02-02-2016, 01:10 PM
(02-02-2016, 10:13 AM)chutten Wrote: Today on my bike into work I saw the tanker train stopped on its return from Elmira just north of Erb@Caroline.
Which was weird. I would've expected it to have cleared the city hours before.
I bike down spur line trail (As a counter-example to the nightmarish Laurel trail, it is really quite nice. They've done a good job of maintaining it through the winter as well) and by Len's Mill Store there's a red DERAIL marker clipped to the rail and a middle-of-the-track red rectangle.
Is the train stranded, mayhap?
Other than an obstruction of the tracks, there could be a couple of reasons that the train is parked where it is:
- End of the regulated crew shift and no time to bring in a new crew before the track movements have to stop for the Ion construction
- Engine or equipment failure and no time to bring in a new crew before the track movements have to stop for the Ion construction
The red flag indicates that there is something ahead that could be dangerous to approaching trains (for instance, a washout or a parked train). The derail is there to stop a train from moving beyond that point.