Hurry up and Wait

Before I explain more about the title, I need to explain more what the TEC (track evaluation car) train does. There are laser sensors at the bottom of the train which record the location and profile of each rail, and this data is displayed real-time on a computer screen on the train. 

The different channels are (in descending order):

• Rate of change of elevation over 31 ft
• Rate of change of elevation over 55 feet
• Superelevation (one rail being higher than the other, used on curves so the train’s center of gravity remains over the tracks)
• Curvature
• Gauge (distance between the rails)
• Alignment of left rail
• Alignment of right rail
• Surface roughness of left rail
• Surface roughness of right rail
• Automatic Location Detector (ALD) (detects switches, road crossings, bridges, etc)

This data is used to detect defects. There are about 23 ways a track can be ‘bad’, also known as a defect. These range from wide/narrow gauge, too fast of increase in superelevation, too steep of track, etc. Defects can be priority, which means there’s something wrong with the track and it could get worse, or urgent, which means the track is bad and needs to be fixed immediately. The limits for urgent and priority change depending on what class the track is (class 1 to 6), which specifies the design speed and weight of trains allowed. For example, for a class 2 track, if the gauge (which is a standard 57 7/8 ”) is 1” wider than normal, then it is flagged as a priority defect. If it is more than 1 ¼”, then it is an urgent defect. A computer analyzes the data as it receives it, and automatically detects if there are any priority or urgent defects, and flags them. Urgent defects are checked by a human to see if they are actually there, or are just a glitch in the data or something on the track.

The manager and/or supervisor of  track maintenance of the section we're on ride at the back of the train, and based on the urgent defects detected either issues slow orders or track out of service. Slow orders are a limit of  either 25 or 10 mph, down from usually 40, and stay there until they are fixed. There are usually a bunch of crews following us to fix any easy urgents detected to minimize these slows and out of service.

Track sections want to get all their trains through as efficiently and quickly as possible. Train crews (the engineer and conductor) are only allowed a certain number of hours they can work, usually 10 in a row. So naturally they are scheduled to get as close as possible to this 10 hours, to be more efficient. Putting a whole bunch of slow orders on a track not only increases the time required for trains to go through, but can also push the time required to go a certain distance over 10 hours, requiring a change of train crew. We’ve had track sections that only have one urgent every 10 miles, and others that have urgents every mile. If the regular track speed is 40, and there’s a limit of 10 mph every mile, that’s not enough room to constantly speed up and slow down for trains, so the time to do that distance is pretty much quadrupled.

And this is where the title, hurry up and wait, comes in. Because of this, no one likes it when we come through to test their track, as run times go up a lot and delays increase. So when it comes to scheduling train crews, we’re pretty low on the list. I’ve been told that on a priority scale of 1-5, with 1 being highest priority, we’re about 10. So we’ll be schedule to leave at 7am, and we’ll wake up, get all our equipment up and running, and then hope a crew shows up and we can move. Sometimes they don’t. We don’t work an hourly schedule, we work per distance – we have to reach a certain destination each day. So if the train crew is 2 hours late, then we finish 2 hours later. And during the day, we’re often pushed off to a siding to wait for another train to go through.

Tuesday was fine, we had a shorter day and were done at a good time. Wednesday we had a lot of delays, including one where we were sitting for 3 hours waiting for another train to pass by, and ended up finishing at 11:00pm.. Thursday we were supposed to leave at 7am, so we got up and had everything ready to go, only to find out we weren’t going to get a crew until 12. Even more delays during the day, finished at 10:00. Friday got up to leave at 9:00, found out we weren’t going to start until 2:00pm. So we started doing other things, but then a train crew shows up. After finding out they were indeed here to drive us, they commented that sometimes the left hand doesn’t even know there is a right hand. Even more delays during the day, and finished producing reports at about 11:00 again.

So we are currently in Binghampton, NY, which apparently doesn’t have much, not even worth it to get hotels. It's about half the size of Waterloo. I’ll probably get out some Sunday, but likely not much exploring going on this weekend. We’re going to head back up to montreal next week, and then head west. Apparently we’re going to be going through waterloo at some point! If anyone sees a 4-car train, with “Track Evaluation” written on the last one, I’ll be on it!