The following "emergency fix" will not work in today's digital/electronic tattle-tale railroad environment, further, today's "state of the art" computer controlled engines may forbid it. This emergency contingency absolutely goes against everything any CMO would teach on the proper handling and care of his precious engines, and the FRA agent would have an absolute cat's fit over it, but, I'm retired and thus the statute of limitations has been reached ( 
), so if one of you DOES make like a playground school girl and tattle... they can't do anything about it now.
The above DISCLAIMER said... here's an experience I had a loooong time ago:
I had a short (30-40 loaded sand cars?) train and a pair of GP38's.
As I was topping a rise at track speed leading to a long decent (1% or better) I had an IDE as soon as I made my first set. (Caused by a "dynamiter" car.) After getting stopped, I still had a lot of grade left to safely descend (I was in 10 MPH territory now), AND there was an Absolute signal at the bottom of the grade that WOULD be against me, for the line I was on crossed over a busy BNSF line in order to access our yard. We had to get BNSF Dispatcher authority in order to cross the diamond, so I KNEW the signal would be against me. Basically, I had zero margin for error if I tried to recover, finish the descent, and HOPE I would have sufficient air in the pipe to get stopped PRECISELY where I needed to get stopped.
Not an option.
I also KNEW the engine brakes would be insufficient to hold the train should I try to recover my air "as is". Oh, and it was raining.
So, there we sat as I pondered my situation. Of course, the Conductor whined and moaned about what he SHOULD do. (Tie a bunch of hand brakes before I could start the recovery process.)
Well, I ended up doing what old head's taught me when in a bad way like this, and provided it could be done safely, albeit against the rules. Here's what I did:
I set the engine brakes, recovered, and once the PCS reset, I placed the motors in reverse, and leaned into the loads with just enough amps to hold the train in place... and I charged my air line until I had sufficient air to proceed. We continued on our way and I had ample air to make a controlled descent with a precise stop at the Absolute signal, and proceeded calling for the Dispatcher to get a signal.
Oh, I wholeheartedly agree: That was a despicable move, intolerable by those smarter and more professional than I displayed at the time. It was a move that is NOT approved or condoned by ANY rule or operational book, etc. BUT, it was a technique I'd learned from SEVERAL old heads from "way back when". AND by doing so it helped get us to the yard within our hours that night.
Go ahead. Chastise me. I've got big shoulders, I can take it.
Railroading was a different world "back then".
Andre "retired so you can't touch me" Ming
