About the Author J. D. Santucci (a.k.a. "Tuch") began his railroading career in 1978 as a trainman on the Missouri Pacific. After a round of lay-offs in 1985, Tuch embarked on a railroad odyssey, working in many different situations for different roads. This column tries to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the job and also demonstrates what we have to deal with on a regular basis within and without the industry. Tuch currently works through freights out of Chicago for Canadian National/Illinois Central. ©1999, 2003-2007 JD Santucci. Logo ©2002 The Railroad Network. By J.D. Santucci

December 13, 2004
The title of today's little lesson brings on memories of the Jackson Browne song and album of the same name. And for what it is worth, I just so happen to have it in my record/CD collection.

Most locomotives with internal combustion engines operate on diesel fuel. There are some that use liquefied natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas, but overall, it is that familiar trusty fuel and not gasoline. However, we railroaders often refer to it as gas. When running low on fuel it is not uncommon to hear the comment made that "the gas gauge is getting close to E, we're running on fumes, or we're out of gas."

Just like your automobile, locomotives need to get refueled periodically. And contrary to what some Yardmasters and Trainmasters seem to believe, these things don't run forever between fill ups. They certainly don't run on air either. Over the years I have run them out of fuel. I am not alone in this predicament either. Probably anybody who has been railroader, particularly an Engineer, for any length of time has at least one or two stories of running out of fuel; most likely more.

Unlike your automobile, we don't have the same type of fuel gauge that you have. Some locomotives do have a digital fuel read out in the cab, but most others, particularly the older models do not have any fuel gauge inside the cab. What they do have is an analog gauge on the fuel tank itself or a sight glass. The sight glass is usually positioned at the front of the tank, usually on both the left and right side. There are two different styles of sight glass; one that measures about the top quarter or fifth of the tank or a full capacity version. Those with the smaller glass also have either one or two analog gauges as well. Those with the full tank reading sight glass don't normally have the analog gauge(s).

Smaller locomotives like switchers generally have small fuel tanks. These locomotives tend to stay in close proximity to a fuel station. And depending upon how much they are used in given period, they are normally good for 50 to 60 hours of continuous service before needing a fill up. Shutting the units down in between assignments may stretch this time period out, but nonetheless, they will still need a fill up at some point.

The Indiana Harbor Belt used a reminder system right on the locomotive. On the date the engine was fueled, a letter "F" surrounded circle would be written on the daily inspection card. When taking charge of the locomotive, the Engineer could check the daily card to see when the engine or engines in their charge were last fueled. If the engines had not been fueled within the past two days the Engineer would notify the Yardmaster of such information. The Yardmaster would check with the Foreman at the Ready Track in Blue Island or the Roundhouse Foreman at Gibson to verify this fact and make arrangements to get the locomotive(s) fueled.

The IHB also had the fuel records in the computer as well. As Trainmaster, one of my duties was supposed to be to check on the engines assigned to Blue Island for their fuel status. The program the IHB used indicated the date and time of the most recent fueling and the amount of hours that had elapsed between that time and the present moment. The Foreman at the Ready Track and the Roundhouse would also check fuel status and could notify the Trainmaster and/or Yardmaster of engines needing a trip to a fuel station or, in Indiana at outlying locations, a visit from the fuel truck.

Sometimes though, the system failed. In one instance on the IHB, I reported to the Yardmaster at Blue Island that according to the daily inspection card, it had been well over two days since this engine had been fueled. He checked and told me this information was incorrect; this engine had been fueled the previous day. Another Engineer there had exactly the same situation occur several weeks earlier. His particular episode resulted in a phone call to me from his perch while stopped, dead on the rail. He was out of gas and blocking a road crossing and as luck would have it, the cab of his engine was sitting directly in the middle of the crossing making him a good target. He told me of his informing the Yardmaster of the fuel situation and being told that the information was not correct.

"You're good to go."

In my case, it was almost a carbon copy of his; I informed the Yardmaster of the fuel situation and was told that the engine had been fueled but not indicated on the daily card. I too ran out of fuel but my with my engine just over the road crossing with my train behind me blocking the road. It was also the beginning of the afternoon/evening rush home from work too. A rescue engine came out and tied on and pulled me back into the yard. I guess many of the folks that were stuck at the crossing waiting so long were quite sympathetic and understanding of the situation. As I rolled back across the road many of them were giving me a gesture that indicates that I was "number one." That is good right; better than being thought of as "number two?"

In my days at Guilford I ran out of fuel once. We had tied up at an outlying point and went to the hotel. The next morning when we arrived for duty to pull our train both engines were dead. Closer examination revealed they were both out of gas.

"Upon further review, the play stands."

I called the Trainmaster and reported our situation. He immediately informed me that we could not possibly be out of fuel as the engines had been fueled the day before. Where have I heard that one before? I responded that I had run out of fuel before and it was just like this; empty tanks that make a very hollow sound when banged upon and fuel gauges with the arrow at the 0. And when no fuel appeared in the sight glass on either unit when I attempted to prime them just verified the fact. A fuel truck was summoned and we politely and pleasantly waited for its arrival.

When tying up much later that day I learned that they roundhouse forgot to fuel these two engines that day. They really thought about it and intended to do it, they just didn't. At least their hearts were in the right spot though.

Last summer I boarded a trio of switchers that were coupled onto a train at Kensington. The crew had outlawed on the hours of service and we were summoned to recrew the train and bring it into Markham. In checking the sight glasses on all of them, I noticed that two of them were very low on fuel and reported such to the Markham General Yardmaster. Undaunted by this news, we were instructed to stop at the CSX connection and pick up the delivery from them and bring it in with the train we took over at Kensington. Not a problem.

While making the pick up from CSX, the middle unit died. Upon further revue, I discovered that it was now out of fuel. So it goes. We can still make it in with two units. After we completed the air test and started to head to Markham, the lead unit died. It too had run dry. My lone running switcher would not be sufficient to pull the train up the grade and then on into the yard.

"Uh Houston, we've got a problem."

The railroad gods were having quite the time with us this day, but were in a playful, as opposed to vengeful mood for once. As luck would have it, there was a set of road power sitting in a track at Highlawn known as 7 Pocket. Highlawn was about a mile south of where we were stopped. We were instructed to cut off the engines and them run to Highlawn, grab that power and bring our train in using it. A really bad scenario was quickly made right.

The final out of gas story happened just recently. It is quickly becoming my new favorite running dry story.

I took charge of my power in D Yard which is just north (timetable direction) of Glenn Yard. Upon performing my daily inspection I checked the fuel on my lead unit, the Grand Trunk 4924. For those of you that keep score of such trivial bits of information, this unit was once a MoPac unit and I ran it during my days there. The analog fuel gauge on the tank indicated there was only about 200 hundred gallons remaining. My second unit, the Grand Trunk 5854, a former Rock Island unit, had no analog gauge and the sight glass was only the small one that reads the top quarter of the tank, so it was of no use.

I called the Glenn Yardmaster and informed him of our plight. He told me, no wait, he insisted that this power had been fueled just a few days before and the gauge must be inaccurate. See a pattern developing here? I informed him that I had done the "banging on the tank" trick and it sounded rather hollow. There would have been no way this engine could have burned up so much fuel just working in the yard in such a short period of time. Again I was told that this power had been fueled. Okay, here we go.

We shoved the cut of cars we had a hold of back into Glenn Yard from D Yard and proceeded to switch them out. In the process, the 4924 died. In attempting to restart it, I observed very little fuel pumping into the fuel return sight glass when I primed the engine. The glass is supposed to be full of fuel under this situation and it wasn't happening. This means only one thing; we're outta gas. I called the Yardmaster and informed him of our dilemma. Of course in my usual sarcastic and cynical manner I phrased it to the effect of "Hey Bob, remember that engine that you said was fueled on Friday? Well, it wasn't and now it's out of gas." He seemed somewhat surprised and said they would call the fuel truck. Being that we could do the work with just one working engine he told us to go about our business with the one still running. And so we did.

A few of hours later, the second unit died. It too was now out of fuel. We were now dead on the rail.

"A stopped train is a safe train."

The fuel truck was still en route and would not be there for about another forty-five minutes or so. Being that we were almost five hours old, it was decided to put us to dinner instead of just sitting there doing nothing. Luck was on our side though as when we when did run out of fuel, it was in a spot where the fuel truck could easily access us.

Upon coming out of dinner and being cabbed back up to D yard, we saw the fuel truck driver finishing his chores and our power was now all gassed up and good to go, or so we thought. When I attempted to start the 4924 it wouldn't even crank. This was when I discovered it had dead batteries. A check with the mechanical department told us there was not a set of jumper cables at Glenn to jump this unit from our other engine. Like an automobile, you can jump start one locomotive from another. However, you need the proper cables. Those from your car will not do the trick as they are not of a heavy enough gauge of cable and they are nowhere near long enough to reach from one unit to another. And you must have another locomotive, a welder or some high powered generator that can produce enough amperage to get these things to crank. An automobile or truck cannot produce enough amperage.

To give you a little perspective we'll compare this to an automobile engine. A Ford with a 351 cubic inch engine measures all eight cylinders to get that total reading of the 351 cubic inches. On an EMD locomotive with a 645 series prime mover like my engines this day have, that 645 figure is based upon the cubic inch displacement of one cylinder. That means if measured like an automobile or truck engine, this would be a 10,320 cubic inch engine (645 x 16 cylinders).

Once again we would be back to one working engine. So I stroll back to the 5854 and go to prime it before starting it. Nothing; the fuel pump won't run at all. After consulting with the Trainmaster, we use the "quick fix" method to try to coerce the fuel pump to operate. If you smack the end of it a couple of times with a hammer or air hose wrench sometimes they will begin to run. If the brushes on it are loose or a little worn, this can get them back to a point where they will make contact and the fuel pump will run. It worked and the pump began to operate again. So I got the thing to prime and then got the engine started. We're back in business.

We began to go about are chores again when disaster struck yet again. This makes three times and they say "three times is a charmer." Or is it? Well it seems that the fuel pump is acting up again. I go out with the trusty air hose wrench, get the fuel pump going again and restart the engine. It didn't stay running long though as within a minute the engine started to die again. Several more attempts to "persuade" it to run proved fruitless. "Crystal Blue Persuasion" it wasn't.

Oh well, so that goes.

Another call to the Yardmaster to inform them of our situation; I just know they were thrilled to hear this news. We wound up getting picked up and driven back to Glenn to get the only engine not being used. We went about the rest of our business with that one. And oh yes, I did check carefully to assure it had a sufficient supply of fuel first.

On an unrelated note, this past weekend was the 34th annual operation of the Santa Train. We had a great outpouring of visitors this year. In fact, we had our second biggest turnout ever; over 3500 visitors (adults and kids) showed up and toured the train despite the cold, windy and sometimes snowy weather. To those of you that came out to visit we thank you. To those of you that stopped by to say hello, I appreciate your making the trip. I believe we did not disappoint you. We did have quite a group following us most of the day including several that were pacing us along the parallel US Rt. 45 capturing us on video. I referred to our photographic groupies as "the paparazzi."

Things went off quite well this year. We had no serious mechanical problems thanks to the tireless efforts of the Santa Train's mechanical patriarch, Rick Tracy. I know the gang at Woodcrest will be roaring when they read this and will have it plastered up all over the place there, likely to include their various "editorials" as well. I for one don't care what they say about you Rick; you did one bang up job.

Those of us from the Transportation Department, while exhausted from the long weekend and being a little short on help this year, still had fun. The support team of elves such as Elf 1 and Doe Doe that supplied Santa with the goodies he was handing out and the coordinating efforts of the lovely Susan Childs as well as the caretaker of the train John Childs came through yet again in outstanding fashion. The gang of outside support elves like Greg, Mike and Pete came through with flying colors as they helped our visitors to board and detrain safely. There are many others that worked in support jobs as well, but there are just too many to name. A huge thank you is extended to all of them too. The towns that we visited along the way also provided extensive support as well.

Many of the visitors thanked us for our efforts as they really appreciate what we do for them and their kids or grand kids. This kind of appreciation is what makes this all worth the effort.

And one little Santa Train story to close it with. I was actually told this last year but forgot to include then, but will do so now. A woman visiting the train told John Childs that she really didn't want to come out in the cold and wait in line to get onto the train. She had instead opted to take her daughter to Market Place Mall in Champaign to visit Santa there. Her young daughter would have no part of this idea. She told mom that the Santa at the mall was not the real Santa but the one on the train was. When mom questioned the child as to how she would know this the young girl responded, "Only the real Santa could have his own train."

And so it goes.

Tuch

PS: Merry Christmas everybody and please remember the reason for the season.