I wanted everyone to know that: I have NEVER known anyone to call any locomotive cab an "office enviornment" and the control stand a "desktop console". Lol
To CONTINUE...even today...there are FIVE HUNDRED Electro Motive/GM (EMD) Union Pacific SD40-2s being processed for complete rebuild (after countless "overhauls" and several "total rebuilds") that are 40 years of age in a "Life Extension Program" similar to a U.S. Military "SLEP" (Service Life Extension Program) which will keep said 40-year old (and some slightly less old) units in service for another 15 to 20 years!!! While much newer GE C40-8 models have been "Lease Returned" but run on CN Rwy
@kdevies: There are almost always 2 people in the cab. In this case, it's the engineer & conductor. Amtrak long distance trains & many regionals are the only trains w/ 2 engineers in the cab since the conductors are in back in the train. In the past other people that would've been in the cab w/ the engineer are the fireman & the brakeman. Today, if there's more than 2 people, then the 3rd is a switchmen.
@JetMechMA: The fireman comes from the steam days. He was the one who made sure the fire was hot & the boiler had enough steam being produced. That position was held on to when diesels came but was slowly given up. The brakeman used to have to set the brakes on the train by hand until Westinghouse's invention of the airbrake. Most brakeman positions were kept for switching duties (since they did this as well). If there's a 3rd person on a freight train crew, then that person is the switchman.
Look for an open postion as a conductor trainee. You're in a classroom for a few weeks, then you're a student conductor. Usually your first job is being on the extraboard. Once you've been a conductor for 1 to 2 years you look for and engineer trainee postion.
@JetMechMA wWhen the engineer got too drunk, the fireman took over. when the fireman got too drunk, the head brakie took over. Between all three you should be able to get to your destination. That was back in the good ol days of course.
From my understanding, many engineers prefer the traditional AAR control stand set up to the left. Interesting that a number of modern locomotives have been coming from the factory with the traditional setup again.
It depends on the model. But...you got a good answer that they can be kept running "FOREVER" which is true such as for "historic diesels," etc. As for your basic question, the ECONOMIC LIFE of them, GM-EMD diesels such as the one in the video tend to have longer lifespans than GEs (tho this is evening out a bit...but the overhaul interval on EMDs is pretty much a million miles vs. 750,000 miles for GE). And after one good overhaul, time for a "rebuild."
Probably. Actually you don't even have to drive it because theres no steering wheel. it just goes where the tracks go. Of all the freight lines in the US this is probably one of the hardest because it could be pretty easy to stall the train if theres snow and ice on the rails.
@8747csx alright thanks, yeah I've heard the hours are rough and I understand you can get "bumped" from your job by an employee with more seniority and have to take a job at a different location. That doesn't sound fun.
@roasted420 Thats the beauty of seniority, unless your the bottom guy, there's always someone else to bump! But yeah, I figured it was probably a regional thing. We had a bunch of crew's loaned to us in the NW that were from Texas, thier verbage for certain things varied from what we called it. Railroad dialects I guess!
@railroadjeep I guess it's which railroad you work for and what part of the Country you're in. On the L&N, my dad used to talk about getting "kicked" off his Hazard 4 mine-run job he held for about 6 months--7:00am and you were home for dinner..Of course with his seniority, he could just kick somebody else..lol
yeah. Do you get in alot of trouble with whoever is in charge of keeping trains on time if you don't make it up the hill? I don't know who is in charge of that maybe dispatchers or roadmasters or someone like that.
@secret1service the train brake is the air brake (applies brakes on cars & all locomotives) & the independent brake applies brakes on the locomotive(s) only
You notice that the narrator says "one of the locomotives failed" ... then when the consist rolls by the second GE is silent, all of the EMDs are plugging away!
@roasted420 Actually, "bumped" is a correct term. If you actually look at our work rosters (BNSF), the board your placed on when you've been displaced is actually called the "bump board".
well there are these steel things called tracks, and while on them the really long things (trains) cant go in any direction but where the one the other long things (tracks) lead.
@trainman2816 Where can I see a glimpse at them? If it's at the end, then they really got the script screwed up, as that would be a pair of GEs sandwhiched in between EMDs.
@8747csx 12 on 8 off must be the most appalling working conditions imaginable. I have to tell you guys that we are light years ahead of you in working conditions down under. A minimum of 11 hours off unless you are at an away from home rest location where no travelling to and from work is needed. Then it is a minimum of 8 off. 5 weeks a year annual leave, 1.3 weeks a year long service leave payable after 10 straight years......yep, 13 weeks off on full pay if you want it plus your 5 annual.
You can't get "bumped" or "kicked" anymore on CSX... at least not in the CSRA. You bid on jobs on the mainframe and each week are awarded a permanent position for the next week according to seniority and who put what job where in their bids.
Well thats good. I really want to work for the railroad but I'm somewhat colorblind. I can usually tell the difference between green, red, yellow but I sometimes get red and yellow confused. So I think that pretty much eliminates jobs like engineer or conductor. There are contact lenses that correct color vision but I don't know if the railroad would allow me to where them because there are kind of a new thing and they might be skeptical of them. Do you know?
It's hard to believe that those very 60Ms were the launching point for the ACEs of today. ACEs meaning SD70s. That really is a vault in time right there.. Ode to those vacuums!
@TrainDr101 OH cool! I had to go through the Bluew Mountains for my class trip to Wyoming. I love eastern Oregon and the Bluew Mountains. The Bluew Mountains reming me a lot of Colorado.
Many thanks for this video. At the end when the helpers are joined, what type of loco is the 3rd one from the front, it sounds different to the others, kind of stutters?
The narrator's comments are ironic as quite a number of locomotive engineers, reportedly, dislike the desktop control system and would take the AAR style controls on the left side hands down.
Wonderfull video. Also i recongnised some part of driver panel: reversing lever, throttle lever near the end of march but reversing and brake, who often manipulates, engine driver . We have and used also General Motors Diesel locomotive made in Romania in cooperation with GM - USA. GREETINGS FROM ROMANIA - European Union
That "Stretched out diamond" in the middle of the track is additional rail that has been placed there over a short bridge. It is there in case the train derails--it is supposed to "trap" the wheels and keep the train from going over off the bridge onto the ground below. Almost all bridges and trestles have these--whether they really work all the time is debatable with some of today's top-heavy stack trains.
@8747csx had always been a dream of mine. but im medically ineligible for this. if i cannto drive a truck i sure as hell cannot work onboard oen of these
That's from around 1990--1991 or so. But the GM-EMD SD60M model shown in the cab-ride portion is very similar to the VAST amount of EMD SD70M units the Union Pacific ordered as "fleet replacement" models from 2000--to--2004...the first 1000 of which in the initial order of which constituted the largest domestic order of a single locomotive in U.S. history, and after the initial thousand-unit order was completed, the UPRR kept coming back for more and more until the EMD SD70ACe line came in '05.
Interesting, though. From what I've been told and have read a good number of locomotives engineers dislike the desktop control stands and prefer the traditional AAR setup with the control stand to the left. One engineer who was tall complained that his knees always hit the underside of these desks.
Thanks. I don't know for sure if I'm still going to want to be a train engineer when I'm ready to apply for a job but ever since I was little I've always wanted to work for the railroad. We'll see what happens.
@@steelcityrailfan4808 kind of. Was a conductor on a tourist railroad for a couple years. Now work in the ski industry. Ended up following a different passion
عندما اشترت مصر جرارات قطارات الامريكية لم تسطع العمل على خطوط السكة الحديد اكثر من 6 اشهر وكانت كثيرة الاعطال ولكن الجرارات الالمانية اكثر جودة وقوة كبيرة عن الاميريكية وتعمل بكفاءة كبيرةمنذ 20 عاما وهذه المعلومات لكم للعلم وشكرا
