News flash - Modern day Casey Jones

Subject: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: GUEST,djh
Date: 15 May 01 - 03:11 PM

I am busy at work , but, I had to relate this. The NPR news just broadcast that a frieght train engineer died of a heartattack behind the wheel today. The train was carrying toxic waste and someone had to jump aboard the runaway train to stop it. I can hear the songs already.

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: GUEST,DJH
Date: 15 May 01 - 04:07 PM

The plot thickens , initial report was wrong the engineer wasn't even aboard the train when they caught it.

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: GUEST
Date: 15 May 01 - 04:12 PM

now they are saying the brakes probably failed while the trin was parked and away it went

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: GUEST
Date: 15 May 01 - 04:22 PM

"trin?" Did I say "trin"? I must have meant twain, tank you

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: GUEST
Date: 15 May 01 - 04:58 PM

I love talking to myself when nobody is interested

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Bert
Date: 15 May 01 - 05:00 PM

Well we can't let you go on taking to yourself. Do you have a link to the story?

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: MMario
Date: 15 May 01 - 05:02 PM

it's a slow part of the day....

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Bert
Date: 15 May 01 - 05:14 PM

Here's the story

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 15 May 01 - 05:17 PM

Cheer up buckeroo.

Anything relating to Casey Jones is certainly worth some overkill. I thought locomotives were now equipped with "dead-man" switches that keep them from going anywhere if no one is in the driver's seat, so to speak. That's what I get for being an autodidact. I do think, though I will hate myself for venting such pettiness, that "at the throttle" is going to have to replace "behind the wheel" as a description of where said engineer was or wasn't.

There was a previous case of an engineer and a fireman (when there were such) both having medical problems and the train going off an open drawbridge. Also a noted runaway about 1880 or so on the 'Grapevine.' They went to fill the engine with water, leaving the cars on the mainline right on Tehachapi summit. The wind, believe it or not, started the train rolling downhill. One brakeman had left his post; the other one stopped part of the train but three cars broke free and eventually derailed with fatal results. Don't know if anybody wrote songs about either of those cases either, so there is definitely a backlog.

By the way, where was this?? CC

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 15 May 01 - 05:24 PM

OK, I was not alone in posting, so now there's a link. Got it.

Great, the FBI will investigate. Super. Two thirds of the relevant docs will automatically be left in a laundromat on the Lower East Side and if there is anyone to blame, he will die of old age while his fourth appeal is pending. Meanwhile, three people with less responsibility but stronger consciences will be fired, become alcoholics, commit suicide or all three. Why don't we write a song about THAT?

CC (Chicken Charlie or Crusty Curmudgeon, take your pick)

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: MMario
Date: 15 May 01 - 05:28 PM

quite obviously from the map - it was Reg, Reg, Reg, Cletus and Paw who were responsible. 'Spaw must have taken an eye off them for a minute or two.

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Hollowfox
Date: 15 May 01 - 06:25 PM

What a place this is! I heard about this on the 'Cat almost an hour before I heard it on the radio. And it's close enough to be on the local news! You mean Cletus and the gang are migrating north by east? Hellp!

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 15 May 01 - 06:29 PM

Hmmm. Deadperson switches are, I believe, universal on all trains. And investigations of these things are done by the NTSB, not the FBI. Do I smell a rodent?

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 15 May 01 - 06:42 PM

That there plot thickens:

A chicken isn't a rodent. No, I got that FBI thing right from the site on the purple clicky that Bert posted.

Seriously, if the people on the spot don't know whether the engineer had a heart-attack or not, or whether he was on the train or not, or whether it's the conductor or the engineer--check that out--why should we think they will know the diff. between the FBI and the NTSB? I'd rather the Boy Scouts of America did it; they have adult leaders.

PS. Until the number of female railroad engineers reaches parity with the number of males, I will abstain from political correctness on the subject of deadman switches.

CC

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 May 01 - 06:52 PM

I haven't seen Cletus and the gang in days, so..................

Yeah....the FBI? Maybe because if the cargo? Still, it's an NTSB matter..........I'm with Dick.......I smell sumpin' what ain't good here................

The "Dead Man Pedal" was on diesels back in the late forties and is now often a touch sensitive mechanism where the engineman must touch the sill or a piece of metal every 60 seconds. It's not all that uncommon to find the system disabled. Even when they had the pedal which was plumbed directly to the airbrakes and throttle, you'd find bricks and blocks in the cabs to hold them down.

Spaw

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 May 01 - 11:28 PM

Okay......Just watched the local news and as this happened just a few miles northwest of Columbus, they had people "on scene." No mention of the FBI, only the Ohio Rail Commision and the NTSB.

For an as yet unknown reason this CSX train started out of a railyard in Toledo by itself. No word on how, but they have the event recorder (black box) and are looking at it. They had thought of a derail in Findlay, then (this one is really good) the Ohio Highway Patrol fired shotguns at the Emergency Fuel Cutoff Switch on the engine. Didn't work.

Then they decided on a risky little scheme where they would bring another engine off a siding and in behind the runaway. The engine would catch up and do a running couple on the rear and slow the train down using the dynamic brake. It worked!

Now they had to get the lead engine shut down, so with the train going only about 15 mph now (it had been running at 35-50), an engineer waited along the tracks and timed a jump onto the lead engine and stopped the train.

Amazingly enough, no injuries. I think the train had 45-50 cars (47?) and two were Hazmat loads. Anything else comes up tomorrow, I'll let you know.

Spaw

Now with the train running at

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:05 AM

OMIGOAWD!!!! Killer Ghost Trains! Did the FBI instigate this to take attn away from You All Know Who in OK? Maybe it's a conspiracy to assasinate Somebody Important?? Obviously, Paw, Cletus and the Boyz are in on it. I trust Cleigh is safe at home, snuggled in bed?

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Bert
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:26 AM

Did anyone see the movie Ghost Train, starring Arthur Askey?

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:30 AM

ASKEY? Geeziz, I never knew you needed one................Is this something you have a lot of info about Bert?

Spaw

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Bert
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:33 AM

Not me. A 'copter is what I use.

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:34 AM

LMAO!!!!!!!! Gawd, this is really getting perverse tonite ain't it?

Spaw

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:35 AM

Wild nite!! Too bad I had to miss the show and chat. Ass key.......does it open eggs?

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Bert
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:41 AM

Nah, it opens Spaws.

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 May 01 - 01:03 AM

World Premier!! The Omelette Train, now showing at a theater near you!! Sponsored by your friendly local FBI!

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 May 01 - 01:07 AM

Really Bert? Lemmee try that thing...............just in here huh.............oooch.......there we go and.....

BBBRRRAAAAWWWWMMMPPP

Hey.........Works like a champ.............

Spaw

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Banjer
Date: 16 May 01 - 03:55 AM

Thanks 'Spaw, now I gotta wear a clothespin on my nose and wear rubber gloves to use my keyboard until things air out and get cleaned up!!! Thanks also to Bert for showing him yet another way....Hey 'Spaw, while that DaVinci is roaming around in there why don't they make a short sidetrip and see if they can repair the years of damage at the 'BBBRRRAAAAWWWWMMMPPP Port'?

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 May 01 - 08:41 AM

Not much on the morning news to add.

And Banj...........I fear that what you asked is beyond the power of the daVinci.

Spaw

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 May 01 - 01:55 PM

The Columbus Dispatch story is pretty decent and noticeably keaves out the shotgun bit that was on the TV news. Good for a little humor anyway..........If you're interested, < href=http://www.dispatch.com/news/news01/may01/697503.html>CLICK HERE for the Columbus Dispatch story.

Spaw

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 May 01 - 03:23 PM

Let's see if I can fix that:

Click

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Banjer
Date: 16 May 01 - 04:35 PM

OK< a new can of worms opens here. Can someone who is more familiar than I with train things tell me what in the hell is a portable derailer and why do they even have such things? Why would they need to derail a train? Serious question here folks....

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 May 01 - 06:11 PM

No clue, Ray, but I know a lot of people that work for BNSF and UP, so if we don't get an answer, I can try to find out, good question!

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 May 01 - 07:47 PM

So why didn't that engineer who jumped on board have his trusty lariat with him? Enquiring minds want to know.

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Bill D
Date: 16 May 01 - 11:50 PM

no little golden-haired girl to save!...besides, firemen carry lariats

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 May 01 - 04:47 PM

I found out what a portable de railer is......it's a bar about 3' long, sort of like a short piece of track rail. It is used mostly in testing situations to see what happens when a train does de rail. It is also used sometimes in runaways like this, but why somebody wanted to use it on a train carrying haz mat through populated areas is still waaaaayyy beyond me!

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 19 May 01 - 05:16 PM

Obviously a portable derailer would be needed if one ever needed to derail a portable. In order to stop it from hitting the trainload of Croatian orphans, that is.

CC

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From:
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 02:27 AM

Does anyone have the chords to the song,or any other labor related songs? thanks

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 10:10 AM

It may be useful to explain something about trains' brakes here.

The braking system of a train is, as a default, on, or braked. When the engine is connected, running, (and other conditions, such as switches are right), air pressure is put into the system to release the brakes from their locked position. When the brakes are to be rapidly applied, the pressure is DUMPED, or for gradual braking, pressure is DECREASED.

The dead-man switch, of whatever nature, will release the pressure in the brake system in a hurry.

If a rear section of a train somehow were to break loose, it would break the air hoses, lose pressure, and that loose part of the train would brake automatically and be stopped. The main part of the train, still attached to the locomotive providing the pressure, can still roll because it still has pressure, although I expect it would be losing pressure from the now-broken hose, and thus because of the lowered pressure in the system the main part of the train would tend to be slowed.

Now, for a train to self-start from a station the locomotive would have to be running, and whatever switch or valve is involved would have to be turned on to allow air to the brake system. Even if someone were careless enough to leave the brake system charged, the dead-man switch ought to release the pressure after whatever little period of delay is built into it, and lock the train in place.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 10:13 AM

An addendum:

The song "The Wreck of the Old 97" talks nonsense when it says, in some versions:

It was on that grade that he lost his airbrakes

because if you lost your air you would stop right quick, not be allowed to roll downgrade without control.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From: Gareth
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 11:30 AM

Uncle D-O,

Not neccessarily, the original air brake used a positive presure to apply the brakes direct from an HP line. Thus if the line wnt the brakes went too.

The failsafe form of air relied on an HP line to charge up reeseviors on the cars, and used the HP line to keep the brakes off. Thus if you lost the line the reseviors should apply the brakes.

A gross oversimplification I know.

Repeated applications in a short period of time could prevent the reseviour from charging and then yer troubles started.

For better and more learned details Click 'Ere

Gareth - in "Anorak" mode.

Subject: RE: News flash - Modern day Casey Jones
From:
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 12:55 PM

Now that some one brought up this old thread. Did they ever discover why the train was rolling with no one aboard her?