Prototype Railroading: Familiarization Trips

Because trains operated considerably differently than highway vehicles, and therefore require a considerable knowledge of the tracks ahead, an engineer cannot simply get on a train and run it over a stretch of track he has never seen, even if he has the card allowing him to run the train.  Since engineers usually stay primarily at the same terminal, usually this is not an issue.  In Glendive, for several years, engineers have either operated on the Dickinson Sub, west of Dickinson, or on the Forsyth Sub, east of Forsyth.  Since those were the only two lines we ran out of Glendive, all the engineers were pretty well familiar with those stretches of track.  Recently, however, we have had a little change.

Besides the Forsyth and Dickinson subdivisions, there are two other railroad lines out of Glendive.  The Circle Sub runs west, towards Circle, and is the remainder of the former Northern Pacific Redwater Branch, which once went to Brockway.  From Glendive to Circle, the line has a 10mph speed limit, and has not been used in years.  I think the railroad keeps it to store cars, and just in case oil or coal starts to be produced out near Circle.  The other line out of Glendive is the Sidney Branch, which was leased to and operated by the Yellowstone Valley Railroad (YSVR) for several years.  In January, the lease ran out, and BNSF took the line back from the YSVR.  The line runs north to Sidney, and then on to Snowden, where it connects to the Hi-Line.  Many years ago the Northern Pacific owned and operated the line as far as Sidney, while the Great Northern owned it between Sidney and Snowden.  In the last few years, as the oil industry has grown in the area, the amount of traffic on the Sidney Branch has picked up considerably, and BNSF anticipates it will continue to grow.

The Yellowstone Valley Railroad leased the Sidney Branch from the BNSF for several years, seven is what I am told.  Because of that, BNSF crews working in Glendive really had no reason to go north on that branch.  Since it had been so long since anyone in Glendive had operated on the line, and since there were quite a few engineers that had never been up the line, it was decided that everyone would need to be familiarized on it.  This only applied to engineers, so Conductors were allowed to go up there without having ever seen the branch before.  Over the last couple of months, when a train has been called for the Sidney line, typically a qualified engineer will be called, and a second engineer will be called to familiarize.  The idea is that the familiarizing engineer will operate the train, under the direction and supervision of the qualified engineer.  After a round trip to Sidney, and engineer is qualified to operate on the line.  Right now, the speed limit goes back and forth a few times between 10mph and 25mph, and there are no signals on the line.  Last time I went up there with a familiarizing engineer, he said it was a pretty easy line to run, just because it is a slow line, and there is only one siding between Sidney and Glendive.

Engineers are the only people required to familiarize on a line, because they are the only ones authorized to operate the train.  Conductors can go on unfamiliar territory, and basically get to wing it!  At this point, I have made a few trips up the Sidney Branch, and it is not a difficult line to work on.  But the first time I went up there, I felt completely lost.  First of all, I never go to Sidney, even on my time off, so I was not real familiar with the area anyway.  Also, I had never worked in dark territory (territory with no signals), and there are a few small differences when compared to track warrant control with signals.  There is a little extra paperwork, where the Conductor has to record the position of every switch operated, and sign off that they were left in the position instructed by the dispatcher.  Whenever a track warrant is cleared with the dispatcher, the Conductor has to let the dispatcher know that the position of switch form is up to date and that all the switches are lined and locked as he or she instructed.  On my first trip up there, no one told me ahead of time that I had to do that, or have that paperwork.  Fortunately, I had an engineer that had worked in dark territory before, and helped me out a lot.  And by sheer dumb luck, I happened to have a whole pile of the position of switch forms in my grip already!  On that first trip, we were to pick up a train at Crane, which is where the only siding between Glendive and Sidney is located.  Since it is dark territory, all the switches are hand operated.  The train was in the siding, which meant that someone had to line the switch before the train could go anywhere.  Once the switch was lined for the siding, the train could pull out, but then the switch had to be lined back for main track movement.  We had a brakeman on that trip, so he got to line the switch, and the crew van driver stuck around to give him a ride back to the engines after he lined it back behind the train.  It's a little trickier without a brakeman, which was the case on my next trip.  The rest of the trip to Glendive was pretty uneventful.  Going 10mph for miles at a time is really not very exciting!  It was interesting to see the line though, and see some different scenery.

On my next trip up the Sidney Branch, we actually made a round trip.  We first took a whole lot of empty tank cars to Oneok, which is an oil loading facility just south of the yard in Sidney.  We were supposed to be meeting a train there and returning to Glendive with it, but we ended up meeting them at Crane, which is five miles to the south.  We put all the tank cars where they needed to be at Oneok, and then a van met us and took s to Crane, where the previous crew had left the train.  The YSVR had brought it down there from the yard in Sidney, which is about as far as they operate on the line anymore.  This time, we did not have a brakeman.  The train was on the siding at Crane, as expected.  They YSVR had either neglected to air test the train, or had neglected to leave us any indication that they had.  In any event, since we had no indication that an air test had been done, we had to do one.  I had the van drop me off near the last car of the train, and then we began the air test.  The engineer set the brakes, and I walked up to the front of the train, about 4,500 feet away, inspecting each car along the way, and inspecting the brakes on each car, to make sure they had set up properly.  When I got to the front of the train, I lined the switch and the engineer pulled the train out of the siding.  As it rolled slowly by I inspected each car to make sure the brakes had released properly.  With the air test complete, and the train out of the siding, I lined the switch back to the main.  Our warrant actually allowed us on the main track between switches at Crane.  Ideally the dispatcher would have given us permission to pick up a crew member, which means that no one has to watch the shove, and the train could have backed up to pick me up.  However the dispatcher had only given us permission to make a reverse movement, which meant someone had to protect the shove as the train backed up.  There was a crossing near the south switch, so I watched the shove back, and met the van where it had left me to do the brake test.  Once the engines were near that crossing, I hopped in the van and got a ride around to the front of the train.  It sure beat walking!  All of this work, especially during my first trip, made me think that Conductors really ought to get some sort of familiarization as well though.  My engineers on both of those trips really made my life a lot easier, because both of them had been up the line more than I had, and had more experience working in dark territory.  On both trips, I learned a lot of new information, and went to places I had not even seen pictures of before.  Several people had tried to explain exactly how things were laid out at these locations, and their explanations helped a lot, but everything made a lot more sense when I was there, looking at what my engineers were explaining.

Now that I have been up the Sidney line a few times, I actually like the run.  It is a nice change from the constant runs to Forsyth, and at the end of the day, we go home, which is always nice.  The trip is slow, and running at 10mph can get to be a bit boring, but the work is more interesting and it's a nice change of scenery.  Currently there is no Sidney pool job, so all the jobs on the Sidney line are called off the extra board, which means a little bit of dumb luck is what gets you on one of those trains (off away from one, depending on your perspective.), but they keep talking on and off about establishing a pool to shuttle trains up north.  Personally, I think they ought to forget the shuttle idea and just run some local trains, but the railroad will probably try to avoid locals if they can, because the local crews get a higher rate of pay, making them more expensive to the railroad.

In other news, I got a little surprise the other day.  I was standing around in the depot, waiting for the crew office to decide what to do with me.  They had called my engineer and me for a grain train, which was outside of the area we can work in, as Glendive crews.  They thought about sending us home, but eventually decided to have us go get some engines off a work train in Terry.  While I was standing around the depot, waiting for the phone to ring, one of the engineers surprised me.  He made a comment about something I had written on here.  I think I was more surprised that anyone at work would read this than anything else!  I hardly knew what to say, because I just had not expected it.  I have wondered to myself on occasion, if other railroaders have ever found this, and I guess I have my answer now!

Saturday Slanguage: Roll Up Track

At least once on almost every trip, the train dispatcher will ask the train crew to "roll up some track" for him.  Sometimes he asks for a "roll up," and other times he will tell the crew to "roll up" a certain milepost.  While this may sound like a physically challenging task, I assure you it is actually quite simple and easy!

When the dispatcher asks a train crew to "roll up track," he wants to know where the rear of the train is.  Usually he needs this information so he can send a maintenance crew or track inspector out behind the train.  For obvious safety reasons, he would not want to send them out without knowing that the train has passed the location that they will be working.  When the rolls up track, the conductor tells the dispatcher what location the rear end of the train is past.  The most recent milepost is the most common location reference.  The dispatcher repeats this back, and then verifies it with the engineer.  At that point, the dispatcher knows that the the train is clear of the named location.

Sometimes the dispatcher knows he will want to send out a track inspector at a specific location.  Rather than wait until he thinks the train is past, he will tell the train crew in advance to roll up a certain location.  All this means is that, when the train has passed the specified location, he wants the crew to let him know.  From there, the roll up procedure is exactly the same.

Let's take a look at an example:
Dispatcher: BNSF 9697 West, for a roll up, over.
Conductor:  BNSF 9697 West, Conductor Ogden verifies the entire train is clear of milepost 96, over.
Dispatcher: BNSF 9697 West, on track warrant 612-56, entire train is clear of milepost 96 at 9:57, 0-9-5-7, is that correct?  Over.
Engineer:  BNSF 9697 West, Engineer Roberts, that is all correct, over.
In the above example, the dispatcher needed to know where the train was, and needed whatever track was available behind them.  He did not specify a location, either because he already knew they were beyond the area he needed, or he knew that they could roll up enough track for him to give authority to someone else in that area.  Now, let's look at the other possibility.
Dispatcher: BNSF 6268 East, please roll up West Blatchford, over.
Conductor: Roger, BNSF 6268 East to roll up West Blatchford, over.
Upon passing West Blatchford, the crew gets in touch with the dispatcher again:
Conductor: BNSF 6268 East to the Forsyth dispatcher, for West Blatchford, over.
Dispatcher: Forsyth dispatcher, over.
Conductor: BNSF 6268 East, Conductor Ogden verifies entire train is clear of West Blatchford.
Dispatcher: BNSF 6268 East, on track warrant 612-21, entire train is clear of West Blatchford at 11:32, 1-1-3-2, is that correct?  Over.
Engineer: BNSF 6268 East, Engineer Roberts, that is correct, over.

In both situations, the track has been made available behind the train for the dispatcher to use.  He may use it for another train, but more likely he needs to get maintenance personnel out on the tracks behind the train.  They could be a track inspector, a welder, signal maintainer, surfacing crew, or just about anyone else.  In both examples, a marked and known location was used.  Mileposts are the most commonly used for a roll up, but stations and switches, like in the second example, can also be used to roll up track.

As it turns out, it is not nearly as physically challenging to "roll up track" as one might be led to believe!

Prototype Railroading: Track Warrants

As of this week, I am in the middle of on the job training.  We had one week of classroom training, which left us all overwhelmed and confused.  We were told repeatedly that everything would make more sense once we got on the trains and started doing it.  I think most of us were thinking, "How do you expect us to do it if we cannot even understand it all here?!"  Well, they were right.  I put myself on the west pool, which just takes trains to Forsyth, MT, and back.  On Monday night I reported to work and got on a manifest, or mixed, freight train to Forsyth.  I was hoping that the conductor would let me just watch what he does so I could see how everything is done before I had to do it.  He had other ideas though.  He had me get all the paperwork together and complete before we got on the train.  Once on the train, he sat me down in what would normally be his seat and he walked me through all the paperwork to do on the train.  He showed me how to line switches for the sidings when we had a meet, and what to look and listen for when inspecting passing trains.  It was still overwhelming, but at least I was no longer confused!

Once on the road, the paperwork continues.  The track we operate over is known as TWC ABS.  This means that the trains operate by Track Warrant Control.  The dispatcher cannot actually see where the trains are, but allows them to operate on sections of track by issuing a track warrant to the conductor.  The train can operate within the limits of that warrant, and must get another one to continue farther.  ABS means that the signals are Automatic Block Signals.  The let the engineer and conductor know what the track condition is ahead of the train.  They do not tell the crew anything about their authority, or the limits of their warrant, they only tell them if the track ahead is clear or not.

As a train leaves the yard in Glendive, the dispatcher gives a track warrant to the conductor.  Every conductor hopes for a warrant to CTC Forsyth, because that would mean they are not stopping anywhere, but that never actually happens.  Out here, you are doing pretty well if you go more than ten miles on a warrant!    The dispatcher gives the warrant, and the to and from locations, or the limits, of the warrant.  Then he or she also gives additional instructions.  The warrant may not be effective until after another train passes a certain point, usually the point you are waiting at.  It may also indicate that you have to clear the main line, or take a siding at the end of your authority.  As the train approaches the end of its authority, you hope the dispatcher gets back to you in a hurry for another warrant so everything can just keep moving.  That does not always happen though.

Now that this is all thoroughly confusing, let's try an example.  Just for the example, I am in Glendive, taking on an empty coal train ultimately bound for the Powder River Basin, in Wyoming.  From Glendive, the crews take it to Forsyth.  If I am sitting in the yard in Glendive, the conversation would go something like this:

"BNSF 6150 West to Forsyth dispatcher.  Over."

"Forsyth dispatcher BNSF 6150 West.  Over."

"BNSF 6150 West, Conductor Trainee Ogden looking for a warrant in Glendive.  Over."

"Okay.  Track warrant number 612 six one two dash 74 seven four to the BNSF 6150 six one five zero West W-E-S-T.  Check box two T-W-O.  Proceed from Yard Limits Glendive to East E-A-S-T siding switch Marsh.  Check box three T-H-R-E-E, clear at last named point. Over."

"Track warrant 612 six one two dash 74 seven four to BNSF 6150 six one five zero West W-E-S-T.  Check box two T-W-O.  Proceed from Yard Limits Glendive to East-E-A-S-T siding switch Marsh.  Check box three T-H-R-E-E, clear at last named point.  Over.

"That is correct.  Track warrant 612-74 to the BNSF 6150 West is okay at 14:32 one four two three AQE.  Over."

"Track warrant number 612-74 to BNSF 6150 West is okay at 14:32 one four two three, dispatcher AQE.  Is that correct?  Over."

"That is correct.  Over."

"That is correct, thanks.  Out."

What does all that mean?!  First of all, the track warrant is a predetermined form.  It varies a bit from one railroad to another, but it has certain boxes on it, followed by some preset instructions.  Some of those predetermined instructions have blank spaces in them where location names can be filled in according to the dispatcher orders.  When the dispatcher first contacts a train crew for a track warrant, the train crew must use their locomotive number, in this case it is BNSF 6150 (which I was on last night).  At the first contact, the person talking to the dispatcher must also identify themselves by their title and last name.  I am Conductor Trainee Ogden.  They must also tell the dispatcher their current location, whether it is a milepost, siding, or switch.  In the example, the train had not yet departed Glendive, so the location was simply Glendive.  Once that has been covered, the dispatcher dives into the track warrant.  And some of them can be jerks and will read it off faster than most people can comprehend, but you just do your best to keep up, and if they do that, you just ask them to repeat it as many times as you need to.  "Check box two" is one of those predetermined boxes on the warrant.  Before it is filled out, that section says, "Proceed from __________ to __________ on __________."  You simply write in the two locations and track in the lines.  In the example, the train was given authority to operate from the yard limits at Glendive, which is about two miles east of town, to the east siding switch at Marsh, which is about 20 miles east of Glendive.  The train is to do that on the Main track, which is the only track there.  The next part, check box three indicates that the train must clear the main line at the last named point, which was the east siding switch at Marsh.  That basically means the train must go in the siding, and chances are it will be meeting another train there.  Box three never changes, it always says, "Clear at last named point, but you still read it for clarification sake.  Once all the information is given, the conductor must repeat it back correctly, and then the dispatcher gives an okay time and his or her initials.  At that point the train has track.  You will notice that all the numbers and directions are spelled out the first time they are said.  This is just for clarification.

The warrant can be for as much or as little track as the dispatcher wants to or is able to give you.  Sometimes you get authority to use 40 or 50 miles of track, at other times, you are lucky to get 10 miles.  It varies a lot depending on the amount of traffic, and which direction it is all going, and if the dispatcher likes you or is paying attention.  Some days are better than others.