This week I started doing the killer (as in bad) runs between Birmingham, Alabama, and Memphis, Tennessee. It doesn't sound so bad because it's not too far away (by car that is) but freight trains are pretty slow for a number of reasons and on average it takes about 10-12 hours to run the entire route. This is a condensed version of events.

2300 Monday
Get the automated crew call system telling me to report to the terminal by 0030.

0030 Tuesday
Reported in and met up with the conductor and the engineer. Got all our necessary paperwork printed out. We would be taking an empty coal train (130 cars) from the Alabama Power generating station west of town to Memphis. The coal trains are "cycle trains" meaning that they shuttle back and forth between the plant and the coal mines in Wyoming. As soon as the coal is unloaded, they are taken to Wyoming, are loaded, and are driven back to Alabama Power. In the future BNSF predicts the power company's demand will necessitate running 5 130-car trains per day--each one well over a mile long.

Coal trains are a real ***** if something malfunctions along the way (such as a busted knuckle or air hose).

0050 Tuesday
Crew takes a van to Palos, about half an hour outside of Bham. The plant has its own 5-track yard and crews. We boarded our train and departed by 0145.

It took us right at 12 hours to get from Palos to Memphis yard. We did not encounter and problems along the way, nor did we have to take siding to allow other traffic to pass (light day). Our 3 engines totalled 12,000 horsepower, way more than needed for this empty train. Despite their newness, they also rode worse than many coasters I've been on.

Animals spotted: turtles, all kinds of birds, a turkey, a couple of deer, a coyote.

The route is not very scenic. West of Bham the line has many curves and grades. Once we reach the Alabama-Mississippi line, it is flat and straight. You pass several small towns along the way, none of which are worth mentioning here. The conductor and I (the trainee conductor) took turns on duty and napping. At night, it is ungodly hard to stay awake.

1200 Tuesday (12 noon)
Memphis terminal is in our sight. We pull our train up to the main building and tie up (get on the BNSF network and clock out). We barely made it in witout dying--that is, we did not exceed the federal hours-of-service law on the railroad. From the time crews go on duty, we may work up to 12 hours and not one minute more.

A van takes us to some place called Whispering Winds hotel. BNSF and other railroads have contracted rates for crews to stay there, and luckily everyone gets their own room. It's a decent place, better than a motels. The conductor and I walk across the street, eat, and get some rest.

2300 Tuesday
Automated system instructs me to report to Memphis terminal by 0030. Get up, shower, dress, and hope in the van to take us to the terminal.

0030 Wednesday
Arrive at Memphis terminal. Grab paperwork. We are taking a loaded coal train from Memphis back to Bham. However, the crew has "died" about 15 miles outside of the yard, so we take a van and relieve them.

0130 Wednesday
Our consist of 6 engines (24,000 horsepower) is held while a signal maintainer repairs a crossing signal. We begin to wonder if we would be able to make it to Bham without dying.

0230 Wednesday
Shortly earlier the maintainer completed his work and we were just beyond the Memphis yard when an alarm indicator sounds. Our first diesel engine has low coolant and the computer onboard shuts itself down. We can still operate the train from the lead engine, but it cannot produce power. We buzz the mechanical help desk on the radio for assistance. They inform us to stop and perform a restart, which we do.

The restart works, but we cannot throttle up the engine past idle, or it will shut down again. The water coolant is indeed too low by a visual check. We can make it to Amory, MS to fill it up, but without that engine, we will not be able to make it up the grades near Birmingham.

0800 Wednesday

Arrive in Amory and take on about 50 gallons of water coolant. The engine never gives us trouble afterward. We are still close to dying, so we have to get a move on. The dispatcher informs us she is putting all other trains "in the hole" so we can get through. In other words, all other traffic took sidings so we could pass them.

1215 Wednesday
We bring in our 130 car loaded train to the Palos yard. We're relieved by a yard crewman and board a shuttle van, so tired, to be taken back to Bham terminal.

1245 Wednesday
Arrive Bham terminal by van. Tie up. Go home. I will do this again one more time before Sunday. Now I will get some sleep after posting this TR. Ask questions and I'll try to answer them at the hotel in Memphis later on tomorrow. Or, just comment and make me lol.

It's kind of rough on your internal clock, but it's still an insanely cool job.

ALSO, as for the title--on many rail cars, you can see stenciled on the sides in big letters, DO NOT HUMP. This means that said car cannot be used in a hump yard operation. A hump yard is a moderate hill with a track on it. Cars are shoved up the hill, uncoupled at the top, and as they drift downhill one by one, computers change switches and automatically they are sent to the proper tracks. Some operating charactersics of different cars makes humping them impractical or dangerour, hence the DO NOT HUMP placard.

Thats sounds insanely difficult. I don' think I could handle a job like that, the hours are too long. I never knew about the 12 hour limit thing, so that is pretty interesting.

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TV/Event Guide Editor

NIce to hear from you GP. Funny how you sound like an engineer who has 30 years under his belt already!!!

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HANNAH MONTANA!!!!!!!!!
TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM!!!!!
"I'm living proof....THAT GIRLS CAN ROCK!!!!!!"

It's unreal how much information they throw at you right away. We got two weeks of classroom learning and then we got our trial by fire. They dumped us into field assignments such as this bir-mem run. Amazing what you can do when you have no choice but to do it right.

I just completed my second bir-mem round trip and it sucked. I was laid up in the Memphis hotel (nice, but hotels are boring anyway) for about 30 hours waiting on a train to get back to Bham. Upon arrival in Bham, the dispatcher told us there was a sever weather bulletin out and we needed to buckle down and expect 60+mph winds.

We stop a mile short of the yard and wait things out. The wind never got that bad, but the double-stack containers behind us were still rocking away. Luckily the engines are 200 tons and will go nowhere in a tornado. The cabs are made of 1" thick steel plating, so we could ride out even the worst storm inside with considerably more safety than being in a building in the yard.

question: how far away is the technology to replace human conductors with computers?

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HANNAH MONTANA!!!!!!!!!
TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM!!!!!
"I'm living proof....THAT GIRLS CAN ROCK!!!!!!"

It shoudn't be that much, since a lot of the Public Transportation trains in different cities are run by computer only.

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TV/Event Guide Editor

Well you still need people to watch over everything to make sure everything is going right.

There is (was?) a fully automated coal train somewhere in the Southwest. It ran on a privately-owned rail line about 60 miles in length, from the mainline to a power plant in the desert. The train was electrically powered by overhead wire and there were no grade crossings along the route. An attendent rode in the front to initiate an emergency stop if there an obstruction (this was before much of the technology we have today; if it still exists, a computer could replace the human).

Right now the big push by the railroad is to have GPS on the locomotive and ETD (end of train device). This will enable dispatchers to see exactly where each train is. Currently, they can only tell that certain blocks are occupied or are clear.

The railroad believes GPS will eventually enable 1-man crews. I just don't see this happening. I believe the current standard (2 on most trains) will last for a long time. Amtrak currently operates its Northeast Corridor high speed trains with one engineer on board, but those locomotives are equipped with signal readers and automatic stop devices.

This is down from 5 people on a train at the end of the 80s. There was an engineer, engineer trainee (fireman), and a conductor on the front end, and another conductor and brakeman on the back. The ETD replaced the 2 guys on the back. Now, railroads are going to mostly 2-person crews on most trains. Some trains will necessitate 3-person crews, though.

Many rapid-transit systems have computer-controlled trains, with an operator on board for emergencies and to monitor passengers boarding/debarking. MARTA trains can be run automatically, but most operators prefer to run the trains themselves. Some railroads (including BNSF) are adopting remote-controlled switch engines in yard use only.

The reason I don't think that 1- or 0-man crews are the future is because of the limits of the mechanical devices on the trains. If you break a knuckle on a heavy train, you have to switch an 80-lb knuckle out whereever the train is stopped, otherwise you'll have the main blocked. Changing a knuckle is a one man job. However, railroad rules dictate that one person occupy the controlling unit at all times while on the main line. So really, changing a knuckle is a two person job. Also, if there is a problem with a trailing locomotive, the conductor can walk back to it while the train is moving, instead of having to stop and secure the train so the engineer can check it out.

Alright, I get what you are saying. There is alot more to a freight train that a transport train, so it makes sense that you would need more people to operate them.

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TV/Event Guide Editor

Well technically speaking, it only takes one person to actually move and stop the train. I think a two man crew will prevail for a long time to come because having a conductor on board is like having a co-pilot on an airplane--modern jetliners can all but fly themselves, but airlines put 2 people up front "just in case." Trains are very similar in this sense.