or (re)train employees. As FRA completes its investigation, it may take additional actions with respect to this incident/accident.

Specifically, in this Safety Bulletin, FRA requests that railroads review this Safety Bulletin with its employees to increase awareness of this hazardous condition that led to a fatal injury. FRA also reminds train crew members that when at locations where a person designated under § 215.11 is not on duty for the purpose of inspecting freight cars (such as in customer facilities), prior to pulling any cars and only when it is safe to do so, to perform a proper visual inspection of freight cars for any protruding objects that may foul an adjacent track from a railcar, and if observing such a condition to immediately report it. See Appendix D to 49 CFR Part 215, Pre-Departure Inspection Procedure (excerpted below).

Appendix D to Part 215 - Pre-departure Inspection Procedure At each location where a freight car is placed in a train and a person designated under § 215.11 is not on duty for the purpose of inspecting freight cars, the freight car shall, as a minimum, be inspected for the imminently hazardous conditions listed below that are likely to cause an accident or casualty before the train arrives at its destination. These conditions are readily discoverable by a train crew member in the course of a customary inspection.

1. Car body: (a) Leaning or listing to side. (b) Sagging downward. (c) Positioned improperly on truck. (d) Object dragging below. (e) Object extending from side. (f) Door insecurely attached.(g) Broken or missing safety appliance. (h) Lading leaking from a placarded hazardous material car.

2. Insecure coupling

3. Overheated wheel or journal.

4. Broken or extensively cracked wheel.

5. Brake that fails to release.

6. Any other apparent safety hazard likely to cause an accident or casualty before the train arrives at its destination.

Issued: December 20, 2022

Railroaders place to shoot the shit.

This is the official end of my post.

This is the official end of my post.