Groundhog Day

In the months since licensing as a railroad engineer, my work block has mostly consisted of overnight work on the northern half of the FrontRunner alignment. This work shift includes taking the last train of the day to Ogden at night where I perform necessary safety tests and inspections. I then tie down with the train for a few hours, before taking the two early morning trains farther up north to Pleasant View on Union Pacific alignment. (This requires two of us, one serving as conductor and the other one as the engineer.) I then bring my train back south with early morning commuters headed for Salt Lake and other points south.

My second Tri-annual bid for work has now left me with this same piece of work at least until April. And the repetition of going through this same workday, day after day, has mentally placed me in the Bill Murray movie “Groundhog Day”.

Being caught in the “same day loop”, Phil Connors eventually out grew his bungling, self-centered; second rate self, into a very talented and rather nice guy. I’m hoping for something similar as I relive my own Groundhog Day… day in and day out… week by week… month after month.

Currently, a small piece of my repeating Groundhog Day is as follows. Whereas the movie character Phil Connors nightstand alarm clock clicks from 5:59am to 6:00am and Sony and Cher start singing “I’ve Got You Babe”, my watch is sliding from 3:59am to start the last active portion of my work day. Mine is to the rumble of the waiting locomotive instead of Sony and Cher singing their signature song.

4:00am – I look across the Ogden Station Platform from my locomotive to the locomotive for Train 3. James stands up, dons his safety vest, gathers up his gear and climbs down out of his Locomotive. He is headed back to release the hand brake at the other end of his consist and make ready for our departure. I likewise gather my things together, climb down from my Train 5 Locomotive, enter the back door of Train 3’s Loco and release its handbrake. I then proceed up to the cab and settle into the Engineers seat and begin the preliminary paperwork.

4:10am – James joins me in the Loco cab and we complete the Union Pacific Job Briefing Checklist, review the daily UP Track Warrant, and begin the Conductor Report. This daily routine doesn’t take long and we are soon down to small talk while waiting for our departure time.

James tells of his latest weekend – Surfing on a California Beach (his flight attendant wife gives him travel perks), while I desperately struggle to think of something from my “weekend” that I can mention so he doesn’t realize that I have no life. In the pause in dialog, James brings up sports. I finally have to admit that I don’t follow sports… have always just worked. I’m thinking, “I do actually have a life… it includes long distance running on empty 2:00am city streets… trying to write… playing my harmonicas…” But those seem like awkward conversations as well. What kind of eccentric runs up and down city streets in the middle of the night for fun? And it is assumed that anyone who plays the harmonica, plays “Blues Harmonica”. I don’t… can’t… OK… the truth is I play ON the harmonica more than actually playing the harmonica. So I don’t bring it up.

4:22am – Time to go… bring up the cab signal… get a door loop… headlights… gen field on… radio call to Warm Springs control… bell on… reverser forward… throttle notch one… and we move forward toward the end of the platform where we lose our cab signals and have to stop to reset them for movement in Union Pacific territory.

I’ve made this same trip to Pleasant View many times. It is all exactly the same except it’s always different. The different trains vary in how they handle… some more power than others… they all brake differently than how the last train braked… I’ll have to quickly get a feel for this one and make adjustments accordingly.

4:25am – As I approach our first control point… CP G001, I need to slow down to 25mph… Both James and I call out the signal (as required) “Clear”. I give the brakes a minimum set… they seem to glide along too far and then grab a bit later. I’ll have to make adjustments to how I brake with this train. I call out my speed to James (the conductor) who makes the necessary notes in the Conductors Report. He is recording the required info on the UP radio for this signal. We both call out our next signal as it appears in the distance… “Advanced Approach”. I reach my landmark (an electrical box along the alignment) and notch up to speed the train to 55mph.

4:27am – James makes his UP radio transmission… “UTA Train 11 at CP G003, Advanced Approach – Out”. My speed is now 55mph and I drop back to “notch 2”. I know that this exact timing and combination of power will maintain our speed at exactly 55mph until we come around the corner and can see our next signal, “MP 4.6”.

4:29am – We both call out “Approach Restricting” at the same time. James makes his radio call and I make a minimum brake set. “It took me a long time to get this one right. (Kind of like Phil Connors repeatedly stepping in the slush filled pothole in Groundhog Day.) I need to slow to 40mph very quickly but was always slowing too much because the track runs steeply uphill here. I have finally learned to apply only a minimum set and release at 45mph and then immediately go to notch 4 on the throttle. As we roll up to the control point we always seem to be going too fast, but the train continues to slow and now the speed is always exactly 40 as we pass it, with enough momentum to maintain this speed until our next control point. (This is where I really start to feel invincible like “Groundhog’s Phil” stepping in to save the pending wedding or the choking man in the restaurant.)

4:32am – At CP G005, I need to be slowed down to no more than 15mph. This one should be easy, but the variation in braking from train to train gets me when going this slow. This time I cross the signal going 13mph. This is well within the speed requirement, but I wanted perfection at maximum authorized speed… that’s the game I play over and over. That and the perfect station stop. I’ve got a ways to go on that one too. Since licensing, I have never had to make the radio call of shame to tell control that I’m a door long, but too many of my stops could be classified as sloppy.

4:34am – This station stop was perfect. We now perform the needed operations to “turn the train” which means that we will be operating from the other end of this same train as we depart south bound in 18 minutes.

I will pass this same 12 minutes of Union Pacific track another 3 times, doing the same thing before arriving at Ogden Station where I begin collecting the masses of commuters headed south.

6:03am – I bring my “Train 5” to a stop on the Ogden west platform to the gathering group of southbound commuters. My conductor, from our just completed “Pleasant View” trip has gathered his bags and the special UP radio, and exits the train. As a southbound train, I am operating in the “Cab Car”, which is on the opposite end from the Locomotive. Down here, I am more visible to my passengers, and they to me. While passengers are boarding, I open the operator’s window to greet my newly boarding Train Host, who will be back with my passengers as we proceed south. “Good morning Joan.” “Good morning Ron.” I watch from this opened window while passengers continue to board. Though I don’t speak to these people personally, I know these passengers very well by now. The same man in the dark business suit (now also with an overcoat) who always carries a newspaper under his arm gets on in the Cab Car and takes his seat behind my operators compartment. He always sits facing away from me, and spreads in his lap newspaper as if to share with anyone looking over his shoulder. (He will ride to North Temple Station). The woman, always wrapped from head to toe, (even in warmer weather) takes her seat right behind my operating compartment. This seems strange to me, because this is the coveted seat, the only seat on the entire train where the passenger can see what the engineer sees while the train is moving down the track. But she never looks up. Her face is always buried in the broad collar of her coat, so that only her eyes and nose can poke out at her cell phone which is the continual focal point until she exits the train at Salt Lake Central Station.

I could go on with each passenger within my view every day, but you get the Idea.

6:07am – It’s time to depart, and I am standing at the open window telling the last three commuters, who are still off in the parking lot but scrambling to make the train, to hurry to the nearest train door. It’s always the same three people, and they always seem surprised that the train is ready to leave at 6:07am. (These 3 commuters don’t know this but if I haven’t started to move the train yet, AND they are hurrying… like running if capable… I will wait for the latecomers. But if it’s time to go and they are just walking along in no hurry, I’ll leave them behind every time.)

6:08am – Finally, the last late comer has boarded the train and I close and lock the doors. Now I need to try to make up for my late departure. My first three station stops are rather tight on the schedule, so now I feel like Scotty from Star Trek fame trying get all I can out of the locomotive as we build momentum and climb the Ogden “Flyover” which bridges over the top of the many Union Pacific tracks below.

I know the exact power setting and adjustment as I at first build speed while climbing the “Flyover” and then descend, all while maintaining the maximum authorized speed. A speed which keeps changing as we proceed south.

6:15am – I’m still creeping toward Roy Station on my 15mph cab signal. The same late comers are cutting in front of my train at the platform. I’ve got my hand over the horn button ready to “warn away” any more attempted crossing in front of me as I near. The same man stops and waits. Once he was too close when he crossed. I had tapped my horn. He first completed his run in front of me and then turned and shook his fist at me. I’m sure he had a few choice words for me as well. Now he still comes late as my train approaches, but he waits… glares. I’m thankful that he is alive and well and can glare at me every morning. I’ve heard stories from other engineers where the outcome wasn’t this happy. Of course I make sure he is on board before I depart.

This is the first of three “train meets” I’ll have before arriving at North Temple station. On our single track, we have to meet the trains headed in the opposite direction where we have sidings or at stations where we have two tracks. Some engineers make it a competition to beat the other train to the “meet” and others not so much. I guess I’m competitive that way. Everything I do as I move south is all about beating the other train to the meet.

6:24am – Clearfield Station… I depart almost one minute late at nearly 6:25am… still trying to make up for my departures from Ogden and Roy.

6:30am – Layton Station… train meet with the northbound… depart on time.

6:38am – Farmington Station… I arrive 2 minutes early and can relax a bit. We depart on time at 6:40am.

6:46am – Centerville Siding waiting for the oncoming Northbound train.

6:51am – Woods Cross Station… one minute late because of waiting for northbound train at the Centerville meet.

7:01am – North Temple Station. This is where I am relieved from duty. I just take a seat on the same train and as a passenger now, and let my replacement engineer take me home.

It takes a little less than an hour go from Ogden to North Temple Station. Of course I could tell all, detailing my awesome train handling skills as I meet difficult sections of track, how I can manage the brakes and throttle ahead to provide perfect timing in the trains delayed performance. I could tell stories of passengers from each station. Like how at Clearfield Station, everyone is lined up in perfect single file at each marked spot on the platform for a door. Yes, those are 8 perfect single file lines waiting for me to stop a door directly in front of each one. (No pressure there on making a perfect station stop!) I could brag about rolling into the “Centerville Siding” early enough to get my train out of the way so that the “Northbound” train won’t get a “Cab hit” which would slow it down. But, this is enough… you get the idea.

At least up here on the north end of the FrontRunner alignment, I feel more like the Groundhog “Phil Connors” at the party (after he has honed his talents, as well as his social skills, to perfection) when Rita (who is surprised at his suave interaction with everyone at the party) asks Phil, “What did you do today?” Phil nonchalantly replies, “Oh, same old same old.”

If I ever get to drive the trains on the south end of our alignment, I probably won’t remember what to do. I’ll be like the bungling Phil Connors on his first few days of his Groundhog Day loop again. But for now it’s looking like that by next April, I’ll be operating my Train 5 on the north end like Groundhog Phil playing the piano at the Punxsutawney Celebration.

Driver’s Training – Train Edition

A few weeks ago I took my youngest child down to the DMV to get her learners permit. This is the 9th and final time that my Beautiful Wife and I have to go through teaching our child to drive a car. Way back when, I blogged about teaching my first child to drive (here).

But this time, as my Baby’s driving instructor, I expect I’ll be more patient than usual as I remember my most recent experience of “Driver’s Training – Train Edition” with me as the student.

Let me start out by saying that there are very few similarities between driving a train and a car. Almost everything you do while driving a train is time delayed. They say that with a freight train you are driving 3 miles ahead and 2 miles behind. The reality is a freight train often needs to react 3 miles before an anticipated event. Of course a freight train can be up to 2 miles long. So the engineer’s immediate area of concern can be this 5 mile range. Our short consist passenger trains don’t operate in this wide of range, but they are closer to that than they are to the operating range of a car. For example, our Commuter trains generally start slowing about a mile before making a station stop. If we were to wait to see the station before hitting the brakes, we’d miss stopping at the station almost every time.

And just the brakes themselves are completely different animals then the brakes on your car or even an 18 wheeler. The train brake systems include; Dynamic Brakes (like the noisy engine brakes on big trucks only different). Air Brakes (With many settings that have descriptive names like Minimum Reduction, Service Zone, Full Service, and Emergency. It also has a few non-braking settings with less descriptive names to the layman like Release, Handle off, and Suppression.) Blended Brakes incorporates both Dynamic Brakes with Air Brakes into the same braking action. Independent Brakes and Hand Brakes are also completely separate braking systems utilized constantly on any train in use.

Of course on your properly operating passenger car, the primary instrument gauge that you monitor while driving is the Speedometer. Besides that, there are many other instruments that need to be monitored (and complied with) on the locomotive. Two Duel air gauges with four needles (all displaying something different yet very pertinent to the condition of the train’s braking capability), along with an amp gauge reading the dynamic braking or power being applied to the train – all must be understood and utilized in the proper handling of the train.

Like I said, it’s a little more involved to stop a train than a car. As you might imagine, accelerating and steering a train don’t have any similarity to operating a car either. For example, our trains also have cab signals that can be more brutal than the toughest backseat driver you have ever experienced. (It nags at you all along the way, and if you don’t comply as quickly as it deems reasonable, it will activate a separate braking system and shut you down immediately.)

I might not admit that the first part of actually driving the train was stressful. (I’m sure that my 56 year old wisdom teeth, which have never bothered me, that now became infected and needed emergency extraction after being clenched in a death grip for too long is just a coincidence.) But it wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done. Here is real life dialog (and my thoughts at the time) from just a few of those training runs.

The operating ends are changed at the end of the line and we depart Provo Station northbound:

Instructor: Lock up your doors… got a loop? (We get “a loop” when all passenger doors are properly closed, closing the lockout circuit and illuminating a green indicator light in the control panel.)

My thoughts and actions: Reverser forward… notch 1… release the Automatic Brakes and the Independent Brakes… Bell on… (I’m fumbling because I just switched operating ends and now the brakes are in my right hand and the throttle is in my left… opposite of 15 minutes ago.) … I need to just creep out to activate the crossing gates, but I can’t proceed into the intersection until the gates lock down.

Instructor: Make your radio call to control. Come on you need to learn to multitask.

Me on the Radio: “Train 8 to Warm Springs Control”

Instructor: You are UTA Train 8… and what Warm Springs are you calling, Warm Springs California? Also you need to say “over” so they know you are finished talking. You need to work on your radio protocol.

Me: “UTA Train 8 to UTA Warm Springs Control – over”

UTA Warm Springs Control on the Radio: “UTA Warm Springs Control – over”

Me: “UTA Train 8 is departing Provo Station with operator 8050 and LPI 4151 – over”

Instructor: “Departing Northbound… You need always state the direction of the train… come on, didn’t they teach you anything in class? Come on we need to get going… notch up.”

Me: I’ve now got the train up to about 11mph as we move through the intersection and out of the station.

Instructor: Don’t forget your running brake check… you could get both of us decertified.”

Me: While all of this is going on, I’m also thinking about not exceeding my 15 MPH cab signal speed, which has shut me down at 14mph before.

Instructor: You’re only going 11… your cab signal is going to upgrade right up there. We need to get going to the full cab signal speed or we’ll never make the schedule.”

Me: As we move through the many crossings on this south end of our alignment at progressively increasing speed, I’ve got to turn on the bell for each crossing, and then off again. The Locomotive is so noisy, especially while accelerating, that I can’t hear if the bell is actually on. Meanwhile, each time the cab signals upgrade with it’s associated “Beeps” from 15 to 30, then to 45 or 60, and finally to 79, I need to quickly speed up to those speeds. My instructor wants to hear the “happy” slower beeps. These beeps are from the Cab Signal system warning me that if I go any faster, the Penalty Brakes will automatically apply, shutting the train down completely.

My lack of experience makes it difficult to know when those “Happy” slower beeps become “Angry” faster beeps that will stop the train and require me to make the radio call of shame. (This is especially tricky going over the top of a slight ridge in the alignment, thus starting downhill. The Cab Signal alarm can go from “Happy” to “I’m shutting you down fool” before I can adjust my power setting if I’m not anticipating it.)

Me (over the radio): “UTA Train 8 to UTA Warm Springs Control – Over”

Control (over the radio): “UTA Warm Springs Control – Over”

Me (over the radio): “Train 8 was shut down with a penalty brake on a 79 Speed. We have recovered and are proceeding – Over.”

Instructor: “DIRECTION AND LOCATION… You have to state your direction and location!”

It’s stressful enough to go shooting down the rails, chasing the Cab Signal beeps, approaching grade crossings (Bell on), knowing if someone pulls in front of me, I won’t be able to stop (Bell off). Shooting around blind corners at 79 miles an hour, hoping there are no trespassers to surprise. All while the intensity of the Cab Signal alarm beeping in my ears is increasing my internal stress. But for me, making proper station stops caused my tightest lock-jaw death grip against my former wisdom teeth.

Since we have to begin slowing so far in advance of the station, landmarks are used to know when to begin slowing. At additional landmarks, speed is checked to ensure that I am on track for a proper station stop. It all sounds easy, but my hang up was keeping it all straight. Before I knew the entire rail alignment by heart, many of what we would use as a landmark to “Set Air” to begin the mile long breaking process would look like many other “Non-landmarks”. For example, I could easily confuse a power pole or a highway overpass that is our landmark location to set air with many other power poles or highway overpasses that were not landmark locations. So as I wiz past a distinct pole along the alignment at 79 miles an hour, I’d wonder, “Is that my spot to set air? Isn’t it too soon? Or did I pass it already? Am I now going to blow past the station? That was S-T-R-E-S-S-F-U-L. There are 16 Stations, 14 of which I needed to learn landmarks to approach from two directions. Plus there are several non-station slow-downs for curves that could have an even bigger potential for disaster than just blowing past a station.

Instructor: “You’d better give it a little more air or you’ll miss the stop. This station is downhill.

Me: I increase the pressure on the air brakes while fretting about where exactly I need to bring the train to a stop so that passenger doors line up with the marks on the platform.

Instructor: “Not too much, now you’re going to stop short!”

Me: I back off on my break pressure.

Instructor: “Release the brakes completely. You’re stopping too soon.”

Me: I release the brakes completely and begin notching up the power to get the train moving again.

Instructor: “Not too much! Now you’re going to miss your stop.”

Me: I swing the brake valve handle into “Full Service” and then watch in humiliation as the train ignores my feeble command and cruses passed the door locations painted on the station platform, along with all the people who were expecting to board the train. The train eventually stops about 50 feet beyond the intended marks.

Instructor: “You used up all your air with all those releases and applies. Look, your Dynamics didn’t kick in because you weren’t in Idle. You’re still in Notch 1. Come on, go to Idle, center your reverser, and apply the independent brake. ‘Set and Center’ and make an announcement to your passengers before you enable the doors. Then you need to call control. Hurry up! Oh, and your bell is still on.”
Me: Now frustrated and fumbling, I complete the process to “Set and Center” and key up the PA system. “Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please? Please watch your step as you… I fumble for words.

Instructor: “Exit the train…”

Me: “… As you exit the train.” (This announcement is needed because our platforms are split leveled to accommodate the two different styled passenger cars within our consist. Some passengers stepping off the train will now have an unexpected deep step down.)
I then make the other radio call of shame (besides the Cab Signal System shutting down the train for going too fast).

Me: “UTA Train 8 at Lehi Station to UTA Warm Springs Control. – Over”

UTA Warm Springs Control Room (over the radio): UTA Warm Springs Control. – Over”

Me: “Train 8 stopped one door long. – Over”

UTA Warm Springs Control Room (over the radio): “Did you make an announcement? – Over”

Me: “affirmative – Over”

UTA Warm Springs Control Room (over the radio): “Copy… Control out.”

Training in the dark.

Just when I thought I was getting my bearings straight and could do everything right, I was quickly humbled once again with my first experience of operating at night… well actually in this case it was at 4:00am, but visually it was the same difference.

Nothing on the alignment looked the same. All my reference points of where I needed to speed up or slow down seemed to be gone. I was once again unsure of where the “At grade crossings” were. And inside the Locomotive itself, I once again lost my way around the controls panels. I fumbled in the dark to turn the bell on or off.

When I try to “Notch up” the power, my wrong hand activates the Air Brakes instead.

Instructor: “What are you doing?”

Me: “Sorry”

Instructor: “Dim your lights for that train.”

While fumbling in the dark over the side control panel for the correct switch, I’m also looking up ahead trying to see the train he is referring to. The rail alignment ahead is splattered with various lights shining back at me. I can see street and yard lights, headlights from the interstate beside us, and lights on building and other structures up ahead. But I don’t see the familiar four light pattern and resembles a triangle with it’s top chopped off that I’m looking for.

Instructor: “See! It’s right there.” (He points off to the distant near-left.)

Me: The Train had already dimmed his lights for me. So now it looked just like the many industrial yard lights that spatter the sides of the alignment. I wonder how he even picked out that relatively dim light as an oncoming train, I couldn’t fathom. As I twisted the switch two loud clicks counter-clockwise to dim, my new stress was trying to remember how soon I would need to switch back to full bright for the next crossing. If I missed this, it was a DE-certifiable offense… one of the 6 deadly sins that can get my license revoked.

UTA Warm Springs Control Room (over the radio): “UTA Warm Springs Control to Train 4. – Over”

Me (over the radio): “UTA Train 4 northbound at… (long pause while I try to figure out where I’m at.)

Instructor: “North 5.5”

Me (over the radio): “At North 5.5 – Over.”

UTA Warm Springs Control Room (over the radio): “Train 4, UP is in Emergency Stop at North 5.5 – Over.”

Just as this information is coming over the radio we come upon the Union Pacific train on the rail beside us. (The one I had just dimmed my lights for.) My brain is now going into over speed trying to remember all the G-COR rules suddenly in play.

• Sound “Men and Equipment” warning sequence on the train horn.
• If a train is reported in emergency on an adjoining track proceed at ??? Is it restricted speed?
• The long UP train in emergency stop may be de-railed because of the excessive slack action caused in emergency braking with their long consist.

Instructor: “Remember the rules? We’re the first train through, so we move at restricted speed and inspect the train in emergency.”

The instructor quickly pushed me out of the Engineer’s seat and took over as we now proceeded to move along at 20 MPH, looking for men or equipment, or any of a whole list of things that would require us to stop for. All the while, sounding the “Men and Equipment” horn sequence. At the end of the train inspection, my instructor made the call back to Warm Springs Control to report the condition so they could continue with the established protocol of dealing with “a train in emergency”. I knew that there were additional rules for how fast the second train through could go, and what he should be doing. I would need to review this part of my G-COR training. Out here in the real world, I needed to know all of this stuff by heart in the heat of battle.

There were many more “firsts” in my training. In time even these additional “first time experiences” seemed routine as my confidence increased.

So at the beginning of my training, I was totally dependent on my Instructor to know what to do and where to do it. But just like my other children that I’ve taught to drive cars, and as will happen with Julianna soon enough, before my mandatory training hours were completed, I could easily do all these things that at first seemed so hard. And I wished that the trainer would just go to sleep and let me drive the train.

Written in Blood – GCOR (General Code of Operating Rules)

Modern railroading, in the United States, includes a complicated intermingled relationship between the many hundreds of railroads operating as well as their regulatory agency, in this case the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). In one sense, each railroad operates independent of the all the others, with their own Railroad infrastructure, trains and other equipment, personnel, operating policies, etc. Yet, they also have a certain interdependence on their railroad neighbors as they share these resources in the course of business. It is common for trains from one railroad to operate on another railroads track. Of course there are rules in place governing how all of that works.

As the early railroads emerged, in the 1820’s, from canal companies in the eastern states, they were focused on developing a faster and more efficient mode of transportation for people and their stuff than anything else in existence at the time. However, critics feared lack of safety. They said that boilers may explode. This was a justified concern. In 1815 in England an exploding boiler killed over a dozen people while injuring dozens more. What about collisions? Some claimed that railroads were of the devil and could cause a concussion of the brain.

The first recorded railroad accident in U.S. history
This occurred in 1832, when four people were thrown off of a car on the Granite Railway near Quincy, Massachusetts. The victims had been invited to view the process of transporting large and weighty loads of stone when a cable on a vacant car snapped, throwing them off the train and over a 34-foot cliff. One man was killed and the others were seriously injured.

Other early railroad accidents
In 1833, a train that carried both Cornelius Vanderbilt (who later headed the New York Central Railroad) and former US President John Quincy Adams. This was a derailment caused by an overheated wheel journal that broke an axel. Two were killed and 15 injured (including Vanderbilt).

In 1837, a lumber train in Virginia rounded a corner, with down grade speed, and collided with a passenger train. Three were killed and dozens of the remaining 200 passengers were injured.

In 1841 two passenger trains collided between Massachusetts and New York. Two were killed and 17 injured.

Then in 1850, the frequency and severity of railroad accidents seemed to mushroom. Apparently, with bigger faster trains, came bigger more fatal accidents. In this year, a railroad drawbridge wasn’t secured and 46 people plunged to their deaths while another 30 were severely injured but somehow survived. The same year two more trains collided killing 13 and injuring 50 more.

1855 – A crossing collision with horse and buggy. Twenty-four dead and 65-100 injured. And then later that year, a bridge collapse kills 31 with 100’s more injured.

Railroad rules:
In time, the various railroads developed rules to make their railroad operations more safe and efficient. These rules are the railroad’s response, after an accident, to make sure the same sort of thing doesn’t happen again. For example, I can see that the present day rule, “When overheated wheels are found on a train, the train must be stopped…” has its roots when Vanderbilt and John Quincy Adams were involved in their train wreck back in 1833.

Over the many years of railroading, these rules have grown into the hundreds.
At first railroad operating rules were often printed as pamphlets or on the back of a time card. Collaboration between neighboring railroads helped this evolve into more universal operating rules. On April 14, 1887, representatives of 48 railroads voted to adopt the Standard Code of Operating Rules (SCOR). This is the basis of the operating rules that American railroad now follow.

The general categories that these rules currently fall under include:
General Responsibilities, Railroad Radio and Communication Rules, Timetables, Signals and Their Use, Movement of Trains and Engines, Switching, Switches, Block System Rules, Rules Applicable Only in Centralized Traffic Control (CTC), Rules Applicable in ACS, ATC and ATS Territories, Rules Applicable only in Automatic Train Stop System (ATS) Territory, Rules Applicable Only in Automatic Cab Signal System (ACS) Territory, Rules Applicable only Within Track Warrant Control (TWC) Limits, Track Bulletin Rules, Rules Applicable Only in Direct Traffic Control (DTC) Limits, and Rules Applicable Only in Automatic Train Control (ATC) Territory.

GCOR:
Of the 510 railroads in the United States (give or take a few), 350 of them operate under GCOR. This body of 350 railroads formally meets every five years to review and update these rules to address newly emerging safety concerns and to keep current with the new technologies. The other 60 or so railroads, mostly in the Northeastern United States do a similar thing with their set of rules called Northeast Operating Rules Advisory Committee (NORAC).

Each railroad may also customize these GCOR rules to fit the unique circumstances of their operation. These railroad specific rules that complement the GCOR rules are called the System Special Instructions (SSI). These rules are reviewed and updated every year.

Additionally, each railroad has its own Timetables (which update periodically), and daily Track Bulletins & Track Warrants.

The Bottom Line:
All of this made for a rather challenging few months for me personally, while digesting these 150 plus years of rule making history as I assimilated the railroad culture into my everyday life.

Of course the improved safety is the great payoff. Statically, today you are 28 times more likely to be killed in an automobile accident than when traveling the same miles in a passenger train.

56 & Starting a New Direction

Though these past seven years have been interesting and educational, even though I’ve enjoyed my work as a processing plant manager, food produ56 and Starting a New Directionct developer, and process & production equipment designer… Even though I was good at what I did here and found great success in this work… alas, I guess I’m just not great at corporate politics. I’ve not mastered the subtle art of duplicity guised as diplomacy. As we found success as a company, and as the company grew larger, and as the “high level” executives were brought in to direct the growing company, the promise of helping to create something great became the threat of being crushed by the monster I helped create.

In retrospect, I’m glad to be rid of my Frankenstein. It had consumed so much of me that I had no personal life. Work duties, phone calls and problems day and night, 7 days a week took a toll on me and on my all-important family.

So as celebrated last May 25th, on my birthday by my family as I anticipated beginning a training program the very next day… I’m 56 and starting a new direction.

Training for Trains

In the many years of my working life, my training for the job has varied widely.
As a teenager, I followed my older brother to his theater job and learned from him to be a movie projectionist on old 35mm carbon arc movie projectors that ran only a 20 minute movie reel. An average movie had 5-7 reels. As we switched back and forth between projectors, we also had to replace the carbon rods and keep them adjusted so the arc burned just right. I loved that job and took his place when he moved on to bigger and better things.
When I purchased a mobile home toter to work as a contractor transporting those big over-sized loads to dealers in the Pacific Northwest, I had never driven anything bigger than our family’s farm trucks and delivery vans. So I drove that large truck around in circles in the field where I purchased it to learn how to drive it before hitting the open road. (This was before CDL’s when my Idaho Chauffeur’s license was my only needed qualification.)
Training at my last employment amounted to the equivalent of, “Throwing the babies in the water. The ones that drowned… too bad. I somehow stayed afloat while learning that job.
So as I applied to become a railroad engineer, the detailed and methodical application and training process was impressive to me. If I could qualify through each step of the way, I would indeed become a well-trained railroad engineer.
Pre-qualification
Before the Utah Transit Authority’s Frontrunner Railroad would even look at me as a prospect, there was a long list of things I had to qualify in. The application was long and detailed.
Eventually, I was given a study guide and an invitation to take a Pre-qualification exam. Google was my friend as I discovered what terms like CTC, ABS, Absolute Block, and Frog, meant in Railroad lingo.
I passed the exam, got an interview. Then I passed a timed physical test in the railroad yard, which included moving about the train hooking up cables and hoses, and throwing a manual railroad switch.
The training program
Finally, I passed the exam for the DOT Medical card and was given the offer to join their 10 week training program. No pressure here but I needed to pass 3 final exams in the next 4 weeks with a minimum score of 90%, and one final exam with a 100% score.
With that, I’ve earned a student license and can go out and actually learn to drive the trains. After logging at least 120 hours of operating the trains, and then passing that driving test, and then going back and passing another overall written test… I get my license to drive the trains.
And all of this so I can make about the same dollars per hour that I used to pay forklift drivers at my previous employment.
It’s been a very interesting summer. I’ve learned a lot and have lots of stories to tell. So maybe it’s time to start blogging again.