Teamwork in Action
One of the best examples of teamwork in action I witnessed on the railroad happened during my trip to Montana last year.
After attending Mass at a quaint church in Thompson Falls, we headed out to Trout Creek to spend the rest of the day. Our first train was westbound manifest NORPAS, which we got crossing the Clark Fork just west of town. Not long after passing our location, we heard the crew call out an emergency over the scanner. The train had lost its air and it wasn't restoring. We decided to venture west to see if we could see what happened. As we were leaving, another westbound, a hotshot Q train, barreled on by wasting no time, but was quickly stopped up around the siding at Tuscor.
We arrived at Noxon, about 15 miles from the border of Idaho, as the crew was assessing the situation. The train had ripped a knuckle within the first 20 cars of its 100+ car train. The unfortunate part of this was that the broken knuckle was on the west side of the car. With three units on the head end and no DPUs, the crew couldn't back the train into the siding at Noxon to set it out. At this point, the dispatcher asked the crew of the Q train to tie down, uncouple their power from their train and assist the ailing NORPAS.
While it took some coordinating on parts of both the crews, the power from the Q train coupled up to the remaining 80 some cars of the NORPAS, pulled the train east to clear the siding switch and then shoved the train into the siding so they could set out the broken car.
By the time the Q train power returned to its train at Tuscor, another westbound manifest, the LAUPAS, had arrived and was in the process of tying their train down. The dispatcher then instructed the crew of the LAUPAS to board the Q train, who would depart Tuscor once he was back together. The Q train would then leave and stop at Noxon to pick up the crew from the NORPAS and ferry them both west to Sandpoint. New crews would be sent to retrieve both trains later in the day. The Q train is seen here crossing the Clark Fork at Noxon with both the NORPAS and LAUPAS crews on board.
This whole fiasco, while unexpected and frustrating for both the crews and the dispatcher, was executed with such professionalism and precision that it not only impressed me, but it solidified the reason why railroads need two people in the cab. Could you imagine how much longer something like this would have taken if each of these trains only had one person in the cab?
We returned to Trout Creek for the remainder of the day and traffic was light, but the weather was absolutely spectacular. This is certainly a memory I intend to preserve going forward!
Teamwork in Action
One of the best examples of teamwork in action I witnessed on the railroad happened during my trip to Montana last year.
After attending Mass at a quaint church in Thompson Falls, we headed out to Trout Creek to spend the rest of the day. Our first train was westbound manifest NORPAS, which we got crossing the Clark Fork just west of town. Not long after passing our location, we heard the crew call out an emergency over the scanner. The train had lost its air and it wasn't restoring. We decided to venture west to see if we could see what happened. As we were leaving, another westbound, a hotshot Q train, barreled on by wasting no time, but was quickly stopped up around the siding at Tuscor.
We arrived at Noxon, about 15 miles from the border of Idaho, as the crew was assessing the situation. The train had ripped a knuckle within the first 20 cars of its 100+ car train. The unfortunate part of this was that the broken knuckle was on the west side of the car. With three units on the head end and no DPUs, the crew couldn't back the train into the siding at Noxon to set it out. At this point, the dispatcher asked the crew of the Q train to tie down, uncouple their power from their train and assist the ailing NORPAS.
While it took some coordinating on parts of both the crews, the power from the Q train coupled up to the remaining 80 some cars of the NORPAS, pulled the train east to clear the siding switch and then shoved the train into the siding so they could set out the broken car.
By the time the Q train power returned to its train at Tuscor, another westbound manifest, the LAUPAS, had arrived and was in the process of tying their train down. The dispatcher then instructed the crew of the LAUPAS to board the Q train, who would depart Tuscor once he was back together. The Q train would then leave and stop at Noxon to pick up the crew from the NORPAS and ferry them both west to Sandpoint. New crews would be sent to retrieve both trains later in the day. The Q train is seen here crossing the Clark Fork at Noxon with both the NORPAS and LAUPAS crews on board.
This whole fiasco, while unexpected and frustrating for both the crews and the dispatcher, was executed with such professionalism and precision that it not only impressed me, but it solidified the reason why railroads need two people in the cab. Could you imagine how much longer something like this would have taken if each of these trains only had one person in the cab?
We returned to Trout Creek for the remainder of the day and traffic was light, but the weather was absolutely spectacular. This is certainly a memory I intend to preserve going forward!