BNSF 5813 - E OTMBKM0 47A - Ottumwa IA
This was a comically frustrating train to shoot. This was one of the two coal empties that sat in the Ottumwa yard waiting on crews to show up. This was the second to leave, and was the better one as all 6 motors were up front and there was a 70MAC in consist that I make a point of nabbing these days.
Anyway, when it was finally ready to leave, it peeked around the corner and I hopped out of the car to take some photos. Everything seemed normal, but as I lined up my shot [with a different angle and a different lens] it stopped right here. I've seen them pull up to the signal and something go wrong with the PTC so they stop short on the bridge, but not like this.
Well, it turns out that the PTC thought it was on the wrong track so it applied the brakes... While it was sitting here, the engineer on the local [who is a bit of an impatient one] dialed up the CP dispatcher in a tiff. Their dispatcher was trying to reach the train [who was on a different channel] while the train was troubleshooting with the PTC desk. Longer story short, they figured it out after about 20 minutes and were on their way. If there's one thing I learned in my time working on the railroad, it's how to be patient...
BNSF 5813 - E OTMBKM0 47A - Ottumwa IA
This was a comically frustrating train to shoot. This was one of the two coal empties that sat in the Ottumwa yard waiting on crews to show up. This was the second to leave, and was the better one as all 6 motors were up front and there was a 70MAC in consist that I make a point of nabbing these days.
Anyway, when it was finally ready to leave, it peeked around the corner and I hopped out of the car to take some photos. Everything seemed normal, but as I lined up my shot [with a different angle and a different lens] it stopped right here. I've seen them pull up to the signal and something go wrong with the PTC so they stop short on the bridge, but not like this.
Well, it turns out that the PTC thought it was on the wrong track so it applied the brakes... While it was sitting here, the engineer on the local [who is a bit of an impatient one] dialed up the CP dispatcher in a tiff. Their dispatcher was trying to reach the train [who was on a different channel] while the train was troubleshooting with the PTC desk. Longer story short, they figured it out after about 20 minutes and were on their way. If there's one thing I learned in my time working on the railroad, it's how to be patient...