Winter Railroading

Several weeks ago, I talked about some of the challenges of railroading in the fall.  Since the weather has gotten colder since then, I thought I would share a few of the adventures we have had now that winter has arrived.  It always seems that winter time brings more break downs, equipment failures, and other problems.  It also seems that when things do go wrong, everything happens at once.

For the last few weeks, I have been working as a Conductor, since traffic levels have dropped and they do not need me as an Engineer.  On my first trip working as a Conductor again, we had a pretty normal trip up to Forsyth, but coming back things got a little more interesting.  We got called on duty before the train had actually arrived in Forsyth.  When it did finally arrive, the crew told us that the second locomotive had died on them about a half hour earlier, and they were unable to restart it.  The temperature outside was about 14 degrees, so if we could not get it running again, we would have to drain the cooling water out of it.  Locomotives on BNSF do not have any antifreeze in the water, so when it is cold out, and the engine is not running, the locomotive has to be drained to prevent it from freezing.

When we got on the train, we immediately went back to look at that second locomotive, and see if we could get it running.  We also called BNSF Mechanical on the radio to alert them of the dead engine.  In the cab, the computer said the engine had been shut down due to low cooling water, so that was the first thing we checked. The water appeared to be full.  Actually, it was higher than the full mark, and the person at BNSF Mechanical told us that overfilled was as bad as being low, and we would need to drain some of the water out of it, until it got below the full mark.  So, that is exactly what we did.  I am not sure how much water a locomotive holds, but it is a lot.  It took a while to get it below the full mark, and when it did finally get down to that level, the computer still said the water was low.  We called mechanical back and reported that we had drained some water but the engine still would not start.  He suggested we cycle the computer control breaker, to shut down and restart the computer, which is exactly what they tell you to do every time they cannot figure out what else to do.  When the computer came back on, the low water warning was still there, and the engine still would not start.  We tried cycling the breaker once more, at the instruction of BNSF Mechanical, with no luck.  Since the engine would not start, and by this time the water had already cooled to a temperature below the lowest mark on the thermometer, we decided we had better drain the engine.  We drained the engine, tagged the locomotive as being bad ordered, and then departed eastbound.

For the next couple hours, the trip went pretty smoothly, although the temperature continued to drop outside.  We had a meet at Marsh, about 20 miles west of Glendive, and that would be the last westbound train for quite a while.  The plan was to send us into Glendive after that meet.  We stopped at the west switch, so I could push the button and line us into the siding.  Normally it takes about 30 seconds after the button is pushed for the switch to line and the signal to change.  By that time, I was back on the locomotive, but nothing had happened.  We figured the switch must be frozen, because the last detector had said it was minus seven outside.  The switches are equipped with propane heaters, but they only come on when moisture is detected.  Since it had been dry most of the day, we figured the heater was probably off.  I grabbed a bottle of water, to dump on the heater and turn it on, and went out to line the switch by hand.  It had filled up with snow somehow, probably from the wind, and since the heater had been on earlier, but then shut off, causing all the snow that it had melted to refreeze and coat the entire switch in a layer of ice, beneath the snow that had blown in.

While I was chipping ice off the switch, something weird happened.  The Engineer kept flashing the headlights at me.  Normally, at night, that would be to let the Conductor know that we had gotten the signal into the siding, but since I had the switch on hand, and the points were floating while I swept it out, it was impossible to have the signal.  I was a bit confused, but got the switch cleaned out and lined for the siding, and then gave the Engineer a hand signal to proceed.  He stopped on the switch, and I put it back to power and locked it all up, and hopped back on.  When I opened the door to the cab, it smelled like something was burning in there.  He had the headlights off, but since our meet was sitting right there, that was not unusual.  As it turned out, they were not off by choice, and that had to do with the flashing earlier.  He had tried to turn the headlights on so that I would have more light while cleaning the switch.  When he did that, the headlight switch shorted out, which resulted in the burning smell that filled the cab with enough strength to make anyone gag.    He demonstrated this to me several times.  Turning the headlights on made them come on for about a second, then go out, with an accompanying crackling sound from the control stand.  We used a couple of flashlights to see ahead of us in the siding, and let the dispatcher know that we had no headlights, and until we could get some, we could not leave Marsh.  Seeing as the second unit was dead and completely shut down, we could not move that up front and use it, because the headlights would not have worked on it either.

We decided the idea situation would be to move the distributed power locomotive, on the rear, up to the front, and just use that as the new leader, because it was the only locomotive we had with everything working.  However, being as it was seven below zero outside, cooling off, and windy, neither one of us wanted to walk back to that locomotive, which was over a mile away.  The dispatcher agreed that walking was not a good idea and told us he would see about getting someone out there to give us a ride.  The only problem with that is that Marsh is 45 minutes from Glendive, by car, on dirt roads, and since it had snowed the night before, it was somewhat questionable whether Marsh was even accessible by road.  Eventually the dispatcher told us that one of our Trainmasters was on his way out, from Miles City.

Nearly five hours later, we saw headlights on a vehicle, coming our way.  For the last four hours, we had been wondering where the Trainmaster was, and if he could even get to us.  Turned out he had a story of his own.  He had originally tried to get to Marsh, by way of Fallon, and found snowdrifts as high as the truck he was driving.  From there, he turned around, drove to Glendive, and then tried to backtrack to Marsh.  He told us that he got a few miles out of town, to where the road turns to dirt, and the low tire pressure light came on.  He got out to check on the tires and said he could hear air leaking, so he turned around and drove back to Glendive.  When he got to town, he left the truck and borrowed the yard van and driver, and headed back out to us.  When they arrived, we hopped in the van for the ride back to the DP locomotive, and briefed the Trainmaster on what had happened so far.

When we got to the DP, we found that there was no FRED on it.  Technically, trains operating with distributed power on the rear, do not need a FRED, because the DP locomotive can monitor the brake pipe pressure and serve as a marker.  However, when a DP can no longer run on the rear, such as in our situation, there is nothing to monitor the brake pipe or serve as a marker, unless there is a FRED on the train.  At any rate, we needed headlights more than we needed a working engine on the rear, so we took the DP off the train anyway.  I managed to find a red flag on the DP locomotive, so I stuck that in the coupler, to serve as a marker.  We would be limited to 30mph without a FRED or device to monitor the brake pipe, but we only had 20 miles to go.

When we got the DP off the train, I had to clean out the west switch again, because the heater had turned back off and everything had frozen.  I have no idea how cold it was by this point, but it felt a lot colder than the first time I had cleaned that switch out!  Once we got out, we ran alongside the train on the main track, and then put the DP on the head end.  Fortunately, before the Trainmaster had arrived, I had gone and checked out the east switch, so it was thawed out and working properly for us when we got down there with the DP.  We put the DP on, did our air test, and headed east, finally!  When we got to Colgate, which is the last siding before Glendive, we had only a few minutes before we hit out 12 hour limit.  As we went over the west switch, we got a call from a dog catch crew, who was on their way out to meet us, there at Colgate, so we stopped at the crossing there and waited just a couple minutes for them.  I guess BNSF decided they did not want to fines associated with making a crew work over 12 hours!  Dog catch crews are significantly cheaper!

We hopped in the van and that ended an eventful day for us.  Most crews were getting from Forsyth to Glendive in well under six hours, and it took us over 12, so we were quite happy to be home.  And the thermometer on the bank in Glendive said -12 degrees out, so it certainly had cooled off more since the first time I cleaned out the west switch at Marsh!

Photo of the Week: Work Train

If you follow our Facebook page, you may have seen this one already, but I thought it would share it on here too.  Actually, it came out better than I had expected.

For the last few weeks, I have been on a regular assignment, working on a ballast train to support undercutters working in the area.  Every day we go out with ten to fifteen cars loaded with ballast, and dump it in the areas they cut with the undercutter.  Some days it seems like they only cut a few feet, other days they cut over a mile.  It just depends on what needs to be done, and how long they can go before the machine breaks down!

A few days ago we had pulled our train out of the siding in Marsh, MT, and headed west, following the undercutter and a surfacing crew.  They were cutting just east of Terry, MT, and we had several hours to kill before they had made enough progress cutting for us to come in and start dumping ballast.  While we were waiting, I decided to step off the engine and take a few pictures.  I was riding the rear because I have been working as a brakeman.  We like to have someone on the rear of the train so that if we have to back up, there is someone who can protect the shoving movement.  This is one of the photos I took on my little walk.

We had about 15 cars, with one engine on the west end and two on the east end.  Normally we operate with an engine on each end and have them linked as distributed power.  Earlier in the week, we had had problems getting the units to link up properly, so a third one was sent out.  That one would not link either, and so mechanical decided it was not worth sending a fourth locomotive out to a 15 car train!  They told us to just release the brakes, cut out the valves, and just pull the engines like they were any other rail car.  When we had to change directions, we just switched which engine got towed.

Prototype Railroading: Equipment Breakdowns

I realize today is Thursday, which is unusual for this post.  I remembered yesterday morning that it was Wednesday, and I knew what I wanted to write about, but by the time I got home from work, in the evening, I had completely forgotten about it.  So another story comes, but a day late.

At the end of last week, I was called to go to Forsyth again, on an empty coal train.  When I got to work, I met up with my engineer, and we got on the train.  The utility had already put the power on it, so all we had to do was get on the train, untie it, and leave.  As an empty coal train, it had no work to do en route, and there was only one or two trains coming at us from Forsyth, so it looked like it would be a pretty easy and quick trip.  Of course, nothing is definite until it happens on the railroad, but it looked good for us.

The trip started out alright.  We got a warrant to West Colgate, which seems to be the typical way to start the day.  Shortly after receiving the warrant, the dispatcher changed his mind and asked us to go in the siding at Colgate instead.  As we were headed towards Colgate, the engineer noticed that the brake cylinder still had one pound of air in it, and even though everything was supposed to be fully released, that one pound would not go away.  Once we got in the siding at Colgate and cleared our track warrant, he decided to notify BNSF mechanical, in Fort Worth, just so they would know about it and it could be checked out next time the locomotive was at a shop.  One pound was not a serious problem.  It is not enough pressure to actually drag the brake shoes, and the engineer had verified that they were released and not touching the wheel.

As we waited in Colgate, two trains went by us to Glendive.  After those two, we only had one more train to meet, and it was still over 100 miles away.  When mechanical finally answered the radio, the engineer explained what was going on.  Their first reaction was to tell us that the second engine should never have left the shop.  That was reassuring!  Then they suggested we check the hoses between engines and make sure none of them got crossed over each other and connected to the wrong one.  That does not happen much, but if the engines were put together in a hurry, it could have happened, and it would make the independent brakes do funny things.  The hoses were connected properly though, so that was not the problem.  The engineer relayed that to the mechanical, and his next suggestion was to cycle the air brake and computer control circuit breakers.  We had to tie the train down first though, because doing so would reset the computer and the air brake system, which would leave the brake system in question for several minutes.  As I walked back to tie down the train, I double checked the hoses between engines, which were still put together right.  When I got back to the cab, we turned the breakers off.  The computer monitors stayed lit but all the information on them was cleared off.  After several minutes we turned the breakers back on, and the computers started back up and the air brake system cycled through its start up procedures.

Once the air brakes and computer had been reset and everything seemed to be back to normal, we tried releasing the brakes to see if the one pound problem had been fixed.  It had not.  The monitor still showed one pound of air in the brake cylinder.  Additionally, we noticed that the air flow was not dropping below about 40, and was flashing back and forth between 40 and zero.  The air flow meter is used to help determine what the brakes are doing, and measures how quickly air is flowing through the brake pipe.  When nothing is going on, it should be at or near zero.  When the brakes are released, it typically goes up as air is pumped back into the brake pipe, but once the brake pipe pressure has stabilized, the flow should go back to zero.  We also noticed another new problem.  When the independent brake was applied, the pressure was only about 45 pounds in the brake cylinder, when it should have been at 72 pounds.  We relayed all this information to mechanical in Fort Worth.  We were instructed to cycle the breakers several more times, although the results were the same every time.  Finally after several tries at correcting the problems, with no success, mechanical decided we needed someone with mechanical knowledge to come take a look at the locomotive.  The contacted the Glendive roundhouse and assured us someone would be there shortly.

By the time the roundhouse had been contacted, we had been sitting in Colgate for nearly three hours, trying to troubleshoot the brake problems.  Two trains were waiting behind us, and we suggested to the dispatcher that they be allowed to go around us, on the main track, since we were likely to be there a while longer.  It was just a few minutes before the shift change at the roundhouse, so we knew it would be a little while before anyone got there.  They would wait until the new shift started, and before they came out to us, they would have to have their meetings and conference calls and job safety brief, so it would probably be close to an hour before anyone even left the roundhouse.

When the mechanical personnel arrived from the roundhouse, they put blue flags on the train, so that they could do any work they needed to on it.  They then came up to the cab and asked us a little about what we had done with mechanical on the radio, so we told them what we had done and what had happened as a result.  They tried a few different things and tried cycling a few different breakers, but the results were the same.  Then they got into the maintenance options on the computer, which allowed them to run diagnostics and tests on the locomotive, which we did not have access to.  After some time of diagnostics and tests, as well as walking around the engine and inspecting it again, they determined that the locomotive had to go back to Glendive for repairs.  It had failed some of the tests they ran, and could not be operated on the road.  We had to use the second engine to tow bring it back to town.  We explained what needed to be done to the dispatcher, got a track warrant, and then cut off the train and headed back to Glendive.  The roundhouse guys had already left, and so the roundhouse knew we were coming and would need a pair of engines to replace the ones we were bringing back to them.

When we got to town, we contacted the dispatcher again and got some new track bulletins and talked about the possibility of dog catching us.  We were more than halfway through our allowed work time, and we were back in Glendive, so making it to Forsyth just did not seem likely.  We could still have made it if we had a straight shot, but even then it would have been close!  Once I was done talking with the dispatcher, we got on our new engines, which were ready by then, and headed back out to Colgate.  Once in Colgate, we had to relink the distributed power, on the rear, and then we put the engines on the head end of the train.  We let the dispatcher know when we were ready to go, and he took us to Terry.  We finally pulled out of Colgate, headed west, about seven and a half hours after we had gone on duty.  It is only about that many miles from Glendive!  As we left Colgate, the dispatcher told us they had decided to dog catch us, and that crew would be on duty at 0415, in Glendive.

When we got to Colgate, the train we were meeting, which had been in Forsyth when we had gotten to Colgate, was not quite there yet.  We stopped short of the crossings in town, and figured we would pull in between the siding switches when they got there.  We ended up having almost an hour to kill there while we waited.  When they did finally arrive, the dog catch crew was also nearly there.  We began to pull forward, the DP would not load, and the engineer got an alarm message on his monitor, from the DP.  The message only indicated that there was an alarm, and said nothing about what it was.  The engineer on the train we were meeting offered to take a look at it, and when he called us on the radio from our DP, we could hear bells and alarms in the background.  He was unable to make the bells go away, and the dog catch crew had arrived there in Terry and decided to take a look at it.  They spent several minutes on the DP, and we rang up mechanical again.  The dog catch engineer tried troubleshooting the DP for several minutes before coming up to the front.  When they go to the front, we got off and got in the van to Forsyth.  I do not know how that turned out, because by then I was tired and just wanted to get to Forsyth so I could sleep.  The sun was starting to rise, so I had been at work all night and only gone 40 miles!  By the time we tied up in Forsyth, we were only about 20 minutes short of our 12-hour work limit.

Prototype Railroading: Multiple Units

Every day in railroading, trains run with more than one engine, yet only with one train crew.  This is accomplished by a "multiple unit" system on locomotives.  It is something that is an important part of railroading, yet very much taken for granted, and never really thought much about unless something goes wrong with the system.  Modern diesel and electric locomotives have the ability to run each other, meaning that only one train crew is needed to run a virtually unlimited number of engines.  Most freight trains run with more than one engine, because it means they can be run longer and heavier, without requiring more employees.  Long haul passenger trains, such as Amtrak trains, often run with more than one locomotive as well, and shorter haul, commuter trains usually have the ability to be controlled from either end, with only one locomotive.  All this is accomplished through a multiple unit system.

In the days of steam locomotives, there was no such thing as a multiple unit system.  Most trains ran with just one engine, and consequently, they ran considerably shorter than today's trains.  When more than one steam locomotive was needed, more than one crew was also needed.  Even identical steam engines responded differently, and so a crew was needed on each one.  The two crews would have to work together carefully to match speed and available pulling power.  This system actually worked pretty well, all things considered, although it was not commonplace to run multiple locomotives on steam trains, because it cost the railroad more.  Typically the railroad prefers to pay multiple crews to move multiple trains, not one train!

As diesel and electric locomotives were developed, the ability to operate more than one from a single location also developed.  This is one way that diesel locomotives had an advantage over steam locomotives.  Three or four of them could be placed on a train, and still only require one crew.  The meant the amount of horsepower could be adjusted to meet the demands of almost any train, and the railroad could run longer trains.  Longer trains mean more money, and yet there is no additional cost for additional crews.

A pair of MU jumper cables.
Photo from www.epowerrail.com.

On every locomotive, diesel and electric, there is an identical plug on each end, called the multiple unit, or MU plug.  There is a standardized MU jumper that fits into that plug.  When locomotives are coupled together, the jumper cable is plugged into the MU plug on each locomotive, spanning the gap between locomotives.  On the leading locomotives, brake valves are cut in, and the control switches are set up to identify that as the controlling locomotive.  On all the trailing locomotives, brake valves are cut out, as the brakes will be controlled from the leading locomotive, and the control switches are positioned to identify those as non-controlling locomotives.  When all the valves and switches are positioned correctly, the trailing locomotives all take commands through that MU jumper cable.  The commands come from the engineer operating the controls of the leading locomotive.

Most of the commands for operating multiple locomotives are sent through the MU jumpers, however there are a few things that are sent through air hoses, and some things that do not get sent at all.  For example, the horn and bell will only sound on the load locomotive.  There really is no need to have more than one engine on a train whistling for crossings.  All it would do is annoy people more.  Other controls, such as the heater or air conditioner in the cab, only applies to the unit on which those controls are operated.  If for some reason the train crew wants heat in the second locomotive, they have to walk back there and turn it on there.  Some newer locomotives also have electric hand brakes, where simply pushing a button applies or releases the hand brake.  Those are also controlled locally, and no information about their condition is sent through the MU cable.

The train brake hose, on the left, and the three independent
brake hoses, on the right.
Photo from www.mdmlocomotiveworks.com

Air brake information is not sent through the MU cable, but rather through a set of hoses.  Locomotives have three brake systems on them.  The train brake, or automatic brake, is the air brake that operates on all locomotives and cars in the entire train.  A hose connects the brake pipe on every locomotive and car from the head end to the rear end, and when the engineer makes an application on the train brake, it effects the entire train.  Locomotives have a second set of air brakes, called the independent brake.  When the engineer uses the independent brake, it only effects the air brakes on the locomotives.  A third braking system, called the dynamic brake actually uses the locomotive's traction system to slow the train down.  The motors, which move the train, can also be used to provide quite a lot of resistance, and slow a train down quite considerably.  Only the dynamic brake information is sent through the MU cable.  The independent brake information is relayed through a set of three air hoses, seen on the left.  The three hoses all relay different information, and connect the independent brake systems on all the locomotives.  Whenever locomotives are coupled together, these hoses, along with the the train brake hose, and the MU cable, must all be connected for everything to work properly.

Some trains operate with distributed power locomotives, which handle things a bit differently.  Distributed power is when one or more locomotives is placed in the middle or at the end of the train, yet still controlled from the leading engine.  This is a newer technology than the MU cable.  Distributed power allows the engineer on the lead locomotive to control all locomotives on the train, via radio signals.  The lead locomotive and the distributed power locomotive communicate commands via radio, which the on board computers transmit, receive, and process.  This operates a little differently than more traditional multiple units.  When the MU jumper is used to connect locomotives, they all do exactly what the lead locomotive does, at the same time.  With distributed power, the engineer has the ability to control the distributed power locomotive, or DP, separately.  The DP can be doing different things than the head end, which allows for better train management and smoother handling.  It can also be set up to do exactly as the head end, if that is how the engineer would like to operate.  the controls for the DP are all managed from a computer screen in the lead locomotive.  All the information, including brakes, is sent via radio to the DP, and there are no mechanical connections running through the train, except for the brake pipe.  This is similar to multiple unit operation, in that it allows for the DP locomotive to be controlled by the engineer on the controlling engine, but different in that it allows quite a bit more flexibility in operations.  Both systems have allowed railroads to put together much longer and heavier trains than would be possible otherwise.  They allow very long and heavy trains to be operated by just one crew, sometimes over a mile away from the end of their train.

Prototype Railroading: Helpers and Grades

The idea of helper locomotives is about as old as mountain railroading.  Anytime a heavy train needs to go up a steep or long grade, additional locomotives are needed, called helpers.  Modern diesel locomotives have not eliminated the need for helper locomotives.  They are used in many places throughout the mountains states where there are significant grades.  In most cases, helper locomotives are found on the rear end of the train, pushing, although they can be used at the head end, or in the middle.  This is less common, simply because it presents more complicated switching to get them there and to take them out later.

Glendive is actually a helper base, for trains heading east.  As trains head east from Glendive, into North Dakota, they must go up two hills.  The grades are not what many people would consider particularly steep.  Beaver Hill, the first grade encountered by eastbound trains is a 1.11% grade, and Fryburg Hill, the second one, is a 1.06% grade.  One percent really does not sound like a steep grade, but what must also be considered is the tonnage of the train and the amount of horsepower.

Typically, coal trains around here will run with two locomotives on the head end, and one distributed power unit on the rear.  Usually that means the total horsepower is around 12,000  One of these coal trains typically weighs between 16,000 and 17,000 tons, meaning there is less than one horsepower per ton.  (0.7 horsepower per ton is pretty typical.)  Another thing to consider is something called the factor of adhesion.  We are not going to get into the calculations for that, because that is rather complicated.  The factor of adhesion is basically the amount of traction a locomotive can expect when pulling a number of tons.  Typically, heavier locomotives have a higher factor of adhesion.  There is more weight on the driving wheels, and therefore more traction.  However, even the "stickiest" locomotives will spin the wheels when the load behind them is extremely high and too much horsepower is directed to the wheels.  On older locomotives, the engineer would control wheelslip with the throttle.  On newer locomotives, it is partly, or entirely controlled electronically.  There are a couple of ways to increase the factor of adhesion.  One way is to put more powered axles under a locomotive, thereby spreading out the horsepower, and transferring more of it to the rails before they begin to slip.  Another way to increase the factor of adhesion is by increasing the weight on the wheels.  This is only practical up to a certain point, because if a locomotive is built too heavy, it will overload bridges and break rails.  The simplest way to increase the factor of adhesion is to apply sand to the rails.  This will prevent wheelslip, but if a train is underpowered on a grade, it will not prevent the locomotives from stalling.  If you want more detailed information and calculations, I highly recommend visiting this website, put together by a locomotive engineer in Wyoming.

Once the factor of adhesion and horsepower per ton is figured out, then the train crew, and the railroad, can figure out what kind of power will be needed to get a train up a grade.  That is where helpers come into the equation.  On reasonably level track, most of our heaviest coal trains will do just fine with three locomotives.  Even two locomotives will get the job done, as I have talked about in the past.  On level track, the only thing the locomotives have to do is move the weight of the train forward.  Just about any number of locomotives can do that, it is just a question of how long it will take them to get going.  When a hill comes into the picture, the locomotives must not only move the weight of the train forward, but they must also move it up.  Even in short grades, this is not a problem, because on a long coal train, the train will remain in balance.  Part of the train will be ascending a short grade, while part of the train is descending a similar grade, balancing the train out.  Long grades are places where the entire train must be moving uphill at once, and there is no balancing action from a portion moving downhill.

Helper locomotives typically push on the rear end of the train, for several reasons.  It makes the switching easier when they are put on the train and taken off the train.  Also, the helpers do not usually stay with the train to the next terminal, unless that terminal happens to be the end of the grade.  This is the case in Glendive.  Once the helpers are removed from the train, they must return to the starting point.  Having them on the rear of the train makes this significantly easier.  Another thing to consider, on a grade especially, is the force on the couplers.  Typically, couplers are rated for 390,000 pounds of force.  On a grade, the force will be greater on the couplers.  Having all the locomotives at the front of the train could literally pull the train apart, breaking a coupler.  By having helpers and distributed power at the rear, it helps to prevent pulling the couplers apart.  Recently, there was not a proper balance of horsepower like that, and the train actually split in three.  When the first coupler broke, it caused such a violent change in the coupler slack that another coupler was pulled apart too.  As you can imagine, splitting a train in two is not an ideal situation.

Distributed power is different from helpers.  Distributed power locomotives, while often found at the rear end of trains, are not the same as helper locomotives.  They stay with the train for the entire trip, regardless of grades along the way.  Distributed power is a remote controlled locomotive, which the engineer at the front of the train controls, just as he would if it were up front.  A helper locomotive is attached for the sole purpose of providing extra horsepower up a long or steep grade.  It is not controlled by the engineer on the front of the train.  There is a separate crew in the helper locomotive, controlling that locomotive.  That crew and the crew on the front of the train stay in contact with each other, but the engineer on the head end of the train does not control the helper locomotive.  When the train is up the grade, the helper is removed, and the train continues on without it.

Here in Glendive, the helpers are primarily added to eastbound coal loads.  These are usually the heaviest trains we get, and they need the extra power for the hills.  The number of helpers depends entirely on the weight of the train and the number of locomotives currently assigned to it. In most cases, the coal trains will get just one helper.  They will push the train typically to Fryburg, ND, about 100 miles east, where the train will stop and the helper will be uncoupled.  The coal train will continue east, and the helper locomotive will return to Glendive.  Going up the hill with the coal train is still a slow process.  At times, with all the engines running in full throttle, the train will only be going about 15 mph.  However, that helper locomotive is the difference between keeping the train moving and stalling on the hill.  Moving slow is still better than a stalled train.  Working the helpers is usually a pretty simple job.  The first half of the trip consists of riding backwards, in full throttle, pushing the train.  As we leave town, the helper engineer puts the throttle all the way up to notch eight, the highest, and then we all sit back and watch the tracks go by.  Once at the top of the hill, it is the conductor's duty to close the angle cocks, or valves, on the air brake pipe, and pull the pin that opens the coupler.  Once that is done, the helper heads back to Glendive.  With just a locomotive, the trip back is pretty quick and easy.

Prototype Railroading: It Is Not Always Routine

When we are assigned to take either an empty or loaded coal train, we always figure it should be a pretty simple trip.  Coal trains never have any cars scheduled to be picked up o set out along the way, so basically, we get on the train and just go.  There is little to no switching to do at either end, and so they are usually pretty simple.  All you have to do is follow the dispatcher's directions.  Usually.  Every once in a while, the coal train proves to be a little out of the ordinary.  Such was the case just the other day.

I arrived for work, in Forsyth, for an on duty time of 9:30am.  I was to be on train C-SCMSUD0-60A, a loaded coal train, which supposedly had 120 cars.  We later found out it had an extra one in there.  I got to work, and got through the pile of paperwork, as usual, and the engineer went to check the fuel level and inspect the distributed power unit, at the rear of the train.

Most of the trains we run around here have one, remote controlled, locomotive at the rear end, called a distributed power unit, or DP.  This helps to balance the horsepower on some of the heavier trains, and it helps to prevent pulling couplers apart.  It also makes the ride a bit more comfortable up front, because having an engine on the rear helps to control slack action within the train.  Most coal trains that we get through here have three locomotives.  Two of them will be up front and one will be acting as distributed power, and will be controlled from the front, but will be pushing at the rear.  When the distributed power works the way it should, life is happy, and it is great to have it.  When it stops working the way it is supposed to, it can be quite frustrating, because that locomotive is usually well over a mile from the crew.

The crew who brought this coal train into Forsyth had warned us that they had been getting an alarm in the lead locomotive, indicating a problem with the distributed power locomotive.  They had been so close to Forsyth when it first became a problem, that they just brought the train in anyway, so they were not really sure what the problem was.  Well, when the engineer went back to inspect the locomotive and check the fuel level, he found part of the problem.  The locomotive was not even running!  It had mysteriously shut itself down.  While he was back there, he started it back up.  When he started it, an alarm went off indicating low fuel pressure, so he checked the fuel level.  It was at 2,500 gallons, which is about half a tank.  A minute after starting the engine back up, it decided to dump all of the air out of the brake system, and apply the emergency brakes on the entire train.  Since he was still back there, he reset that, and the air pressure began to build back up in the train.  Then the engineer got back in the van, and headed back to the depot.

Once the engineer was back at the depot, we all got on the lead locomotive and got ready to depart.  As we did so, we got indications from the DP locomotive that the air pressure in that unit's main air reservoir was low, and was not increasing.  It should have been increasing, because low pressure would trigger the air compressor, which would fill the reservoir.  We did a few things from the lead locomotive to try to get the air pressure to build to the proper pressure, but we could not get it to change.  We talked to one of the Road Foremen, who was in town, and he suggested making an emergency brake application to reset the system, so we tried that.  Once the air pressure recovered in the brake system, the problem was back.  So the engineer got back in the van and headed to the rear end to see if he could fix it from there.

As it turned out, the problem had nothing to do with the brake system or the air compressor.  When the engineer got to the rear end of the train, he again found that the locomotive was not running.  In the time it had taken him to get to the depot and for us to get on the engine, the DP had decided to shut itself down again.  Once again, the engineer started the engine back up.  That time, there were no alarms, and everything seemed to be acting normal.  When he started it up, all the alarms we had been seeing on the lead locomotive disappeared.  The engineer returned to the front, and then we had to decide what to do with the DP locomotive.  If it was going to keep shutting itself down, we could not leave it back there.  We could either set it out and just run with two engines, or we could try to move it to the front, so that if it did shut down, we could restart it.  We consulted with the Trainmaster, and he suggested we simply set the locomotive out and leave it in Forsyth.  It would eventually need to go to Glendive for repairs, but the easiest thing for us to do seemed to be to simply leave it behind.

We could not simply uncouple the DP locomotive and leave it sitting on the track the train was on, because that track would be needed by trains arriving in Forsyth later.  Also, we could not go back and move the DP under its own power, because there was nowhere to set it.  Our train was blocking the switch to the yard tracks, so our train would need to be moved.  Also, it needed to be set out at the east end of the yard so that whoever picked it up to bring it to the shop, in Glendive, could put it on the front of their train.  All of the yard tracks in Forsyth had something on them, which meant our coal train would need to move the length of the yard so we could put the DP locomotive in the east end of one of the yard tracks.  Basically, it boiled down to the fact that we needed to switch with a 17,000 ton train, and we would block crossings for a very long time!

The Conductor and I jumped in the van and ran back the DP locomotive for the ride through the yard.  Somebody had to be back there to release the brakes.  That would put us in the right place for when it was time to back the entire train up to drop the DP locomotive off in one of the yard tracks.  We would be able to watch where we were going from the cab of the DP, and give instructions to the engineer, who, being 6,500 feet away, had no idea what was going on behind him!  There are two crossings in Forsyth, and as the train slowly moved through the yard, they were both blocked.  We had the engineer move the train forward far enough to let the crossing gates go up and let traffic through, which was a good thing, because we had managed to create a traffic jam that literally stretched from one side of town to the other.  And we were not even finished!

Once traffic had cleared up a little, we backed the entire train up, back through the crossing, and into one of the yard tracks.  We coupled the DP locomotive to another car that was sitting there awaiting repairs.  Since we would be running without a locomotive on the rear of the train, I went and grabbed an End of Train Device, while the Conductor got everything on the locomotive secured so we could leave it unattended.  I attached the End of Train Device and got everything ready to uncouple the locomotive from the end of the train.  By the time we were ready to move the train again, we had been sitting in the crossing nearly another 45 minutes, and the traffic was crazy.  This was also the lunch hour, so there were about 20 pedestrians also waiting to cross the tracks to get some lunch.  As soon as we were able, we uncoupled the locomotive, and pulled the train back through the crossing, far enough to make the gates go back up and allow traffic to move again.

Once the train was out of the way a bit, I finished up with the End of Train Device, which we call Fred.  Fred had to be connected to the air brake hose, and then communication had to be established between Fred and the Head of Train Device, on the lead locomotive.  We call the Head of Train Device Lucy.  Lucy and Fred have to talk, because Fred monitors brake pipe air pressure, flashes a red  marker light, and, if needed, makes an emergency brake application at the rear end of the train.  Once Fred was armed as we say, we were ready to go.  We jumped in the van and got a ride to the locomotive, and, much to the dispatcher's relief, we were finally underway.  By then it was 12:30, and we had been at work for three hours!

Some days just are not normal I guess.  I am just glad it happened in training!