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Discussion related to commuter rail and rapid transit operations in the Chicago area including the South Shore Line, Metra Rail, and Chicago Transit Authority.

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 #145253  by AMTK84
 
UP trace shows 411 out of Manson, Idiho today, heading to North Plat East, Nebraska Monday!

 #145256  by metraRI
 
About time! Maybe 47th Street will put it back in front of 409..for old times sake. :-D
 #145283  by Amtrak31
 
Sweet! I'd like to see 409 and 411 double headed again. :-) I got to get used to that again if they do. It's going to be nice to see 411 back in sparkling new paint.

 #145315  by byte
 
Let's hope it will stay on the rails this time around. :wink:
 #145404  by Amtrak31
 
Hehe. That brings us back to that engineer. What ever became of him? I hear he got bumped down to the MED.

 #145406  by doepack
 
metraRI wrote:About time! Maybe 47th Street will put it back in front of 409..for old times sake. :-D
That's too funny! But for the sake of closure, it's really not a bad idea...

 #145428  by AMTK84
 
Nick,

That engineer was bumped down to a conductor, and rightfully so...He should've been fired, wrecking 2 3 million dollar locos.

 #145435  by Amtrak31
 
They should move him down to an assistant who announces train delays, and if he doesn't like it, he should quit. :-)

 #145670  by byte
 
Did the findings regarding that crash ever come out? From what I recall, the engineer goofed up by piloting the train into a switch at over 70 mph (when it should have been below 40), but the circumstances were different than usual (since they were switching the train from one main to another, due to construction), which leads me to believe that maybe the engineer somehow wasn't sufficiently notified of this (like letting him know the train was going to be switched, but not precisely where on the line it was going to happen). This would kind of explain why he was able to keep a lesser job on Metra (although no one was killed in the wreck [thus lowering the severity of it] and I'm sure the union had a say in matter), as a way of disciplining the employee, but also "admitting" that the employer made an error as well.

 #145694  by MetraF40C607
 
Below 40mph? No, 10mph is the limit through the switch he slammed through.

 #145696  by MetraBNSF
 
The maximum alloted speed through that crossover is 10 mph. The speed limit through that area of track is 70 mph and at the time of the wreck, the train was just below the 70 mph speed limit. Also, if I recall RI doesn't have cab signaling until south of Gresham.

 #145851  by metrarider
 
AMTK84 wrote:Nick,

That engineer was bumped down to a conductor, and rightfully so...He should've been fired, wrecking 2 3 million dollar locos.
I dunno about firing. There should be more taken into account, like the engineers past history and experience.

We've all probably (inadvertantly) ran a red light or stop sign before, but most of us probably 'got lucky' and didn't get in a resulting accident causing injury/death or property damage.

Locomotive engineers are no different, being human after all, they will make mistakes from time to time. It's documented that running signals does happen on any railroad, but 99.99% of the time it does not result in a serious incident.

With an ATS or enforced cab signal system (which is really the only way to run passenger ops IMHO), this rare but invetable human condition is not allowed to create an unsafe condition.

OTOH, we cannot tolerate rulebreakers, and if a engineer has had a number of rule violations he/she should be demoted or fired, but I would bet every engineer has violated rules or a signal indication at least once in their career. Most have had the good fortune to not have that result in a serious incident, as I noted above.

 #145934  by doepack
 
In an attempt to bring this thread back OT, anyone have an update regarding 411's whereabouts now? According to AMTK84, it was supposed to be in North Platte, NE today...

 #145966  by Amtrak31
 
When this thread started, I heard it was susposed to be at Western Avenue in a week, and RI in about a month.

 #146583  by bones
 
The engineer was notified. he had a double yellow about a mile in advance. He was demoted to train service, and recently terminated for missing calls, showing up late, not remitting money, ect.
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