Last weekend, after returning home from Kansas, I packed up some stuff and headed up to Forsyth. I made arrangements with someone there to rent a room for a couple months during engineer training. It is close to the depot, which is nice, since the only reason I am there at all is for training. The Road Foreman of Engines gave all of us lists of the minimum number of trips he wants us to make on each subdivision. Since he knows I will be returning to Glendive as soon as training is over, he gave me a lot of required trips out of Glendive too. Basically, I have to make 40 trips on the runs handled by Forsyth crews and 30 from Glendive. One trip was a freebie though, and only involved looking at a PowerPoint presentation for an hour on Positive Train Control, which is used occasionally on the Hettinger line.
I made my first trip on Monday night, to Laurel. I wanted to start with something somewhat flat, and the Forsyth sub, which does continue west of Forsyth, continues to follow the Yellowstone River, so it only has some gentle hills. West of Jones Junction, trains leave the BNSF and actually operate on the Montana Rail Link, into the Laurel yard. Of course, the rules are similar but slightly different when you get on another railroad, so I do have to learn some of those differences now. For example, on BNSF, if you get an approach (yellow) signal, you have to immediately slow the train to 30mph and prepare to stop at the next signal. On the MRL, you are allowed to move at 35mph instead. At a red intermediate signal, on the BNSF, you are required to stop, and then proceed at restricted speed, but on the MRL, you can just go by it at restricted speed, without stopping. MRL uses track warrants for a couple miles, between CTC East Billings and CTC Shilo, near Laurel, and the format for reading back a track warrant is slightly different than on the BNSF too. Of course, track warrants are typically handled by the conductor, but it is one of the small differences in procedures.
Laurel yard, by area standards, is a large yard. Of course, compared to the terminal yards in major cities, it is actually quite small. It is a busy place, and can be quite confusing when it is dark the first time you arrive there. It is actually two yards in one location, one for eastbound trains and one for westbound trains. There are four switch crews, working 24 hours a day, and you had better ask their permission before blocking their leads for anything! There is always a lot going on there, between the switch crews working at both ends of each yard, other trains coming and going, people putting together their trains, and power moving to and from the roundhouse. On my first trip, I observed the whole trip, so while there was a lot going on, I did not have to worry about navigating through it right away!
On my second trip to Laurel, my engineer told me he would let me observe again, and then run on the trip home. We ended up having to take the siding at Custer, and when it was time to go, he got up and told me it was my turn to run. I guess he changed his mind. I ran the rest of the way to Laurel. This time the whole trip was in daylight though, and the yard looked completely different. Our train was a through train, so the power stayed on and we just pulled it into track west 14, and left it for the next crew. The next day, on the trip back to Forsyth, we caught an H train, which is a high priority merchandise train, originating in Laurel. We needed to get the locomotives from the roundhouse and put them on the train. Then the carmen came along, because we needed a FRED still, and an air brake test, which they would help perform. After we got the FRED on and armed, and the air test complete, one of the switch crews asked when we were going to pick up the other 19 cars of our train, located on another track. It would have been nice to know they were there before we had a warrant to leave! Anyway, we went and grabbed those, once the switch crew working our lead was out of the way, and air tested them too. After three hours of working in the yard, we were finally ready to depart. My engineer told me I could choose which half of the trip to run, and I chose the first half, from Laurel, through Billings and back to the BNSF. I figured that is where the most is going on and it is the more complicated half, so I wanted to run it to help become more familiar with it. As it turned out, I ended up running the whole way back to Forsyth though.
When I got done with that trip, I figured it might be nice to go back to Glendive for a day or two. I could catch a Glendive West Pool trip in Forsyth and take that home, and get one of my required trips in at the same time. It would also save me a little money in gasoline! Then I caught wind that two of Norfolk Southern's "Heritage" locomotives would be on an eastbound train the next morning. I decided to try to get on that train, since it would be a unique opportunity to see those locomotives. As it turned out, the engineer assigned to that train does not take trainees, so I got on the one before, figuring that would get me back to Glendive before that train arrived, giving me time to run home, get my camera, and get a couple of pictures when they arrived in Glendive, behind us. So, I ran a coal train back to Glendive. It was a slow train. We had four engines, but two were dead, so starting and stopping seemed to take forever on it. But, it was nice to be on familiar rails! I already knew where all the curves, hills, crossings, signals, and speed restrictions are located, so all I had to do was run the train, instead of try to run and check the track chart periodically. The trip to Glendive was pretty uneventful, just slow.
When we got to Glendive, we were well ahead of the train with the heritage units, so I figured once we got the power to the roundhouse, I would have plenty of time to get pictures. Apparently, that was not meant to be. As we were heading down the runaround, to get the remote locomotives off the rear, my conductor was riding the rear locomotive and giving me hand signals, telling me to proceed. Suddenly he gave me a stop and called, "Stop! Stop! Stop!" on the radio. I immediately put the engines in emergency, but we still rolled a couple of car lengths before stopping. He had not noticed a switch lined against us until the last second, and we rolled through it. We started calling supervisors, but after 5:00pm on a Friday, most of them have started their weekend! We did eventually get a track inspector out there to look at the switch. Once he told us it was safe to move, we got the engines off the switch and put them away. He took some measurements to see what the damage was, and we went to the depot for a drug and alcohol test. We found out later, from that track inspector, that we actually did no damage to the switch, which surprised us, but did not relieve us from the consequences. The Road Foreman arrived and took written statements of what happened, and then the urine sample collector arrived, and we all blew had to blow into a breathalyzer and pee in a cup. Even though the conductor was the one protecting the movement and will likely get the heat of the incident, we all are required to have a drug and alcohol test, in order to determine if that was a factor in the incident. They may also download the tapes from the locomotive to make sure that I was not speeding in the yard. While it was frustrating to have this incident happen, I am not too worried about the consequences, at least not for myself. I was following all the rules at the time of the incident. Sometimes stuff just happens. While all this took place, the train behind us, with the heritage locomotives, arrived, and then it got dark, so all I managed to get was one rather lousy photograph in Forsyth. However, we did notice an extraordinary number of photographers along the tracks, so there are probably pictures of both my train, and the one behind, with the heritage units, on the internet by now.
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