Undercutting the Railroad

Lately I have been on a regularly scheduled work train.  I placed a bid on it a few weeks ago, figuring someone else would get it.  But, I knew I would not get it if I did not put in a bid for it.  I bid on everything I want with that attitude, if I do not bid, I definitely cannot have it!  Much to my surprise, I got the bid on the work train.  It was regularly scheduled to go on duty at 5:00am, Monday through Friday.  I would be off on weekends, and I would not be going to work when the phone rings, but rather on a schedule, for the first time in my entire working life!  I was to be the Brakeman, which is exactly what I wanted.  The Conductor is responsible for the train, and the Brakeman pretty much just follows his or her instructions.

Three work trains were bulletined, to support some schedule maintenance on the Dickinson and Forsyth Subdivisions.  A pair of undercutters have been working on some parts of both subdivision.  The two morning work trains follow the undercutters and replace all the mud they remove with new ballast.  The third work train is actually a relief crew, who comes out in the afternoon and switches all the empty ballast cars out of both morning work trains, replacing them with more loaded cars, so that they are ready to go the next morning.

The undercutter is a machine designed to remove mud, dirt, and small rocks from the track bed.  The machine has a conveyor like belt on either side, which can be extended outwards and down below the ties.  When they get started cutting, the take out a couple of ties and remove all the ballast and dirt under them, and then connect the two conveyors with a belt that looks like a huge chainsaw.  It directs the ballast, dirt, mud, and anything else under the ties into the conveyors.  From there all that is brought up to the machine where it is screened.  The dirt and small rock fall through the screen and get deposited several feet to the side of the tracks.  The larger ballast is then dumped back into the track bed.  Following the undercutter is the work train, usually with between 12 to 15 loaded ballast cars.  The train dumps ballast at a walking speed while maintenance personnel help direct the ballast as it comes out of the cars.  Once the train is done dumping ballast, a tamping and surfacing crew follows and straightens out the track and gets it back into its proper alignment.

The work trains and the undercutting started about three weeks ago, on the Dickinson sub.  Most of it was done in western North Dakota, between Sentinel Butte and Yates siding, just over the Montana state line.  We would park the trains out there every night and get driven out in the morning and back in the evening.  When they were all done over there, we spent a day switching everything and bringing it west, to Glendive, where the remaining loads sat for the weekend.  The engines were serviced at the roundhouse, and the trains were ready to attack the Forsyth sub the following week.  That is where we have been for nearly two weeks now.  One train has been working between Glendive and Marsh, a distance of about 20 miles.  The other train, the one I am currently assigned to, has been working between Marsh and Terry, also a distance of about 20 miles.  Tomorrow we will finish up where we have been working for the last two weeks.  If there is any accuracy to the rumors around the depot, we will be heading farther west next week.  Chances are we will not know for sure until we get to work on Monday morning though.