Railworks America

So I was recently up camping at Hill 582 on Cajon Pass the week that Big Boy went through. I spent the next week at north summit island... which is where track #3 reunites with tracks #1 & #2 up at summit climbing east. Now I live 2+ hours from the nearest BNSF trackage (at Bakersfield). So I only see their trains a few times a year when I go to Cajon pass and Tehachapi pass.

On this trip I noticed BNSF was sending some monster trains over Cajon. The biggest ones were westbound intermodals. Now a well known local rail fan who lives near the summit told me if a train stretches on track #1 and #2 from summit down to the last turn (just past Hill 582), that’s 10,000ft long. So based on that, I estimate these trains were in the 12,000ft-15,000ft range with mid and rear DPUs. I also noticed some interesting mixed freights too.

So I said to the local guy.... it’s interesting that BNSF is the lone Class I hold out that hasn’t embraced Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR). He looks at me and said “yes they basically have, they just haven’t said so.” He pointed out that a lot the BNSF trains he sees daily have the same PSR like make up of the train as UP has been doing. UP even recently brought back manned helpers on Beaumont Hill for its newer super long trains.

So I ask Anthony or anybody else familiar with BNSF. ..... is BNSF quietly doing PSR-like train operations without calling it that? Have there been similar levels of the storage of cars and locos? Has there been similar layoffs along with yard and shop closures like UP is doing?

I ask because BNSF as far as I know is officially not PSR (even though Warren Buffet seems open to some of it)... although they seem to be mirroring some of it.

Any thoughts?

Basically yes. Except nothing is scheduled. It's been a disaster here with the cutting everywhere and doing "the same with less"

Thanks Anthony!

You know when I was at Cajon Pass for 2 weeks, I witnessed something rather shocking to me.......

So Cajon Pass has PTC. Track #3 is the original Santa Fe line over the pass and and is the steepest track at 3%. About 90% of the trains that use track #3 are westbound, So most go down it and not climb it.

Around 2PM, a westbound UP went into emergency on it. The middle of train was stopped on the steepest portion. Now since this is BNSF tracks, it's their dispatcher. So the UP conductor calls them and reports the emergency. Tells them it was PTC that stopped the train. So the dispatcher re-directs them to some type of PTC help desk person. When PTC asks over the radio what the problem is, the crew responded that both the PTC screen and the locomotive screen are currently red in color. They then read out the PTC error number and the words that follow it.

I don't remember exactly what it said. It was rather cryptic in it's wording to the point that the crew didn't quite understand what it meant either. It said something about.... braking telemetry in a curve was out of parameter.... or something to that effect.

So PTC said that I'm gonna send you over to mechanical. So eventually mechanical gets on the radio and asks the crew the problem. The crew repeats what they told the PTC help desk. Mechanical says that we have no clue what that PTC code is nor do they have access to that code information. They told the crew to call PTC back and ask them what the code means so they have a clue as to what to do. The crew then calls PTC back and tells them what they said. It is at this point the PTC guy re-directs them back to mechanical without explaining the code or what to do. It is around this moment that the crew happen to report they were able to reset the PTC system. The PTC guy then says ..ok.. I guess you got it going again, so let me know if something happens again. The train got moving after sitting there for 3.5 hours and had no further problems.

Then about an hour after that train left, a BNSF westbound went into emergency in the same spot. The crew reported the PTC put them in emergency. They reported the PTC error (a different error than the first train had, but just as cryptic) was on the locomotive side of the screen (not sure why it would be there) and that the PTC screen appeared to be fine. And it went down exactly the same way as the UP train. They tell PTC the code .....who tells them to talk to mechanical..... who doesn't know the code's meaning...... who sends them back to PTC help desk.... who doesn't tell the crew what the code means and refers them back to mechanical... which at this point the crew gets PTC reset.... and PTC help desk says great and let me know if you have any problems..... which it doesn't.

What shocked me and drove me nuts was.... the PTC help desk not telling them what the code meant and blindly throwing them over to a clueless mechanical department. I was also shocked that both the UP and BNSF crews never put the screws to the PTC guy for not translating what the PTC code meant. If the crews didn't happen to reset the PTC systems at the right time, it felt like they were gonna be ping ponged between the two with no end in sight. It truly felt like the right hand and left hand don't know what they are doing. And these crews resetting the PTC essentially saved the PTC guy's rear end because he seemed clueless as to how to solve anything.

Keep in mind that having a train stuck on one of the three mains is gonna jam things up a bit. You'd think the PTC help desk would know what to do to get these trains back moving. Instead it exposed just how unorganized they are..... at least on Cajon Pass. That's just NUTS!

Crews don't really need to know the codes and their meaning because they can't do anything to correct it anyways, aside from cutting it out when instructed.

PTC desk can and does have access to the back end of PTC on every locomotive and can fiddle with it from the NOC.