tehluggage

...But there was a major derailment early this morning in Alyth Yard. There was a potash train coming into P3, which is one of the very long tracks, used to store the trains that are one hundred cars or more, and apparently a wheel on one of the cars caught a switch point, the switch opened beneath the cars as they were moving, (REALLY Not Good), and poof, eight cars all over the ground. No one was hurt, but boy, was the yard manager ever having a shitty night.

The job I got called for actually ended up being the one to put the pieces of the train back together, which basically meant pulling something like the first 110 cars out of P3, then going next door to P4 to pick up the last ten or so cars that another job had removed from the end of the train, behind the derailed cars, and then taking the whole shebang uptown to the Depot.

To be honest, it was actually the most work we'd done all night, and it ended up being our last move, which meant we got to go home an hour anna half early. Hell, I even got to drive the train for a mile or so. It was ver' cool.


Railroading factoid of the day: Potash trains are often over 120 cars long, (over 6000 feet), and usually weigh upwards of twenty thousand tons. They are long, heavy fuckers.

...But my crew and I derailed a locomotive today. No one was hurt, and there was only a bit of damage to the rail, so I can laugh about it now. And it was rather amusing, so that helps too.

( Click for train....stuff. )

...And yeah, so that was my day. That was also probably more railroading terms than any of you wanted to know. And I had to force myself not to use more. It's practically another language...

So I have a question for, well, anyone who reads this. (Also, watch out for language. This was not written in a sunshine and kisses mood.)

Say that you're driving at night, it's getting pretty late, and it's raining. Not ideal driving conditions by any stretch of the term. Anyway, you're driving through an industrial area, (and trust me, it's obviously industrial), and you come up to a railway crossing. Now, I do understand that you might not be familiar with this area, and thus you might not know that the entire area is criss-crossed with tracks, and that there's about three crossings in a row down the one stretch of road. That sort of begs the question of if you're not familiar with this area, then what the hell are you doing driving around it late at night, though. As unlikely as it seems, though, you might really be unfamiliar with the area and might just be lost, so I'll give you that.

So you're driving along, and up ahead you see this crossing. There's no bells or whistles or gates, just two X-ing signs on posts, one on each side. There does, however, happen to be two red flares burning, again, one on each side. There are also two guys, both with neon orange vests on, and with lit flashlights, standing at the crossing. That's four lights, for those keeping track. These lights are all very bright, and they basically form a line across the road.

There's also a train backing up. That's right, there is a big honking grain car just entering the crossing.

Now, my question is simple. Why the FUCK would you decide to fucking accelerate into the goddamned crossing?! We were blocking it, and you decided that you just couldn't wait two fucking minutes, and you hit our train! AND THEN you tried to drive away! Your stupid minivan was hung up on the tail end of our train, and you tried to drive away! Sorry buddy, but you deserve every single damn penny of that fine, and you're going to get it. The CP Police and the Calgary Police will make damn sure of that.

...God, we had two firetrucks, an ambulance, at least one police car, the CP Police, and a yard manager. What a frakking gong show. They weren't hurt, though. And I wasn't on the ground, thankfully, I was on the head locomotive. But my coach told me that after he jumped out of the way, he actually banged on the window of the van as the guy tried to drive past him. Into a crossing that was halfway occupied by a train. What a maroon.

Man, I'm still mad, and I'm not really sure why.