Job #3: The button

So there’s the jointbar computer, where I look at jointbars and see if they are in compliance or defect. Then there’s the geo station, where I look at the real-time data streaming in and verify defects if they are valid, or remove them if they are a spike in data. Now there’s the button job, which controls the DGRMS, a system that measures the lateral resistance of the rails by pushing outwards on it.

This is the setup:

The left column has the processors/amplifiers for the data streams. The top middle and right show the profile of the rail, middle middle has the realtime plotting, bottom middle has a bunch of info about the axle status. Second from top right has cameras pointed forward from either side of the train, third from top right has cameras pointed right at the axle, and bottom right shows the view from a camera mounted on top of the engine car. I mostly look at the camera mounted on the engine car, and whenever I see a switch or a large bridge I press the left button on the desk. That releases the horizontal pressure so the axle is no longer pushing outwards on the rail. Over switches it can derail the axle, which in turn can sometimes derail the whole car. When it’s past, I lift the button back up again. 

So in summary: bridge/switch coming, button down. Wait for it to pass, button up. And that's it.

There is a backup though, there are two sensors ahead of the axle that detect any metal. So when the crossover rail comes through the track, it picks that up, and if I haven’t pressed the button it automatically releases the pressure and sounds off an obnoxious alarm. The annoying thing is that it sometimes goes off other times, sometimes in road crossings where metal plates are used, and sometimes just randomly.

The hard part is that you have to constantly be paying attention and looking at a screen. You have about a 3 or 4 second window before what was previously not visible passes under the train and is no longer visible again. Apparently a lot of people have trouble doing it, and can only last 20 or 30 minutes before they go crazy, but I seem to be able to do multiple hours on it. It’s not a very brain-intensive activity, so I can think and talk to God and look at the scenery all I want. I can't go hang out on the side of the train anymore, but now I know when cool scenery is coming, so I know when to look out the window. It does mean not many pictures though, but as this is my third time through the area, i'm okay with that. I’m also taking videos of the screen, and hopefully by the end I’ll be able to put together a video from the perspective of the front of the train travelling all the way across Canada. Should be pretty cool!

Leftover Maintenance

Short story: left montreal, still more problems with the computer measuring a half inch wider than what was actually there, the data streams failing completely, and hydraulic pump controls not working. Spent 2 days in Toronto fixing it, finally seems to be working alright now, and are in Sudbury for the weekend.

Longer story: After the customary wake-up-at-5:30-don’t-leave-till-9 in montreal, we were finally moving again! Something wasn’t quite right though, there were a lot more defects than there should have been, considering they had just replaced all the ties earlier that year. We stopped the car and physically measured the distance, and found that the car was measuring a half inch larger than what it was actually was, meaning a lot of the defects weren’t valid. And after about 40 miles, the GRMS (Guage Restraint Measuring System, measures the lateral stiffness of the rails) data stream failed completely. We stopped the car, rebooted everything, and it lasted 1.5 miles before failing again. We stopped again, rebooted, and it lasted about ¾ of a mile. We ran the rest of the way to Toronto without the GRMS running, and did some troubleshooting that evening until 10. 

Tuesday we spent all day troubleshooting, I got sent to bed at 12:30am, but the supervisor stayed up until 4am trying to get it to work. The failing data seemed to be speed correlated, that the faster we were going the more data was being processed and it overloaded the processors until it failed completely. But there was also noise in the network. So we bought new network hubs and moved some stuff around, and it seemed to work up to 55mph. Then the hydraulic pump controls weren’t working properly, so a whole lot more troubleshooting to fix that up. We continued testing on Wednesday, but it was still measuring half an inch wider. We took apart the cameras to see if they had been shaken loose, and by the time we had them back together we didn’t have enough time with the current crew to make it to Mactier, the next station, so we turned around and went back to Toronto. We re-calibrated the cameras from scratch, and discovered that whoever had done the calibration previously hadn’t done it correctly, which would explain the half-inch of measurement difference. There wasn’t much else to do except run and see how it turned out, so we went to bed for the first time that week before 11:00pm. 

Thursday we ran to Sudbury, and aside from the data flatlining occasionally, it recovered as it should and continued working. We couldn’t really continue any further, as we needed to be in a larger town to get groceries and any other supplies needed, so we stopped there for the weekend. 

Maintenance in Montreal part 2

Doing maintenance isn’t quite as glamorous as travelling across the country by train, so the short story of the last couple weeks is that the DGRMS, a system which pushes a set of wheels laterally against the rail, was out for maintenance. It came back with more problems than it left with, a support bar broken off, grease lines not connected, vertical displacement measurements outputting wrong signals, software update bugs, etc. After lots of work (18 days) in montreal, we finally did a shakedown, where we go for a trip and test the software, and it all works. So we are leaving on Monday, heading west, and if there are no more problems we should be going all the way to Vancouver, which means a trip through the rockies!!

The longer story: (continued from the previous blog entry)

After finally getting a day off on Sunday (oct 28^th), we got back to work on the train on Monday. We got kicked out of the shop late on Tuesday, so we parked nearby and powered up the generators, and the GRMS moved as it should. Unfortunately, some of the sensors weren’t displaying proper readings. I worked for 4 hours to connect a 6-pin cord to its appropriate plug, which was located in a spot where you could fit either a mirror, or a flashlight, or a hand, but not all three at the same time. Once it was finally connected, we moved the axle around to see what the readings were, and the vertical displacements were completely wrong. After significant troubleshooting and finally calling the manufacturer of the hydraulic cylinders, we discovered that for some reason unknown to everyone, a different sort of displacement transducer was used, and the signal output was no longer being transformed properly. As replacing the cylinder would have taken about a week, and re-wiring and writing a new transformation software would also take about a week, we decided to order separate vertical displacement measurements and attach them on the side of the DGRMS, as was done previously.

This was decided Thursday, and during the afternoon I found out that it was cheaper to fly me home to Waterloo over the long weekend (CP takes remembrance day off) than pay for hotel/meals. The flight was 550, and the hotel was 150 a night, which that just by itself was cheaper. So I booked a flight for Friday morning to Toronto, and bused up to waterloo. Hung out at grebel for a bit, went rock climbing with my brother and some people from church, went to a worship service with a good friend, played an awesome game of ultimate (during which I found out that sitting for 2 months really takes a toll on your fitness),  and hung out with family. Left late Monday, and got back to work on Tuesday.

The 2-inch support rod that was broken off in transit had finally arrived, so that was installed Tuesday morning. We were still waiting for the vertical displacement measurement devices, so we finished up smaller tasks, tied up all the grease lines, replaced some light bulbs, refilled water, and tried to keep busy. That afternoon a shipment arrived from the manufacturer of the cylinders, and the contained transformers for the vertical displacement! We connected it to the left cylinder, and the readings showed correct values! That was a great turn of events. So we started making a box to secure the transformers to the car. Everything we do has to be tied down and connected as securely as possible, as the train shakes around all day long. For the rest of the day, and Wednesday, we updated the joint bar detection software. After noticing a lot of bugs and getting multiple updates, we got a crew late Wednesday to run us around a bit. We put pieces of tape on some joint bars, numbered them 1 to 25, and ran over them a bunch of times. The software took a picture of every single one, which was a large improvement over the previous system, which would miss some joints.

Thursday we hooked up the vertical displacement cylinders and prepared for a final calibration, only to discover that the right cylinder wasn’t working. After troubleshooting all we could, we determined that the only possible explanation was that the transducer inside the cylinder itself was malfunctioning. After a couple calls to the higher-ups, we decided that we could run on just one measuring vertical displacement, as the chance of only one wheel derailing is pretty slim. We then calibrated the whole system, and the numbers were close to what it was originally set as, which was good news. Friday was finally a shakedown, we got a crew to take us to a 20 mile stretch of main track, and we tried forward and backwards, increasing and decreasing mileposts, and checked every possible scenario of what we would be doing while testing. After fixing a couple bugs, the system finally works well. We took a break for lunch to eat out at a restaurant, and noticed a significant number of people walking around. We realized that it was 4:30pm, and that that was the time that regular people end work. And yet we were going out for lunch after starting at 7:00am. But the system finally works!

We had done a lot of work that week, so all day Saturday was spent gloriously doing nothing, mostly lying in my bed watching a movie or a Barcelona game on my computer. I ventured outside for lunch, and stumbled across a santa clause parade, which I watched for a while. Sunday morning was also resting, and in the afternoon Anthony and I went shopping and cleaned up the train. The fridge was pretty empty, and the total grocery bill was close to $1500 (we did several trips).

The plan now is leaving Monday heading west, and if everything goes well and there are no breakdowns or more maintenance, then we should make it all the way to Vancouver, which means a trip through the rockies!! It’s been nice having someone clean up after me and make my bed each day (I’ve been staying in a hotel all this time), but I’m also really glad to be moving again. Looking forward to some new scenery!

Maintenance in Montreal

After travelling light all weekend we arrived in Montreal monday at midnight. Tuesday was cleaning up the car and moving everything from the old boxcar to the kitchen car to get ready for the transfer. Wednesday I helped Pat (the supervisor) with the end-of-year database stuff, and was inputting the data from time sheets from the previous three months, which took all day. Thursday and Friday we were testing the yard in montreal. And just like the previous yards we tested, we were up at 6 to get ready for a 7am start, only to start moving at 10ish. There was one time on Friday when Pat was making phone calls that I was in charge of the train – I told them when to go and set up the test files. I tested two tracks by myself that way. It was a pretty cool feeling.

Friday evening the new boxcar arrived, so we split up our train and with a bunch of delays moved the boxcar and the testing car into the shop. Saturday we took a look at the DGRMS system under the train.

It’s a set of wheels with a split axle that’s attached to a long hydraulically powered arm so it can move up and down as well as push out on the tracks. It was in for maintenance performed by ENSCO, the company that developed the system for us. They took a month longer than expected, and it was supposed to be all ready for us to use, just hook up and go. But a lot of grease lines and wires were not connected, and some of the sensing equipment needed to be completely replaced. But the main thing was that there was a 2-inch thick steel rod supporting the two large cylinders that wasn’t there anymore, and the supports of it were all bent out of place. It must have hit something high on the tracks and broken right off. And after a further look at the cylinders which were moving when they were supposed to be stiff, we took the covers off and found out that the impact had also sheared a bunch of bolts off and moved the large pin around. After a lot of calls and head-scratching we moved the cylinders back into place using a hydraulic ram and replaced the sheared bolts.

Meanwhile I was connecting the grease lines back on, and the designer seemed to go out of his way to put them in the most inaccessible places. Some of them were 8 or 10 inches down a hole barely large enough for a hand.  I had to go out and buy a set of wrenches with a head that could rotate 90 degrees to tighten them. I also helped mount the lasers and cameras and lights.  

Sunday I got off, which was the first free day I’ve had since oct 21^st, and likely won’t get another until this weekend, 19 days almost straight work. We didn’t work last weekend when we were traveling from medicine hat to Montreal, but I was stuck on the train with very little to do, so I didn’t really get out or was free to do whatever I wanted. And we’ve been working long days too, starting at 6 or 7, and often returning back to the hotel around 9 or 10 at night. So on Sunday I slept in until 12:45 (I needed it). Wandered around downtown Montreal in the afternoon, and went to an IMAX show called rocky mountain express, where they follow a steam engine through the rockies and look at the history of making the railroad through the mountains. It was a very good representation of what I see every day, the views from the train. I wasn’t blown away or impressed with the scenery they showed, it was more a small smile and ‘yup, that’s about what it’s like to travel by train’. And it struck me that my job is so awesome that it takes an award-winning IMAX movie to accurately portray what my daily life is like. That people pay money and take time to go and watch what I see every day from my office window. I’m pretty lucky J. If you want to know more what sort of views I see from the train, much better than what pictures can portray, I’d suggest checking it out if you can (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pFocxpM524).