One night, I was called to go on a helper. This is usually a pretty simple job. The first half of the trip is riding at the back of a coal train, pushing it over the hills, and the second half of the trip is returning to Glendive with one, or occasionally several locomotives. The trip this week went just like that. It was a long trip, but not particularly challenging. However at the end of the trip, things started to go downhill. We followed a fairly short westbound merchandise train to Glendive. The dispatcher instructed them to use track four in the yard. We did not think much of this, until we got to the yard, and they were stopped with the rear end of the train hanging out onto the yard lead. We needed to get by them on the lead to take the engine back to the roundhouse, so we could go home, but they were not moving. We called them on the radio and asked if they could pull in another few cars and clear the lead. They told us they were not sure, but they would see what they could do. They did manage to get in enough for us to get by, and we went to the roundhouse. We thought it odd that they were having a hard time fitting on a track which was way longer than the train, but we did not give it any more thought until we got to the depot, and heard what was going on.
The Dickinson West dispatcher controls the Glendive yard. Eastbound trains arriving in Glendive from the Forsyth subdivision must call the Dickinson West dispatcher to get a track assignment in Glendive. This is done on the road channel for the Forsyth subdivision. Westbound trains arriving in Glendive also receive their track assignment from the Dickinson West dispatcher, who they have been talking to since they passed milepost 115. This is done on the road channel for that part of the Dickinson subdivision. Consequently, trains on the Dickinson subdivision and trains on the Forsyth subdivision cannot hear each other. The westbound train ahead of us had been assigned track four, and unknown to everyone on the Dickinson subdivision, an eastbound merchandise train, coming from Forsyth, had also been assigned to use track four. The two trains had not known they were headed down the same track, towards each other, until they were both on the track. So the dispatcher messed up, and no one had any idea until they could see the results. We managed to sneak by the westbound train and get home before it really turned into a mess.
Once we were in the depot, taking care of paperwork, we heard the mess start to unfold on the radio. The crew on the westbound train explained to the dispatcher that there was a train on track four, headed in the opposite direction, and asked if there was anywhere else they could go. The dispatcher suggested either track seven or eight, but he admitted he was not sure which, if either, was empty. At that point, the westbound train asked for permission to back out of track four, and to head over to one of those tracks. For some reason, the dispatcher thought we were still waiting behind that train, so he asked the crew if they could continue west, all the way through four track, and then back into one of those tracks. Apparently dispatchers do not understand the term, "stack train." The crew patiently explained again that there was another train, whose locomotives were about 50 feet in front of them, blocking the west end of the track. This explanation was followed by a silence, then a, "Uhhhh, well...oh dear," followed by more silence. A small part of me wanted to stick around and see how this turned out, but it seemed pretty clear someone was going to have to back up and find another track. It also seemed pretty clear that someone should have faxed the dispatcher a picture, because he just did not seem to understand what was going on until it had been explained several times. While part of me was curious, the solution was obvious, and most of me was just tired, so I went home. When I returned to work late that night, the mess was long cleaned up, and the yard was back to normal. But there was another story from the day.
Later that day, another westbound merchandise train had some work to do in Miles City. There is a facility in Miles City that repairs freight cars, and typically M trains have to either set out or pick up cars there. Sometimes it is just a couple of cars, other times it can be the entire train. Usually, when possible, cars that have to be set out there are put on the head end of the train. This makes the work simple, and it minimizes the number of crossings that get blocked in downtown Miles City, while the work gets done. This was the case with this particular train. With the cars on the head end, the normal procedure would be to stop the train on the main track, make a cut behind the last car to be left, pull ahead a few car lengths, line the switch, and then back the cars in. Once they are clear of the main line, a few hand brakes are set to secure them, and they are cut off. The locomotives can return to the train left on the main line, do an air test, and then continue west. If all goes really well, it takes about half an hour.
Things did no go quite like that the other day. Just as usual, the train pulled up on the main line. The engineer let the conductor off, and then the idea was that they would pull the train up to where the cut needed to be made. The conductor told the engineer when to stop, made the cut, and then had the engineer pull past the switch. He lined the switch into the transfer track, and then protected the shove back into that track. This is where the meltdown occurred. What the conductor did not realize, or even notice perhaps, is that the cars left on the main line were too close to the switch for anything to get by on the other track. What he also did not notice while they were backing up is that the cars being shoved were going to run into the standing cars if he did not tell the engineer to stop. After another minute, the train stopped on its own, with a loud bang. The result was cars on the ground, and a couple of smashed freight cars. The main line was blocked, and there was a mess. The conductor had managed to back the cars into his own train. When I heard this story, I was glad I had been at home, because there was no doubt a long delay while personnel were called to clean up, and a new crew was called to take the unsmashed cars on the rest of their westbound trip to Forsyth. Several of the cars are still in Miles City, awaiting repairs, or whatever their disposition is to be.
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