Who drives the "remotes"

I was driving through the Port of Oakland the other day (going to the harbor park) and noticed a sign that cautioned us that "Remotes are in use. Cabs may be unoccupied". Are these remote control locomotives being run from some central location?

clandestinej wrote:I was driving through the Port of Oakland the other day (going to the harbor park) and noticed a sign that cautioned us that "Remotes are in use. Cabs may be unoccupied". Are these remote control locomotives being run from some central location?

Nope. The RC locomotives are operated by yard workers (who usually are not Engineers by job classification) who are on foot using a remote control unit known as a "Belt Pack";

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The idea is to cut down on crew size by having a single worker hooking up cars and running the switcher.
There are some cases in humpyards where the engine pushing the cars up the hump is remotely operated from the yard tower, often by computer, but IINM in those operations there is always a human in the cab for safety. The computer only controls the forward motion to guarantee that the correct number of cars goes "down the hill".

I have not heard or seen a yard office/tower control hump engines but I guess anything is possible to a point.

On my Class 1 all RCO jobs are two man crews both who have a box. All moves are considered shoves and require some sort of protection (cameras, on the point, postive stop protection, etc). Usually one person is up on the lead controlling the loco and switches and the other is at the cut doing his thing.

Private industries can use the one man crew as they don't fall under the same rules (and they have had a form of remotes for quite a long time).

Generally speaking, at least on class 1's you will have two operators on that job. You don't have a person "in the cab" just in case. The cab is there for lunch or if your passing thru it. Otherwise your on the walkway if moving the engine around the yard or on the ground.

CN has the software installed on their hump engines now where the yardmaster control's the engine as it brings cars up the hill. The employee uncoupling the cars has the beltpack on his waist but there is no one in the cab.

My guess is that its only the guy you see... as in typical operations the primary operator has to "pitch" the control to the other RCO operator and both need to manually link up to the engine. In other words - if operator #1 has control of the engine, operator #2 cannot control it other than to place it into emergency should something happen - so other than an emergency situation there is very little use of the ground person (who is just pulling pins anyways) to have the box (putting everything into simplicity sake here).

I also don't see the value of the yardmaster (who typically is dealing with multiple things in the tower than to play baby engineer) actually controlling the movement. I'd say there is a second person involved there that your not seeing. In our yard jobs you don't see the second person most of the time. Granted this is the US vs CN but from what I have gathered is that most RCO rules and equipment setup is pretty much the same.

I work as an RCO (Remote Control Operator) for a class one though, not by choice. All of our remote jobs in this terminal are 2 man with both of us usually being on the ground because they are mainly used as yard switchers. The locomotive has pull back protection on it. As it passes sensors going north it will slow down until it gets to the Zero Speed Transponder, then it will stop. If the locos have pull back protection we dont have to be on the point.

I have heard some hump yards have one man robo jobs where the operator pitches control to the automated control center in the tower. The computer keeps the cut rolling at a speed sufficient for humping and the man on the ground pulls the pins.

If you have any more questions just ask, most of this is fresh in my mind as I just got my RCO certification a couple months ago.

I should have been more clear. CN's hump jobs are one man crews. When the yard operator pitches the control to the yardmaster, the hump computer software is controlling the speed of the engine up the hill

Not all remotes are two man crews. CSX has several one man remote jobs just at Rocky Mount and also at Florence. I think Hamlet has some one man jobs also. I also think (but am not positive ) that the hump jobs at Hamlet are all one man remote jobs. They have a utility man to assist, but the yardmaster has no control over the engine.