Switch heaters/blowers

[willardgarrett]

It seems that with every winter storm that involves precipitation, most mainlines of any appreciable density turn into parking for stalled or dead trains. Logic would make one think that railroads would be much less effected than roadways, due to the fixed guideways, but that does not seem to be the case. I have heard from some aquaintances that CN has installed switch infrared switch heaters that blow air out at more than 100 degrees and 115 MPH. Does anyone know the cost of these units, and if the cost is not a significant factor, why these are not implemented in more locations? It seems that many of Amtrak's Chicago delays could be solved with some more attention devoted to keeping switches clear of snow and ice.

[Mr. Tops]

No matter how hot or fast the switch heaters are, they aren't very effective when they aren't on. When it gets bad out, it's not that the switch heaters aren't effective or sufficient enough, they just stop working altogether. That or the dispatcher will forget to them on or just not be able to turn them on. It's always fun sweeping out a switch that the dispatcher has thrown when it's full of snow and the switch heater isn't on. Everything on the railroad tends to stop working when it gets cold, snows or rains no matter how big and bad it is.

[CSX_CO]

It seems that many of Amtrak's Chicago delays could be solved with some more attention devoted to keeping switches clear of snow and ice.

With the size of a wheel flange, anything thing over 1/4th inch of a gap can cause a derailment. Ice and snow compacts perfectly, and can easily result in a gap which renders the switch un-usable. At that point grab a broom, fusee's, or track maintainers and get to work. Get one switch cleaned out, on to the next. By the time you get back to the first one, its time to clean it out again.

Even switch heaters aren't 100% effective, especially when the snow fills the gap in the rails faster than the heater can melt it. Heaters are good for keeping ahead of snow, but once it starts blowing into them, you're in trouble. Best bet is to line everything straight away, and hope you don't have to use the crossovers. Another thing, the melting snow creates water, which then drains below the switch. Water collects around the throw rod, and freezes solid. Then you need a torch or copious amounts of salt to melt the throw rods out. Salt rusts up the track components pretty bad, so MOW doesn't like salt around their track stuff.

Best thing to do is just hunker down and survive the initial storm. After the snow and blowing stops, come out in full force and open the railroad back up. Do what you have to do to keep limping along while the snow is still coming down, but it makes little sense to risk injury to try and run a full operation in the face of extreme weather.

That's what we did in Avon tonight. Built the trains to protect the hot autoparts, and anything we could get a crew for (namely trains going back to a crews home terminal). Even then it took nearly 6 hrs to pull only 130 cars in the ice and snow.

Practice Safe CSX

[GP9R]

Not sure how common they are but where I work one of our sidings does have heaters, but MoW has to go out there and start them. Also to add to it, there is a limited number of MoW people and most freight only has 1 person to dig out switches unless the engineer comes out to help out. It also depends on how deep the snow is. The south end of Good yard was completely buried under 5-6 inches of snow, the north end only had enough snow to fill in the gap between the points and the rail. But the Derail on the pass was so buried that if the switch stand hadn't been there I wouldn't have even known were to start digging

[bnsfben]

Well I guess the crews up here in Michigan on the Flint sub are lucky.

[Buster Manning]

only because Desk 9 remembered to turn them on; don't know how many times I have some up to a switch that can't be thrown account of it being full of snow/ice account of the heater NOT being on while on the CN.......