Communication is the key or, as Robert Plant sang with Led Zeppelin,
"Communication Breakdown."
The rail industry has spent coxzillions on computers and related high tech
hardware for constant and perpetual updates of data and information. Now,
all they need to do is figure out how to use the information that they have
rapid access to.
A week ago this Sunday past, we were sitting in the siding at Gar Creek
awaiting meets with GLCE and GLME. GLME was in the siding at Kankakee
waiting for GLCE to pass so he could perform his set-out there, then meet
us. After both of us were sitting for awhile, somebody figured out that
there was no room at K3. We knew this as we pretty well filled up the place
the previous day with our big set-out going south. And the fact there is no
night job there on Saturdays and no day job on Sundays, means all these cars
didn't go anywhere. i should also mention that prior to our arrival at Gar
Creek, Chicago South called and asked us to let him know if the Otto Pass
was clear. They didn't have a clue and they were planning on bringing CPMK
up behind us through Otto Pass and into Gar Creek siding in order to get us
both to fit and affect the meets. They would've been screwed if it wasn't
clear.
There used to be a clerk at K3, but cost cutting efforts eliminated that
position. Now Champaign and Markham handle that work. And neither knows what
the other is doing. Apparently, Champaign PICL; pronouned pickle and the
acronym for Perpetual Inventory and Car Location (and that's a real joke
sometimes), cannot always give you accurate info on what is clear and what
isn't. Harvey PICL can be the same way.
Then, to add insult to this injury, the Dispatcher and Network Operations
know even even less. I have had, on numerous occasions, the Dispatcher ask
me about a pick-up or set-out. In some cases, a pick-up or set-out not made
for whatever reason like say, the cars they want us to set out are not even
in our train, or the cars they want us to pick-up aren't there for us.
And there is the always popular "You know about your pick-up at So and
So...." Well actually, no we didn't. We don't get printed work orders much
of the time, we get verbal instructions enroute. Conductors have even asked
the Dispatchers about any pick-ups enroute to be told "none". Then, this
same Dispatcher will call us down the road and start discussing the unknown
pick-up with us like we've known all along. Sometimes they will say
"Surprise."
We get, for the most part, train lists that are inaccurate. I cannot recall
how many times I have received an axle count from a detector that says I
have more cars than my list does. Or better yet, less than my paperwork
says. A couple of weeks ago, we were short some 11 cars our paperwork said
we had. A block of East St Louis cars showeing on our paperwork were
actually not there. We verified this when we had a train we met give us our
rear car number. It was the last car of the Memphis block which, according
to our paperwork, was right ahead of the ESTL's.
Cameras and AEI readers were supposed to eliminate this kind of problem, but
don't appear to have been very succesful. I don't suppose the fact that they
have eliminated so many clerical jobs would have anything to do with this?
Nobody to process and verify this information.
The other night on RGL-33, the Millsdale Turn, we watched as poor
communications almost led to a head on collision. The fact that my Conductor
and myself were paying attention to the radio kept it from even becoming a
close call. The Joliet Dispatcher had given an SP intermodal train coming
off the BNSF at Joliet a track warrant to operate from Jackson St to MP 16
on track 2, the northbound.
This is where this gets complicated as the SP (UP) owns the trackage south
of Jackson St MP36.7. Joliet UD tower handles the interlocking limits here
and depends on the crews on the SP and IC to contact the respective
Dispatchers involved to get their permission and relay it to UD. The EJ&E
had secured his permission from the IC and UP to enter and deliver a coal
train to South Joliet Yard. He calls UD and requests permission to open the
switch and enter track 2. This switch is south of Jackson St on UP property
but north of the interlocking. UD gives him the OK. Remember now, the
northbound (still heading east on BNSF) is coming too.
RJ and I discuss this matter quickly and he gets on the radio trying to call
the J coal train. No answer, they went back to their channel. So, he calls
UD and reminds him that he has a northbound SP coming that has a warrant and
is lined up. He should have known this as he has to code in the routing and
signals. We flip over to the J road channel, get ahold of this train and
alert him to the situation. He contacts his Utility man at the switch
telling him to close it back up until after the northbound passes. He then
comes back over to our channel to talk to UD about getting permission AFTER
the SP goes north.
Now the speed through UD is 10 mph up to Jackson St. The SP would have been
going slow. But what if the J had started out as he showed up? They most
like would've gotten stopped as the signals coming from the BNSF to the CNIC
would've dropped to stop, but still, the potential is there. Also, what if
the SP is by the signal as the U man opens the switch? They did this to one
of our jobs one night here thinking it was his job coming north instead of
the Millsdale. This was done literally, right in front of the engine. They
got by the switch by about 3-4 car lengths before getting stopped starting
onto the connection to the J.
I should add here that Metra is not known to do a great job in qualifying
Operators. They make numerous mistakes and it is up to the Engineers to
catch them. And even then, they will try to hang an Engineer before an
Operator there. I have seen this first hand and speak from experience.
We are constantly told "The computer says...." Based on what the computer
says, we should've fit into a track one day while I was working at the
MoPac. We kept shoving cars in and when I questioned the amount was told,
"the computer says it will fit." All of a sudden, a job at the other end is
screaming at us to stop! Not only did we not fit, we shoved out of the track
onto the lead, by a stop signal and through a power switch. Only five
minutes earlier, an L&N intermodal train was at that very spot.
"He who lives by the computer, dies by the computer."
All this technology and nobody knows what is going on.
Tuch
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