Post by zman on Jul 25, 2005 2:24:01 GMT
I know that my story isn't exactly LUL related, but it does seem to me like the place to tell stories, so here's one of mine.
One time, I had an early job on the V line and part of the job involved going to the yard for a train to put-in service. Normally, one is given 45 minutes to prepare a train for service because you have to physically walk around the train and look underneath for anything protruding from underneath the train which could derail it, close compartments and inspect the trucks, check that the angle air cocks are in the correct position, make sure that all of the contact shoes and shoe fuses are accounted for, etc. Then one has to check all the circuit breakers on board the train, check the doors, glass panels, both T/O positions to make sure that they work properly, etc., etc. So I did all of my pre-inspect moves and declared the train ready for service...or so I thought.
Brought the train out of the yard, picked up my conductor (guard) at the station and began our run underground. All was going well until 46th Street Station. My guard comes on over the train's intercom and says "Hey partner, take a look outside". So I peek my head out to find smoke billowing from underneath the train and the smoke is building up rapidly in the station. So the C/R and I go from car to car discharging the train of our 800 passengers. The visibility is rapidly deteriorating and I ask the passengers to leave the station. Most of them are like "No, no, that's ok. We'll just wait here." Whatever.
After about 8 minutes, the fire department arrives. They take a look at the affected car where the smoke is coming and decide that they can't really do anything until the power is turned off. In the meantime, the smoke stops billowing from underneath the car and the Control Center instructs us to cut out the 600 volt c/b's on board and to try to move the train as it's the early AM rush hour and I'm seriously disrupting train traffic along the line (four services are being re-routed onto the express track going at 5 mph.)
So I cut out the c/b's, turn off the air conditioning, make sure the train is empty of passengers, and return up front to try to move the train. Meanwhile, the fire dept stands by the affected car. I try to move the train and all of a sudden, BOOM!! I immediately stop the train and return to the affected car. The firemen were so pale, it looked like they had painted their faces bright white! They didn't know what just happened and they didn't want to know either. Anyway, I wait for the smoke to stop before I go down to the tracks to perform the inevitable...pulling the main fuse and knife switch. This is an operation that no train operator ever wants to perform in their career due to the high risk of injury involved in manually separating 600 volts of direct current from the car itself.
So now I'm down on the tracks going in the opposite direction, always looking backwards to make sure that a train coming in the opposite direction doesn't flatten me. A couple rats come by my feet to say hello, but they see that I'm no longer in the mood for niceties so they scurry away. I now get to the affected car with a bunch of shoe slippers in my hands. I separate the two shoes from the third rail and approach the main knife switch when all of a sudden, a train in the opposite direction comes the other way. I quickly position myself to be clear of the other train. Finally, the other train clears and now I'm back at the main knife switch which has a very friendly cover on it that says "DANGER - HIGH VOLTAGE". Ugh. I open it, grab the handle, close my eyes, say a two second prayer and YANK! Whew! I didn't get the dreaded electrical arc that sometimes happens when you pull it. I then safely twist off the main fuse and finsih the job. After all this, a pair of car inspectors arrive. They decided to climb underneath the car, go to the affected truck and manually pull out the electrical contacts as even one volt more of power could seriously injure the passengers on the opposite platform. Everything is finally finished, and after sitting in the station for an hour in the height of the morning rush hour, I finally get the train moving and bring the train back to the yard.
Met up with a supervisor at the yard who took a look at the affected truck thanks to the beaming sunlight. There was a 600 volt buslead that led from the area where the power is accumulated to the wheels to power the train. The buslead had completely disintegrated. The supervisor told me that for that thing to be in the state that it was in, the temperature had to have been more than 2000 degrees fahrenheit. I ripped off a remaining piece of PVC insulant, designed to withstand extreme temperatures, and dropped it on the floor. It completely disintegrated to ash upon contact. Ouch.
After everything, the yard dispatcher called me up to his office. He asks me in a not so serious tone: "Why is it that everytime there is a major brouhaha, your face is always around?" To which I responded: "Because when I screw up, I go all the way baby!" And to think, for me and my track record, this was a relatively minor incident.
One time, I had an early job on the V line and part of the job involved going to the yard for a train to put-in service. Normally, one is given 45 minutes to prepare a train for service because you have to physically walk around the train and look underneath for anything protruding from underneath the train which could derail it, close compartments and inspect the trucks, check that the angle air cocks are in the correct position, make sure that all of the contact shoes and shoe fuses are accounted for, etc. Then one has to check all the circuit breakers on board the train, check the doors, glass panels, both T/O positions to make sure that they work properly, etc., etc. So I did all of my pre-inspect moves and declared the train ready for service...or so I thought.
Brought the train out of the yard, picked up my conductor (guard) at the station and began our run underground. All was going well until 46th Street Station. My guard comes on over the train's intercom and says "Hey partner, take a look outside". So I peek my head out to find smoke billowing from underneath the train and the smoke is building up rapidly in the station. So the C/R and I go from car to car discharging the train of our 800 passengers. The visibility is rapidly deteriorating and I ask the passengers to leave the station. Most of them are like "No, no, that's ok. We'll just wait here." Whatever.
After about 8 minutes, the fire department arrives. They take a look at the affected car where the smoke is coming and decide that they can't really do anything until the power is turned off. In the meantime, the smoke stops billowing from underneath the car and the Control Center instructs us to cut out the 600 volt c/b's on board and to try to move the train as it's the early AM rush hour and I'm seriously disrupting train traffic along the line (four services are being re-routed onto the express track going at 5 mph.)
So I cut out the c/b's, turn off the air conditioning, make sure the train is empty of passengers, and return up front to try to move the train. Meanwhile, the fire dept stands by the affected car. I try to move the train and all of a sudden, BOOM!! I immediately stop the train and return to the affected car. The firemen were so pale, it looked like they had painted their faces bright white! They didn't know what just happened and they didn't want to know either. Anyway, I wait for the smoke to stop before I go down to the tracks to perform the inevitable...pulling the main fuse and knife switch. This is an operation that no train operator ever wants to perform in their career due to the high risk of injury involved in manually separating 600 volts of direct current from the car itself.
So now I'm down on the tracks going in the opposite direction, always looking backwards to make sure that a train coming in the opposite direction doesn't flatten me. A couple rats come by my feet to say hello, but they see that I'm no longer in the mood for niceties so they scurry away. I now get to the affected car with a bunch of shoe slippers in my hands. I separate the two shoes from the third rail and approach the main knife switch when all of a sudden, a train in the opposite direction comes the other way. I quickly position myself to be clear of the other train. Finally, the other train clears and now I'm back at the main knife switch which has a very friendly cover on it that says "DANGER - HIGH VOLTAGE". Ugh. I open it, grab the handle, close my eyes, say a two second prayer and YANK! Whew! I didn't get the dreaded electrical arc that sometimes happens when you pull it. I then safely twist off the main fuse and finsih the job. After all this, a pair of car inspectors arrive. They decided to climb underneath the car, go to the affected truck and manually pull out the electrical contacts as even one volt more of power could seriously injure the passengers on the opposite platform. Everything is finally finished, and after sitting in the station for an hour in the height of the morning rush hour, I finally get the train moving and bring the train back to the yard.
Met up with a supervisor at the yard who took a look at the affected truck thanks to the beaming sunlight. There was a 600 volt buslead that led from the area where the power is accumulated to the wheels to power the train. The buslead had completely disintegrated. The supervisor told me that for that thing to be in the state that it was in, the temperature had to have been more than 2000 degrees fahrenheit. I ripped off a remaining piece of PVC insulant, designed to withstand extreme temperatures, and dropped it on the floor. It completely disintegrated to ash upon contact. Ouch.
After everything, the yard dispatcher called me up to his office. He asks me in a not so serious tone: "Why is it that everytime there is a major brouhaha, your face is always around?" To which I responded: "Because when I screw up, I go all the way baby!" And to think, for me and my track record, this was a relatively minor incident.
