Most days on my neck of the Fort Wayne Line, things go more or less smoothly. Some days, however, events happen that make one feel bad for the train crews who have to deal with them. Friday, March 13th was one such day. An eastbound intermodal, 24Z, was delayed at least 45 minutes by issues with the line's months-old PTC installation and by a defect detector. Watch below to see it play out, or check out the rough transcript below!
Transcript:
Engineer: -In the cab and it never even dropped.
PTC Desk: Alright I got what I needed there, I'm going to go ahead and release you. It looks like it cleared up a little bit there, right? It's giving you a green light up ahead?
Engineer: Yeah, it's giving me a green line up ahead.
PTC desk: Alright, I'm going to go ahead and release you, just let the dispatcher know and get there permission to continue going forward. If you would, keep using the PTC, you shouldn't have any other problems with that, over.
Engineer: Roger, shouldn't have any other problems, we'll talk to dispatch.
PTC desk: Yessir, I appreciate your patience, over.
Engineer: Thank you.
PTC desk: -Answering, over.
Engineer: NS 9387, 24 Zebra, over.
PTC: 9387.
Engineer: We were on a clear signal and PTC just, we were only going about 31 miles per hour on 55 mile an hour track and it says speed reduction due to cab signal indication and put me into a penalty.
PTC: Alright, just got the enforcement report, gimme a second then I'll turn you loose in just a second 24Z over.
24Z: OK.
PTC: Alright, everything seems clear here guys, it's OK to go.
Engineer: Yeah, I think we were stopped by the detector, we'll see what happens (the resignation in his voice).
PTC: Alright, thank you.
Detector: Norfolk Southern milepost 12.0. Track 3, first high load from axle 16 to axle
43, second high load from axle 46 to axle 99. Third high load from axle 104 to axle 119. Train too slow. Excessive alarms.
<Detector repeats previous report.>
24Z calls the wayside device desk.
Wayside: Wayside answering, over.
24Z's conductor: Sir, 24Z. 9387 is our lead engine, we had a run-in with PTC and the detector (unidentifiable).
Wayside: Alright, let's take it 30 (MPH) to the next, over.
24Z's conductor: OK, 30 to the next, over. 24Z out.
