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For me the toughest part of the Maybrook coming east was in the Towners area, where you're coming off the grade, but then have to go up a little to cross over the Harlem line, then down again by the ice pond to Dykemans. Going west, it was from Holmes to the point past the lake where you started dow...

I first flowed over to Amtrak in October 1985, and worked the Shore Line until 1998 when I gave up that territory and stuck with New Haven - Penn for the rest of my career. F-40's ruled the roost in those days. Top speed on the Shore Line in those days was 100mph on some stretches in Rhode Island an...

ThirdRail asked: [[ Has there been a case where a crew member in a similar situation was completely cleared of wrongdoing and was able to get their position back? ]] Does anyone remember the wreck on the SP some years' back, where the train loaded with bauxite ran away down a long grade, derailed at...

8th Notch wrote above:
[[ I disagree with that, there are and have been plenty of good railroaders that were hired off the street with no experience. ]]

Bravo for settin' that other guy straight!

RE: [[ I know I've at least seen signals on the line that look like they are maintained (i.e.: this signal in Beacon near NY 9D), but I wouldn't have otherwise guessed the line to be signalled. ]] That is (or was) the old "distant signal" for westbound trains approaching CP 58. I went by i...

Noel wrote above: [[ Interesting, in all my years in New York I don't recall ever riding an "S" motor...]] Gee, Noel, even I had a ride on the S-motors, and that was 'way back before I got hired. It had to be around 1966, '67 or so, don't remember exactly. I was roaming around G.C.T. with ...

Fearless predictions: 1. Nobody is going to be shut down for lack of a PTC system, regardless of how late they are getting one installed and working (aside, it's easier to install something, than install it AND "get it working"). 2. Nobody is going to meet the 2015 deadline for PTC. Anothe...

n2cbo wrote above: [[ 1.) Two other engineers (In the US we call them engineers, NOT enginemen ]] They were known as "enginemen" for years on the Penn Central... mmi16 wrote above: [[ Doesn't Amtrak use electrical brake propagation, as opposed to pneumatic propagation that is used in freig...

G. Norman wrote above: [[ Apparently Passenger Engineer Bostian was on continuous time between inbound train and 188. I believe such was practice from PRR days. Should the NTSB recommend that a four hour break in time "respite" and the FRA impose such, this will mean that Engineers can no ...

I've made a few posts to this thread, and reading most of the others makes me either laugh or shake my head. The engineman's cell phone had no bearing on this incident. NONE. It's already been established that it was turned off, until AFTER the wreck, when he turned it on and used it to call for hel...

Younger folks will probably not remember the "Number 22" switch stands, also called "run-throughs" or "rubber switches", because so many have been replaced now with "iron" (i.e., non-run-through) switchstands. You could trail through a "run-through" ...

airman wrote above: [[ This is why we NEED to change the hours of service rules from 12 hours down to 8. ]] Never gonna happen. You couldn't do a round trip from NYPenn to DC, or from NYPenn to Boston, in 8 hours. Many through freight crews still outlaw even with 12 hours on duty. I've had New Haven...

Noel wrote above (and a year ago!): [[ There were team tracks at Fishkill and Glenham and cars could be seen on them from time to time but as to who the customer was at those locations, I do not know. ]] Back when I used to work the Poughkeepsie switcher, now and then we'd spot a tank car on the sho...

Noel wrote above: [[ Hear me out, it cost Amtrak a lot of money to train this individual first to be a conductor and later on to be an engineer. I doubt very much if he will ever run a train again but I think they could give him an opportunity to work as a conductor again in time. ]] I hear you, Noe...

Spro wrote above: [[ First off.. in 7 or 8 months, the NTSB will have a really good idea of the chain of events that set this event in motion, and will tell us then. They will have interviewed all of the train crew, the dispatchers, the signal maintainers, the electrical power supervision people. We...