Jon,
I work for BNSF. The train that got away was not really a train,
but a
bunch of loaded cars that were cut away from the locomotives. It was a
Union
Pacific road switch crew. They were servicing local industries dropping
off a
loaded car or two and picking up the empties. They cut away from their
train on
the main line to deliver a car on a side track and "bottled" the air on
these
reamining cars. A very basic mistake we are told not to do. When you
bottle the
air you close the valve on both ends of the "cut" of cars for
convenience so you
won't have to waste time building the air up again when you connect the
locomotive to the cars. The air in the train line acts as a signal to
tell the
air brakes when to apply or release. Any reduction in the air pressure
(usually
around 90 PSI) in the air line and the brakes begin to apply. Rapid
reduction
causes emergency application. A very old system that is still in use on
all
trains in the USA. The switch crew was working in Montclair when they
made this
mistake. The cars started to roll because they bottled the air,
something they
probably do every day, but today the cars started to roll back towards
Los
Angeles. They finally stopped in the City of Commerce. 27 miles away!
Needless
to say, those guys got off work ealry like they were trying to do. They
just
won't be back.
Mike MacLean
60 Sprite
56 BN2
02 FLSTS
00 F150
Jon Paschke wrote:
> Hey Mike,
>
> Was that your train that got away in LA? (G) Sure made a big pile of
tooth
> picks.
>
> Jon
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