Prototype Railroading: Around the Yard

For the past week and a half, I have been on various yard assignments in Glendive.  I started out on the night Utility, from 11:00pm to 7:00am.  That one gets difficult around 3:00am, because there is nobody around and nothing going on, and it is the middle of the night, and despite sitting in a train station, your body is still telling you it is time to sleep.  I was supposed to do that for all of last week, but then something opened up on the Switch Crew for the end of the week.  I did that for the second half of last week.  This week, I have been back on Utility, but in the mornings.  Glendive yard is fairly small, it has a capacity for only a couple thousand rail cars, but there is also a moderately sized diesel servicing facility here.  Because of that, many trains have their engines serviced or changed when they arrive here.  Even if a train has no cars to switch out in Glendive, almost every train needs something done with the locomotives.  That is what keeps the Utility people busy.

In Glendive, there is a Utility crew on duty 24 hours a day, and every single day of the year.  Their job is to help out around the yard.  They are not allowed to handle cars though.  Most often, helping out around the yard consists of removing locomotives from inbound trains and running them to the roundhouse for servicing.  Once locomotives have been serviced, the Utility crew picks them up at the roundhouse and puts them on the train.  Other yard duties can include lining switches for incoming trains, helping the switch crew, changing air hose gaskets, installing and arming FRED's, walking inspections and air brake tests of trains, and just about anything else that someone would like help with in the yard.  Sometimes, the Utility crew stays very busy, and has something to do for the entire shift.  Other times, there is very little to do, and the Utility crew sits around for most of the eight hours.  Because of the possibility that someone may need the Utility crew, there must be one on duty at all times.

The Switch Crew is a little different.  Their primary responsibility is to move cars around.  They move them around the yard, and they also pick up and drop off cars at the local industries in the area.  They assemble trains from cars that arrive from industries, and take cars going to industries off of trains.  They basically run the yard.  When a train comes in and has cars destined for Glendive, it is up to the Switch Crew where those cars go in the yard, and how they get to the local industry.  The Switch Crew is also responsible for delivering defective cars to the roundhouse for repairs.  Because Glendive is a fairly small yard, there is not always a Switch Crew on duty.  A Switch Crew is on duty from 7:00am to 7:00pm, every day except Saturday.  Occasionally, if a train is coming in with a lot of cars for Glendive at a time when there is no Switch Crew on duty, the Trainmaster may call an extra Switch Crew to help out, but that is not very common.  More often than not, when a train comes in with work in Glendive, and no Switch Crew is on duty, Utility is expected to help the train crew switch the cars out.  That usually works pretty well.

The Glendive yard basically has two areas.  The first is the yard.  That consists of a main track and nine yard tracks.  The dispatchers have control over the main track and tracks one through three.  That means when a train comes in, the dispatchers can assign it to any of those four tracks for the crew change.  The Switch Crew is responsible for tracks four through nine.  Since tracks four and five are pretty long, the Switch Crew will often give those to the dispatcher if they are not needed for switching.  That gives the dispatcher a little more room to work with as trains come in.  If the Switch Crew needs those tracks for switching, then the dispatcher just has to work with the four they have.  Beyond nine track is a track called the runaround.  This allows trains to get from one end of the yard to the other without having to go through one of the sidings.  This is primarily used by locomotives going to and from the roundhouse.

The roundhouse is a building in the Glendive yard, but additionally, it is the entire servicing facility.  While technically, the roundhouse is a diesel locomotive maintenance building, people often refer to the entire servicing area as "the roundhouse."  In that case, the roundhouse includes the actual roundhouse, the fuel tracks, the reliability center, the sand tracks, the ready tracks, and the RIP tracks.  The roundhouse building is where extensive repairs are done.  This is where locomotives are overhauled or major components are rebuilt.

The fueling area, or the service tracks are where locomotives have basic maintenance done.  This is where locomotives are fueled, sand is added, and other basic repairs are made.  This is where windshield wipers are replaced, light bulbs changed, septic systems are emptied, and inspections are completed.  Most locomotives spend no more than an hour on the fuel tracks.  Once servicing is complete, locomotives go back on trains.  If the train is in town, they locomotives go from the fuel tracks directly to the train.  If the train is not in town, they go to the ready tracks and wait.  Usually when the locomotives are taken off a train, even just for fuel, the train gets locomotives that are already serviced and fueled, while its original locomotives go out on a later train.  That helps to keep everything moving better.

The reliability center, which is right next to the fuel tracks, is a bit of a mystery.  Periodically we see locomotives enter the building, the doors close, and several hours later they emerge from the other end.  I think that is where wheels are adjusted and trued, but I am honestly not sure.  The RIP tracks, which are behind the roundhouse, is just for rail cars.  No locomotives are repaired back there.  Cars that come in with defects are sent to the RIP tracks.  RIP stands for repair in place.  The cars are repaired by roundhouse personnel and then put on another train when they are ready to go.  The defects can be small, such as a flat spot on a wheel or a sticking brake, of they can be large.  There is one car sitting back there which has a broken frame.  The car owner wants it fixed, but the railroad does not see how it is practical.  The entire car was pulled in half, and the frame is torn all the way across the car.  It is a wonder that it is not in two pieces.  The coupler and a couple of ladder rungs are holding the car together.

Despit being a small yard, Glendive stays pretty busy.  This is the biggest locomotive servicing facility in the area, so locomotives are sent here from other places throughout Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota.  The yard also stays busy with cars for several local industries and a short line railroad nearby.