The Dig From Hell

     I haven't posted in a while, mostly because I wanted to post about this particular dig and it has taken this long to get it done.  This is not a dig (no pun intended) on the crew working this job, this is just to illustrate what a giant pain in the hind parts this has been.
 
The task; dig a 6,000 foot trench and install power cable to replace a solar location.
     Sounds like a fairly easy job, grab the trencher and go to work, but that plan was not to be.  You see this location is solar for a reason, if it was that easy, there would already be power there.  No this location is on the edge of a mountain side, with a pretty good drop off into the Potomac.  To say that access is limited would be the understatement of the century. Add in that we were originally trying to do this in sub freezing weather and it all adds up to a 3 month dig. 
     After breaking some equipment, renting bigger equipment, taking a break to let the weather warm up and chipping back the side of the mountain, I am ecstatic to say that this job is finally done.   I need to thank the crew that worked on this, and the transportation department for working with us and giving us some great track time to get it done.

     I have a few more big digs coming up on another project and I am praying that I won't have anything nearly this exciting to talk about.  I have added a few pictures from the project for your viewing pleasure. 

Chipping back the mountainside

Dig man dig!

Follow Your GPS

Amelia Island, FL

         I hope everyone is enjoying their winter, or maybe you are more like me and are just praying for spring.  I titled this post "Follow Your GPS"  but it also could have been titled "I Really Need a Camera"  because in following my GPS I have seen some very interesting things, and only a few I have managed to get pictures of. 

       In my new role as a signal construction engineer, I drive.  A lot.  And I don't always know where I am going. I am often told to go survey one job or another, given a mile post or signal name, patted on the head and sent on my merry way.   Enter my handy, dandy GPS that is programmed with every mile post on the system.  This is a truly handy thing to have, but it doesn't always work as intended, or at least not how I intend it to work.  On occasion the GPS has told me things like "Turn left on road"  or "Navigate off road".  In both scenarios there is usually a corn field or a deer trail where it tells me to turn.  That leaves me driving around trying to find access to the right of way.  The bad part is I can usually see some railroad tracks they just right there!  Although there was the time I saw a back hoe, and a signal bridge and thought I found what I was looking for, only to find a crew of very confused NS signalman.  Ooppss wrong railroad.

      Even when you put in what sounds like a normal address, it does not always take you where you want to go.  For example, I punched in the address for the Days Inn in Bridgeport, WV and ended up on a single lane road in front of a lovely farm.  Honestly I would have gladly stayed at the farm, but it didn't look like they left the light on for me.  So I found a hill where I had 1 bar of signal and pulled over to call the Days Inn to get some real directions.  Judging from the number of cars doing U-turns on this road, I wasn't the only one with this problem. 

      So you really have to have a sense of adventure to do this job and blindly follow your GPS all over the countryside.  Sometimes it takes me down highways, sometimes back roads, the occasional dirt road and sometimes it is just confused and I am out in the middle of no where looking at one of those strange paper maps trying to figure out where to go.  The one thing I can always count on is that I will see something beautiful, strange, or otherwise interesting.  Although I hate the snow, some of the scenery it creates is amazing and I often find myself wishing for a better camera then the one on my phone.  Since it is currently the only option, I have included a few pictures that I have taken with my phone, and hopefully I will soon be the proud new owner of a digital camera, and can show you some of the other things I run across, you know, like the haunted mansion/campground. 

 Keyser, WV

Snownado

How To Kill A Truck

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, Happy Nothing if that is your choice and Happy all of the other things that I forgot. 

      I have been happily employed as a Signal Engineer for about 3 months now, it is challenging, interesting, and I like the people I work with very much.  The problem I seem to be having is keeping my work truck road worthy.  Now it isn't really a truck, it's a Chevy Tahoe, but still, it is a bigger than average vehicle.  One that say a deer could see before it SLAMMED into the drivers side door! 

      That is what happened the first week I had the truck.  I believe I had it for about 6 days.  There I was driving along and I see a deer standing on a high bank on the drivers side of the road.  I slowed down in case he ran out in front of me, but I guess I screwed up his timing, because he ran into the drivers side door, took out my drivers side mirror, used his little spike antlers to carve a scrape in my window, spun around hit the drivers side rear door, and got up and ran off.  So not only did I have to do an accident report 6 days into my new job, but I didn't get any venison out of it either.  This type of incident will also allow you to test your heart functions and your vocabulary, as your heart rate rapidly increases and some colorful language follows. 

     So I got the truck fixed while I was on vacation in November (see shameless brag photo below) and all was well, or so I thought.  Just before Christmas I was cruising up route 81 and dash lights start flashing and the engine starts making a god awful noise. Not good.  I pull into a Sheetz station and called the fleet service.  (A Sheetz station is a gas station + minimart + deli, kind a like a super WaWa for those of you in the northeast) 

     The shop got to it the day after Christmas and low and behold I needed a new engine, there is a piece on one of the lifters that tends to wear out, or so the man at the shop told me.  So in the span of 3 short months I have had to replace a door, a mirror and now an engine.  If this keeps up I am going to have a whole new truck in a year.  They have given me a Toyota 4 Runner to drive in the meantime, if I break this one I might be in trouble. 

     As I mentioned I also went on vacation in November, and we had a blast.  We went to a resort on the Estero Bay in Florida and I went on my first private fishing charter.  Oh so worth it! So here are my shameless brag pictures.  (I did catch the biggest fish!)

My Yearly Whine: Womens Winter Clothes

     I whine about this every year, and to be fair it has improved, especially in the women's hunting gear area.  However, it still has a long way to go.  Most of the time women's winter clothes are half as thick and twice the price as men's winter clothes. Men also have a ton more options. When I go to the Cabela's website and click on long sleeve shirts for men I get 3 options; light, medium and heavy weights.  On the same site I click on the long sleeve shirt for women, and that's the only option I have.  In the men's section there is also a tab for flannel and chamois shirts. 

     Even in Tractor Supply today there were 2 racks of long sleeved shirts for women, one with really thin shirts, one with some slightly thicker shirts.  There were about 6 for men and they were all thicker with the exception of the sale rack from their summer shirts.

    
Lets look at some examples.

This chamois shirt is a light weight cotton for $39.99

For the same money you can get a medium weight men's chamois shirt

For another $5 you can get the men's heavy weight version.

Here is a better example of the money doesn't equal fabric equation.
Women's version $79.99 Flannel with Sherpa lining

Men's version $50.00 (granted this one might be a close out)

     I should probably also mention that I hate clothes shopping, and in general find women's clothing to be outrageously priced.  Marshals is probably my favorite year round store, but there is no way I am going to find real cold weather gear in Marshals.  So guys, this may be one of the reason that your girl is freezing while you stay toasty.

     Normally this would just lead me to wear men's clothing all winter long, but now that I am a supervisor I am supposed to look professional, not like a grunge kid from a bad Seattle band.  So this year will be particularly challenging.  My goal is to stay warm, not go broke and look like some type of professional.  As always, I am always open for suggestions. 

Goodbye Transportation, Hello Signals

      So another chapter begins.  This week will be my last week as a train master, next week I will be back to the signal department as a signal construction engineer. Actually next week I will be on vacation, but I digress.  I am very excited to be back on the signal side, the signal department brings some great challenges and the technology tickles my brain in just the right way.  I am also looking forward to sleeping on most nights. Working all night is probably what I have had the hardest time with as a train master, I guess I am not as good as I once was. 

     My experience as a train master has been great and I have really learned a lot through this job, both personally and professionally.  On the professional side, I feel like I have learned that preventing fires is much easier than putting out fires.  On the personal side, the biggest thing I have learned is to shut up and listen.  There is tons of great information out there and you don't learn anything with your mouth open. I also know I probably need to work on that one some more.

     So now that that's out of the way lets talk about some of the other things that have been going on.  First I need to add something to my list of strangeness from my last post.  Ever have someone call in late because of exploding cantaloupes?  Yea, it happened.  There is only one large highway in Cumberland, and many of the guys use it to get to work, but when a cantaloupe truck catches fire, the cantaloupes heat up, the juice begins to boil, which creates steam and BOOM! exploding cantaloupes.  So for fear for their own life and the life of others, the fire department shut the entire highway down, causing a several mile back up in both directions.  The ensuing back up of course caused some folks to be late, so then you get, late for exploding cantaloupes.

      We also had a steam engine come in on a flat bed to go to the Western Maryland Railroad to be refurbished.  Wow there were a lot of really excited people out there about that thing.  Sorry foamer friends, I did not get any pictures.  Once it is refurbished I promise I will get a few pictures of it. 

     And just a few random things that I have come across.

 This is my new favorite meme

  

This is what the dispatcher writes when he doesn't know how to spell your name

The Day to Day

     Sorry I haven't written a new post in a while, my only internet access at the campground is in the bar and well, I don't do a whole lot of writing in the bar. 

     I have been wanting to write a post on what I generally do day to day because I get a lot of questions on what exactly trainmasters do.  There are a lot of days that have me looking like this

 

  But there are a few things I do everyday no matter which fires spring up.  

 

      There are 3 things you need to run a train; engines, a crew and a built and air tested train.  Part of my job is coordinating with the power desk, the ready track, crew management and the car department to make sure these trains go out as soon as I have all 3 of those things. 

 

     Another big part of my job is making sure the yard is fluid.  I work in a hump yard so we bring trains into the receiving yard, hump them according to where they need to go, and then pull blocks of cars from the bowl and build new trains.  I keep track of what is coming in and going out, keep the division updated on how much traffic we can handle and give the yardmasters a plan to get the trains built and the cars humped in order of importance (and sometimes they even listen!)

 

     I do have to say though, I am a supervisor and the guys in this yard do a pretty good job of getting all of the hard work done.  Many of them know the job better than I do and only a few have tried to take advantage of my lack of experience in a hump yard.  Those that have tried have just helped my learning curve along and as the saying goes fool me once....

 

    There are also problems that seem to crop up every day that I have to deal with in one fashion or another. 

 

Power breaks down, daily.  Sometimes on a through train, sometimes on an originating train.  It always has me scrambling to find some way to get another engine so that I don't waste the crew and the train is not delayed. 

 

To many trains not enough room.  This is a good problem to have, it means our company is doing well.  However, sometimes there is just no more room at the inn.  I have to get creative on ways to get trains in and out or move things around to make more room.  The afore mentioned guys that know more than me have been really helpful on this one.

 

No crews. For the yard, this usually means holding over guys to work part of the next shift, and then finding someone to come in 4 hours earlier.  This is crew managements job, but I need to let them know what I need, who I am holding over for what job, and what job is the most important to fill if they don't think they will find enough people.  For road crews, this means convincing the division that my originating train is more important than their through train.  We share pretty good, but on weekends and holidays it can get pretty sticky.  (See to many trains not enough room)

 

     As for some of the stranger things that have happened here is a short list.

1. The hump tower got hit by lighting and did actually start a fire (real firemen came and everything!)

2. Guy fell in the shower and couldn't come to work that day after he accepted his call.

3. Major rain storm caused a washout on the Cumberland sub.

4. Same storm caused a landslide in Baltimore.

5. 3 minor derailments in the yard in one day.

6. Guy got on the train, went a few miles and reported that he was to tired to continue?

 

I could go on, but you get the idea.  No two days out here are the same, which is one of the things I like about this job, but some days, when everything is going great, you are just waiting on that other shoe to drop. 

 

I promise I will try to get in a few more post, and throw in a few odd ball ones as well.  The pictures on this post are a few of the extracurricular things I have been doing.

 

 

 

 

Horse Trailer Living

      One thing that is well known about the trainmaster jobs in this company is that they tend to move you around a lot.  This is great for you professionally, you get exposed to a wide variety of management styles and issues that come up on different parts of the railroad.  In training I saw 3 different terminals (Avon, IN, Willard, OH and Baltimore, MD) and I came away from each place having learned some valuable lessons (occasionally the hard way).  I am hoping to get a chance to do a little bit more line of road work as time goes on, and learn a little bit more on how the divisions work together (and sometimes separately) to make our freight move smoothly. 

      Personally, it can be a little bit tougher, especially when your spouse also works for the railroad and wants to have a say in his living situation.  So since I expect to move around some, and I am a little on the crazy side anyway, I bought a horse trailer with living quarters (something that I have wanted since age 4 or so) and moved into it this weekend.  I am staying at a campground and have all the amenities a girl could really need.  The trailer has a full bathroom, stove, fridge, freezer and bed.  The campground has a bar and restaurant and a creek to fish in, and I found a spot for my horse a few miles away from the campground.  So I am quite literally a "happy camper"!

      After moving in this weekend, I briefly debated on starting a blog on horse trailer living, but I am hoping that it will be more mundane than interesting (everyone has a tambourine playing hippie neighbor right?!?)  I may change my mind as the seasons come and go.  I expect the summer to be annoyingly busy, and the winter to be challengingly cold (please God don't let my pipes freeze!), but I am hoping it won't be interesting enough to write about.