Federal Railroad Administration Mandates Second Crew Member
The Federal Railroad Administration has issued its final rule on train crew safety requirements, which generally mandates a second crew member on Class I freight and passenger trains, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced April 2, 2024.
The minimum crew-size rule is long overdue, Buttigieg said in a press release.
"Common sense tells us that large freight trains, some of which can be over three miles long, should have at least two crew members on board — and now there’s a federal regulation in place to ensure trains are safely staffed," he said.
In approving the final rule, FRA officials said safety functions could be lost when railroads reduce crew size to a single person.
"Without the final rule, railroads could initiate single-crew operations without performing a rigorous risk assessment, mitigating known risks or even notifying FRA," the government's press release stated.
The final rule contains some differences from the initial notice of proposed rulemaking in how it treats freight railroads, especially short lines and regionals. In limited cases, the rule permits exceptions for smaller railroads to continue or initiate certain one-person train crew operations by notifying FRA and complying with new federal safety standards.
The Association of American Railroads blasted the final rule, saying the FRA adopted it without the lack of evidence connecting crew size to safety. The AAR also noted that the FRA dropped a similar rule in 2019. At that time, the FRA was run by the Trump administration.
"FRA is doubling down on an unfounded and unnecessary regulation that has no proven connection to rail safety," said AAR President and CEO Ian Jefferies in a press release. "Instead of prioritizing data-backed solutions to build a safer future for rail, FRA is looking to the past and upending the collective bargaining process."
AAR officails noted that each year railroads spend billions of dollars to enhance infrastrcture, deploy technologies and invest in employees in order to improve safety. The overall train accident rate is down 27% since 2000 and 6% since 2022, they said.
"Railroads are committed to working with our union counterparts and policymakers to build on this momentum and advance proven solutions that meaningfully advance safety. Unfortunately, the crew-size rule takes the industry in the exact opposite direction," Jefferies added.
Meanwhile, a rail labor organization praised the FRA's action. Operational and safety changes implemented across the rail industry over the past several years have heightened the need for a mandated crew-size minimum, said Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO, in a prepared statement.
"This rule acknowledges that crew size is fundamentally a safety issue at its core," Regan said. "Rail workers experience the risks of the job daily, and have made it clear that two-person crews are inherently necessary to ensure the safe operation of our rail systems."
The final rule codifies train crew staffing rules at a federal level, ensuring that freight and passenger rail operations are governed by consistent safety rules in all states, FRA officials said. This is an ongoing issue as some states have considered legislation to require two-person rail crews.
The volume of comments from rail workers, families and the general public impacted by long trains and other issues "raised legitimate safety concerns that railroads, on their own, have not been able to adequately address," said FRA Administrator Amit Bose.
"Today’s final rule acknowledges the important role both crew members play in the safe operations of trains, and it comes at a time when the latest annual data reflects some troubling trends that demonstrate the need to improve safety," Bose said.
Will the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge affect Coal Exports?
Cumberland Mine currently ships a small amount of coal thru the
Port of Baltimore. All of our coal gets shipped via barges on the
Monongahela River. However a percentage of that coal is
taken to a trans loading facility at LaBelle, Pa. where it is
off loaded from barges and loaded on CSX and NS trains.
NS trains take the coal to a power plant, where CSX takes
the coal to Baltimore. A large percentage of the coal from
Cumberland Mine goes directly to domestic power plants via river barge.
The Port of Baltimore is the 20th largest port in the US in
terms of total tonnage. It is the second largest in the US for
coal exports, Hampton Roads, Va. is the largest for coal exports.
Export coal moves out of Baltimore through two facilities:
Curtis Bay Terminal owned by CSX and the CNX Marine Terminal
owned by CONSOL and serviced by both CSX and NS. It is
estimated that export coal out of Baltimore represents around
30%-40% of export coal volumes for CSX and NS. Both railroads
are currently exploring options to move coal from the Port of
Baltimore to other ports that they service on the east coast.
We are expecting lay offs to occur mostly from Consol Energy
mines in Pennsylvania as a portion of their coal is exported thru
the Port of Baltimore. The tragic bridge collapse should have minimal
effect on the shipments of coal from Cumberland Mine. Our thoughts
and prayers go to all those involved in the bridge collapse.
My Day on the Railroad
Sunday August 06, 2023
First thing when I got to work no one said good morning or
how you doing Dave, all they said was get ready we got a
broken rail to fix. Took me 10 minutes to put my work clothes
on and then off to the races.
Train had gone thru and operator heard something didn't sound
right, he radioed in and the guys went out an found a broken rail
just west of the Robena Hard Road crossing at MP 15.5.
Track traveled with the big hi rail truck 3 miles up to Bridge 10 where
there was a stick of never used rail and brought it back to the crossing.
We had some help, 5 guys which is a lot for us but several of those
guys were working an extra day. Cut out the old stick of rail and
put in the one I had brought down, things went very well. Just in time
because the train was ready to leave.
My buddy drove me over the road to MP 8 siding where the tamper
was parked in the siding and after the train passed I brought it back in
to the harbor. By that time it was 11:30 and 85 degrees out and I
was ready for a short break in front of the shop fan!
The other guys took the ballast car and regulator out to dump ballast
in a couple of spots up track. But my tamper was in need of maintenance
so I greased it and also one of the work heads wouldn't squeeze right so
I fooled with that. About 2 we got a pretty heavy rain and I was glad to
be in the tamper barn under roof while working on the tamper. I crawled
under that machine too many times that day greasing and trying to fix
a work head limit switch, I never did get the darn thing to squeeze right so
that will be work for an extra day this week. But hey, that's railroading!
The Grinch Crashes some Trains at Edison
My good friend Doug over at the You Tube channel 4ever DC 302 has come up with
an absolutely cool video. The Grinch crashes some of his trains to try and ruin the
holiday spirit. This is just a totally unique, creative and awesome presentation I thought
all you guys would enjoy.
Doug's channel features model railroading in many scales and much other railroad related
videos. I hope you will take the time to watch this one and also check out some of his
other neat videos. I never miss one of his shows. It's one of my favorite channels to watch.
Here is the link to watch The Grinch Crashes Edison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7nmJ...
He also had made in the past a video featuring CCRX 6700 (me) doing some
MOW work on his layout that is way too cool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNYq6...
Please give him a like for his creative efforts and also hope you will consider
subscribing to his channel. Here is his YT home page:
youtube.com/@4everdc302/featured
Canadian Pacific Holiday Train Videos - Merry Christmas
Here are 2 different videos of the CP Holiday Train. First is taken by our good friend
Steve McCarthy from Stormy Sky Rail Productions. He gives you some really cool views
of the train in past years and this year. Many of you will remember from our Track
Inspection videos we put out this summer that Steve is a former Section Foreman
and Track Inspector with CP. Both Steve and Doug went to a lot of effort to
provide you with some very high quality entertainment with the CP Holiday Train.
Here is Steve's Holiday Train video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBKnu...
Second video is from another good friend of ours over at the You Tube channel,
4ever dc 302. Doug visited the CP train at Woodstock Ontario this year and filmed it
coming in to the station. In this video he also shows you some live entertainment CP
provides with their train.
Here is Doug's Holiday Train video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY6gY...
Please check out both videos, check out the rest of their channels and please give
Steve and Doug a lot of likes and subscribes. They are both great guys.
Below are links to both of their home pages.
Stormy Sky Rail Productions
youtube.com/@StormySkyRailProductions
4ever dc 302
youtube.com/@4everdc302/featured
Here is the link to Steve's Track Inspection videos when he rode track with me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_463y...
May you and your family have a most blessed and happy holiday season. We
very much appreciate all the wonderful support you have given our channel
over this past year.
Bad Bearing on a Hopper Car caused a Derailment
Stay tuned, December 01 at 8 PM EST will be having a video come out about this
bad bearing. I was not able to be there when Hulcher re railed the car so there will
not be any footage of them doing that. Video is made the next morning when I
was at work.
When the video comes out, please read the description in that video for my hypothesis on
why we have so many bad bearings occur here.
It's gonna be a jam packed December for you with some very exciting videos
of things no one ever gets to see up close.
After the Bad Bearing video we will on the beginning of next week start showing
the long awaited deck replacement on Bridge 8. There will be 3 videos in that
mini series. After that we're gonna show you a radiator change out in #22 locomotive,
then I will take you out with me on a locomotive derailment. That was a bitter cold
night last December. There was a broken rail that night also and the video out after
the derailment will show us fixing the rail.
Another day on the railroad. Was 95 degrees today. Cribbing ties on curve 15. Had to quit about 2 o'clock because of the heat. Cannot open up cribs with high heat. If you do, that takes all the resistance of the track away and a heat buckle will easily occur then.
Lot's of mud in this section of track as you can see from the one pic I showed. And we are digging it out as we have the time and ability to get new ballast hauled up there. After cribbing track surface held up well when the train went thru.
Here are some pictures you never get to see!
Hulcher bringing our 3098 locomotive on truck and trailer to our railroad.
This event occurred September 13, 2013. We had purchased the loco from
a broker in Chicago. Along with 3098 we also got at the same time 26 OFAX
hopper cars that were purchased from a leasing company. The cars came
from Denver Colorado to Chicago where they met up with 3098. Norfolk Southern
brought the loco and cars from there to one of their sidings at Poland Mines.
Hulcher then trucked all the cars and the loco about 5 or so miles to our harbor facility.
It went over state route 88 and then turned right onto Alicia Road. Of course all
traffic was blocked on both routes until the transport had passed. I kick myself
every day because I had the opportunity to work that day and did not do it!!!
There is a truck pulling the trailer and also a truck on the rear of the trailer
pushing it.The photos were taken by my good friend Rodney Grimes who at the time
was a train operator here. Livery on 3098 is called White Ghost. The MVPX
reporting mark on the loco stood for the leasing company we purchased it
from, Motive Power Resources, Inc. Minooka, Illinois.
As you can see on the loco both trucks and the fuel tank were removed.
When the cars came in both truck sets were taken off and transported separately
from the car bodies. When they loaded the loco on the trailer, Hulcher used their
Cat side booms to lift the loco and the trailer backed under it.
I have tried and tried to find out what we paid for 3098, but with our company
changing hands twice since then, the records for that purchase are just not
available. I do know several at the time had said it cost more to get the loco
here than what they paid for it. Neither do I know how the cars came from Denver
to Chicago. The most direct route would be on BNSF tracks from Denver to Chicago,
but that is purely my guess that BNSF took them there.
Our last video went over how we got our rolling stock and MOW equipment in here
and if you haven't seen it yet, here is a link to that video:
https://youtu.be/cF3KWNi6bh4
Do you like to watch trains?
If so we would like to introduce you to a channel where you will see an
abundance of really cool trains of all sorts. This is one of only a small number of
You Tube channels I watch on a consistent basis.
Let me introduce Steve and Jenny McCarthy and their channel over at StormySky Rail Productions.
Steve is not only the quintessential rail fan, he is also a retired railroader spending his years with Canadian Pacific where he worked as a
laborer, then section foreman and then track inspector.
Steve is a very good friend of mine and we are planning a summer get together to do a video with
him where he will share some of his vast railroad knowledge with you! And that
video will be an exclusive! I'm so excited about doing that video for you guys. In
the meantime:
Notice: For some odd reason the below links quit working. They worked
very well last night when I posted this and a day later they are not working,
You Tube must be having some issues, so if the links will not work for you,
please do a search on YT for: StormySky Rail Productions.
Here's a link to see an awesome 8 locomotive lash up which features the 2 really cool Hudson Bay
Railway locomotives in the picture: (Photo compliments of Steve and Jenny and
used with permission).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1r9d...
Here's their latest video featuring the Soo Line Steam Engine:
youtube.com/watch?v=HLRSK...
Here's their home channel page link:
youtube.com/c/StormySkyRa...
We put new bridge approach timbers on both ends of Bridge 12 yesterday. Approach timbers are 10 foot long as opposed to ties which are 8 foot 6 inches. The longer length adds extra support for the track as it transitions to the solid bridge deck. Typically we put 4 to 5 approach timbers in before we
transition to regular ties.
We also dug out the mud on both ends. I'm waiting on them to dump ballast in the empty cribs so I can tamp. Job turned out great and now there is a very smooth transition onto and off this bridge.
Regulator is on west end of bridge, behind him is the loco and ballast car and behind him is the grapple truck which dug out the mud and inserted the new timbers.
I'm Dave, host of this channel and I work track maintenance at the
Cumberland Mine Railroad. I started at Cumberland Mine in 1977 and worked
as a barge handler, barge loader and also part time track. Then 18 years ago
I became full time track maintenance.
I've made a short primer video to give you an overview of our Railroad here at
Cumberland Mine and tell you what all our channel is about. That video will give
you a lot of good info and background of our operation. Here's the link to watch.
youtu.be/oOug0z34118