Google Earth and Google Map are fun tools to play around with. They’ve been invaluable in helping jar my memory in regards to old projects I designed when I was with the railroad.

The other day I just couldn’t remember the name or the location of a project I did in Mobile, Alabama. As I panned around Google Earth, I kept thinking the location was close to the bay, but I wasn’t having any luck.

So I fired up Google Map, typed in Mobile, Alabama and thought for several minutes about the name of the company. I knew it was an asphalt plant, so I just typed in “asphalt plant”. Google Map gave me the locations of asphalt plants in Mobile. I clicked on a few and then I saw it, the name of the company AND the location of the plant.

Yay!!!!

One of my first jobs with the railroad was designing a new rail spur to serve a proposed asphalt plant. As was the practice, I packed up my surveying gear, grabbed a survey technician and headed on down to Mobile.

The survey tech that went with me was named Cary and had been with the railroad a long time. He had seen everything. One of his favorite sayings when an engineer was trying to hurry him up was:

Man, why do you have to be in such a hurry?

Don’t you know that the end of one job is just the beginning of another one?

Good old Cary.

Anyway, we made it to the site and started surveying. We had to pick up the mainline, the road, fences, other control points and various sundry things on the site itself.

Completed Project

After a few hours, the owner of the plant came out to talk to me. We talked about how he wanted to tracks configured and other requirements.

He was a nice enough guy with a big straw hat and dark sunglasses. He explained how his Daddy had built the business in the 1950’s and that recently the Alabama DOT had named a bridge after him.

When he had finished talking, he motioned over to Cary and said, “How about lunch after you and your boy finish up?” It stunned me. Cary, who happens to be African-American, was stunned as well. I couldn’t believe he had actually said that to us.

After he walked away, I went over to Cary and tried to calm him down. He was muttering under his breath. I’m sure he was not only angry but offended. After all, even though Cary was not an engineer and had not gone to college, he had been doing this type of work for so long, that he could run circles around me.

He was able to deal with it and we had lunch with the guy. Luckily he didn’t make any further racist comments when we were with him. I’m hoping he caught a glimpse of the look on Cary’s face.

Back to the design.

They needed 5 tracks with a certain car capacity. The way the property was situated meant that the tracks would have to be designed on a curve.

Believe it or not, it is more difficult than it appears to design tracks at a certain track center while going along concentric circles. Well, actually, that part is easy; you just use the copy parallel command in your CAD system. What was tricky was laying out the turnouts to each track so that each track was on a concentric circle and on the proper track center in regards to the other tracks.

As you can see, the bottom 4 tracks look great, but the 5th one seems to be spaced at a greater track center from the other ones. I’m not sure if that was by design of if they messed up during construction.

After all the approvals were obtained and the company was ready to construct the facility, we headed back down to Mobile to stake out the proposed tracks.

Luckily, we didn’t have to do it the old fashion way with a transit and a plumb-bob (which I’ve done as well). No we were able to do a radial stakeout using the instrument and the coordinates of the important points along the track.

I’m proud of the way the project turned out and it looks like their operation is still going strong.

On our way out of the city, we crossed over the bridge that had been named after the owners granddad. Maybe one day someone will name a bridge after me.

This is going to be another “My Life With The Railroad” posts…you’ve been warned Aimee and Tracy.

BUT…it’s not going to be as wonkish as the other ones.

Norfolk Southern and CSX bought Conrail in the late 1990’s. Then there was a period of time when nothing changed as the details were worked out between NS and CSX about which lines each company got and how to start operations with assimilated Conrail.

In the spring/early summer of 1999 (I can’t remember the date) the actual merger took place in the sense that NS and CSX started operating Conrail.

There were problems from the beginning. Rail traffic came to a standstill on some major routes along the Great Lakes. There were stories of railcars being in transit for 60 days, never making it to their destination. Shippers were angry and local governments were angry.

Local governments were angry because old routes through their communities which once carried little or no traffic were activated again and were humming with activity. This caused traffic congestions at rail crossings and safety concerns.

In our office, teams of engineers were sent to the various problem areas across the system to see what could be done to relieve the traffic congestion. One place was Buffalo, NY. One of our engineers worked to get Bison Yard rebuilt and I was sent to examine what it would take to open up CP-Draw. (see here).

A part of the system heavily hit by the congestion was Toledo, Ohio. Toledo was a major stop along the Chicago Line and always had a large amount of rail traffic, but now NS and CSX were trying to open up lines long closed and consolidated. As mentioned above, this caused heartburn for local communities.

It got so bad in Northern Ohio, that one particular project, the reopening of the Toledo Belt Line, caused the local United States Congresswoman to get involved.

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur represents Ohio’s 9th District, which Toledo is part of. The higher ups in the company wanted to assure her that NS was doing all they could do to improve rail traffic while paying attention to safety. To that end, they sent my boss and me to meet with her to explain our actions.

Preparing for the meeting was exciting as I was able to draw up some exhibits and put down my thoughts on our projects. I was very proud of my Toledo project and knew it was going to help our company.

The meeting was set up and we flew to Toledo. Arriving at her local offices, we were escorted by members of her staff to the conference room. There we prepped her staff about what we were going to be talking about and we waited for the Congresswoman.

She came into the meeting room all business. You just knew she was someone important and she got right down to the business at hand.

My boss introduced the situation to her and briefly explained our long range plans in Toledo. Then it was my turn. I told her about my project and what it would do to help the situation. I showed her the exhibit drawings and explained how the project would help with traffic patterns. Then she asked me quite a few questions.

It was all over in 30 to 45 minutes. It was a blur.

I guess we alleviated her fears, because the project went forward and was completed before I left the railroad. It was fun designing the project and then watching it get built. The plus side being that I got to brief a United States Congresswoman!

Now for some geek-tastic info with pictures!!!!
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Note: This ran a bit long. I do talk about my experience at the end of this post. Push through the technical jargon. I apologize, but somewhere there will be a FRN that falls in love with this post.

No, no, no…it’s really not what you’re thinking…and really, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Nope, this is another edition in a short series I like to call “My Life With The Railroad”.

Ever wonder how a train gets built? I don’t mean how it gets made from metal, but how a train is put together. You’ve all been stuck at a railroad crossing as the engine(s) pass pulling anywhere from a few cars to 100 cars. At some point, that train had to be built. Those cars had to be sorted and connected with other cars heading to a common destination or location. Then an engine(s), with a crew, had to be dispatched to hook up to the string of cars and head on down the track.

Railroads sort cars in things they call “Yards”. Yards consist of multiple parallel tracks that are connected at each end by a series of switches (turnouts). A small town may have a small switching yard consisting of only three or four tracks while a large town may a have mega yard with miles and miles of track, 50 or more tracks and associated maintenance facilities. At important junctions along a railroad will be a mega yard to handle sorting cars and building trains. One of the more common methods of doing this is called a Hump Yard.

A Hump Yard is an amazing piece of Civil Engineering. It combines physics and dynamics into a beautiful symphony of sound and motion. Trains pull in with their load of cars from some far off city. A yard engine(s) pushes the string of cars up a small hill (the hump) where each car is uncoupled and sent down the opposite side of the hill to any one of 5 or 6 classification tracks. Depending of the cars ultimate destination, it will be sent to the appropriate classification track to be coupled with other cars heading to a similar location. After enough cars are coupled together, a line engine(s) is hooked up and the newly built train pulls out of the yard.

Here is a big picture of a hump yard. You will see where the inbound trains arrive (Receiving Yard), where the cars are sorted (Class Yard) and then where the sorted cars are joined into outbound trains (Departure Yard). The key is the hump and the key to the hump is the Master Retarder.

Diagram of the Hump

As the cars are pushed over the hump, a trainman pulls the coupling pin and the car(s) begin their descent down the opposite side of the hump.

Pushing the Hump

Car going over the Hump

A computer controls the switches at the bottom of the hump that lead to the Classification Yard. Back in the day, the Yard Master would pull a series of levers to manually throw the switches for each car. It’s all computer controlled now.

The only problem with pushing a loaded car over the top of a hill is how do you stop it at the other end? Well, that is where the Master Retarder and Secondary Retarders come in, as seen here:

Retarders

As a car crosses the hump it is automatically weighed. The computer calculates the speed required to have a “soft coupling” in the Classification Yard so it tells the Master Retarder how much to retard (i.e. slow down) the car. It does this by squeezing the wheels of the car. This makes a noise similar to finger nails on a chalk board but only much, much louder. So loud, you have to where hearing protection. Think of a Retarder as a massive brake pad. The “pads” are squeezed against the wheels as they pass, slowing the car down. There are a group of Secondary Retarders that can be used if the car is still going to fast as it enters the Classification Yard.

Again, the goal is for a “soft coupling” to the other cars in the Classification Yard. More on this “soft coupling” later.

Retarder Assembly

In this way, the cars are sorted and trains can be built. To see a Hump Yard in operation is pretty amazing. There are moving things everywhere. There are trains arriving and departing, locomotives heading to the maintenance shed, cars being humped, the sound of the retarders, switches being thrown automatically and cars silently rolling down the Classification Yard.

When I worked for Norfolk Southern I was assigned the project to replace the Master Retarder at Bellevue Yard in Bellevue, Ohio. Bellevue is just inland from Lake Erie and is about halfway between Cleveland and Toledo. It’s actually in the middle of nowhere and the only “hill” is the Hump.

Anyone care to wager what time of year this project took place?

Yep, winter. It always seemed that the railroad would send you to the swamps in the summer and the frozen north in the winter. It never failed.

Imagine all that I just wrote about a hump yard. Now imagine it in winter, with the winds coming off of Lake Erie and the only hill being the Hump. Yeah, it was pretty darn cold.

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I’ve added a new section under “Topics” called My Life With The Railroad. Topics can be found on the right side toolbar, just under “Sound Files”.

There are a few posts running around my head that deal with my time with the railroad. I guess it’s time this topic had its own section.

Go ahead and check it out as there are a few older posts already filed there. As a bonus, you get to see me model the hottest in cold weather gear.

Hey, I aim to please.

Almost a year ago, I wrote a post about my life with the railroad. I planned on writing several posts on different experiences I had when I worked for Norfolk Southern Railroad…well, you can see how well that went.

But, I do plan to write about my time in Toledo and Bellevue, Ohio. As well as some of the other interesting places I visited in my time with the railroad.

Anyway, I was digging through old pictures for a post I am writing when I cam across this picture.

I reference this outfit in this post…scroll down to the bottom. It must have been warm that day…I did not have gloves on.

I promise to give you guys the railroad stories that you have been begging for. I know at heart you guys are all a bunch of FRN’s.

You know that part in all good cop movies where they have one suspect in an interrogation room and the second suspect in another room? Law and Order does this EVERY show. Anyway, the trick is to have detectives talk to the weaker of the two suspects. They feed him bogus claims that the other suspect is going to shift the blame to him and make him feel stupid for defending the other guy. The detectives are trying to get the one suspect to roll on the other. In effect, they are trying to get the weaker one to break and then spill his guts as to what the real leader was doing.

If you talk, you are known as a stool pigeon or a snitch. All the Mob movies I have seen have taught me that being a stool pigeon or a snitch is a bad thing and usually results in you having to dig your own grave in a corn field before being beaten to death with baseball bats and tossed into your freshly dug hole. I’m just sayin’

I was once a stool pigeon…

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No, this is not going to be as exciting of a post as the title may have led you to believe.

Sorry ’bout that.

One night in Buffalo, NY while working for the railroad (see here for background), the survey tech I was with did not want to get dinner. So, I headed on out on my own in search of food.

I found food and was heading back to the hotel when a song came on the radio I had never heard. It was “Since I’ve Been Loving You” by Led Zeppelin.

I was not a big Zeppelin fan in high school, as all the “cool” kids were into retro stuff. All things 70’s were in and so was the music. I prided myself on not being a follower, so as a result, I was not one of the “cool” kids. I know, you are shocked. Anyway. I hated everything they liked, including Zeppelin. Man, I sure missed out on some good music.

In college, my roommate had Zeppelin’s box set and I was introduced to the wonder that is Led Zeppelin. Needless to say, I did not hear all their songs and “Since I’ve Been Loving You” was one I had missed.

The beginning just hooked me and drew me in:

More after the jump.

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My first job out of college was with Norfolk Southern Railroad. Unless things drastically change and I am able to play video games for a living, my job with the railroad was the coolest job I will ever have in my life.

Coolest
Job
EVER

It was like building a giant model railroad. I got to play with trains for a living. I built yards and passing tracks and industry side tracks from the initial field survey to the end of construction. There were many days that I would be 15 feet from the mainline as a fully loaded train would zoom by at 60 mph. It was a rush. I would lean over to the person working with me and yell, “Can you believe they’re paying us to do this?!”

Then there were “other days”

Other days were the days where it was either 100 degrees or 0 degrees outside and I had to survey. Other days were when there was so much train traffic that you dodged death all day long. Other days were when you had to spend a month in Buffalo, NY from Thanksgiving to Christmas…

Thus begins “My Life With The Railroad – Part 1 – CP Draw”

CP Draw

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Update: I know some of you may think I am making this stuff up, but I’m not. See for yourself.

I used to work as a Civil Engineer for Norfolk Southern Railroad. While I was in school my co-op job was with CSX Railroad. I have to tell you that working for the railroad is the coolest job I have ever had. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job I have now, but nothing beats the coolness of the railroad.

First, there is the thrill of working for such a large and powerful company. When I was on a job site, I had a swagger to my step and I held my head a little higher. I used a gruff voice and learned to sound like a railroad man. I was also mindful of the bad reputation railroad men have had through the years and I tried not to be too arrogant.

Second, I was part of a very select group of engineers. Here in the U.S. there are about 6 major Class I railroads. Each of these has an Engineering Department. Let’s assume that each department has 20 people in it. That means that I was one of only 120 – 150 people in the entire U.S. who was a railroad engineer. And no, not the kind that drove the trains.

I worked with a bunch of “old timers”. These guys all had over 20 years of experience and had a million and one stories. Road trips with them were a hoot. Man the life they had lived! It was amazing.

One of the other parts that I miss is being beside a mainline track when a fully loaded freight train comes barreling down at 60 MPH. In some cases you are standing only 15′ away. The entire earth shakes and the noise is unbelievable. Many times I turned to a fellow worker and shouted, “You know, if this thing de-rails now, we don’t stand a chance.” He would grin and nod in agreement. We were like kids. After the train had past, we became men again and went back to work, but for the few minutes when the train was passing we were like kids.

I think most people have the same feelings about trains. However, there is a whole other group out there. These people take pictures of trains. Not just pretty pictures with nice scenery, no, they take pictures of individual engines and cars. They have whole scrap books of photos of just engines. They have lists of which engine numbers that have seen and where they saw them all. They travel all around the country to take pictures of trains, to be around trains and to generally annoy railroad workers. They call themselves “Railroad Enthusiasts”.

We however, had a different name that we called them: FRN’s. F**king Railroad Nuts. It seemed to fit.

I know that not all of them were so hardcore, but most of the ones we encountered trespassing on our tracks were hardcore FRN’s.

That is why this story from CNN.com struck me as so funny. Someone needs to write into CNN and tell them the name that they should be using for these folks!

But they did capture the feeling among those in the industry:

Some in the industry view them as get-a-life annoyances, their endless pursuit of the next train causing safety problems and security issues — the latter of particular concern in the post-9/11 era.

They also captured how clueless some of these folks are, especially after 9/11:

“Some people don’t understand that it’s just a hobby when I’m standing out there by rail tracks with my video camera,” Dowdy said. “Most people are just waiting for the train to go past. They’re looking at me like, ‘What’s he doing?”‘

Gee, I wonder why? Darn FRN’s!

Today I am heading out with the survey crew to do some real work. Back in my days with the railroad I surveyed all the time, but now I am firmly entrenched behind my computer in the comfort of air conditioning. So today, I get to break my chains, go out and die of heat stroke! Well, hopefully the guys will keep me alive. They assure me that I get to be point man with the machete cutting line. Lucky me. Ah, but it is good for the body and soul to do real work from time to time.

I will post something more exciting when we come in for lunch. That is, if they do not leave me in the woods…

See below for proof that I used to know a goods days work. The picture is of me setting up the instrument in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was after a good snow storm and if I remember correctly, the air temp was 0 degrees. That was a long day for this southern boy.