Spartan Phalanx wrote:Why would BNSF refuse interchange of this locomotive? It looks road-worthy.
Looks don't mean a thing in this case. There could be any number of
problems, maybe the brakes do not work properly, could be excessive
brake pipe leakage, maybe all of the wheels do not rotate properly or
anything else mechanical that would prevent the movement of this piece
of equipment. Maybe it does not conform to federal standards.
I remember in my working days out of Selkirk, I had a Buffalo (and points
west) train with two six motor engines for power. Upon reporting, there
was a New York Central painted RS-3 that looked just beautiful connected
to my power to go in tow of the train as a boxcar. The engine was not
properly hooked up to the road power and the air brakes did not work
after they properly hooked it up. After much fooling around with it, I
made it quite plain that if the air brakes were not properly working on it,
I would refuse to take it so they finally cut it off at Selkirk.
Engines like the one pictured can cause a major problem in a heavy
tonnage freight train if they are not working properly and the best thing to
do if they are not one hundred per cent right is not to take them at all.
Noel Weaver