A publication dedicated to the volunteers of the San Diego Railroad Museum July 1995 VOL VII NO VII DIRECTOR OF CAMPO OPERATIONS Denby Jones INDEX Director of Operations.......1 Safety Corner.....................2 Training Department.........2 William Kingston...............3 Train-Lovers...................... i 5000 Horespower...............4 Calendar...........Front Cover Network News....................5 Phone Numbers..................5 Timecard..........Inside Cover The HOT SCOOP is published by the San Diego Railroad Museum. Please send address or subscription changes to: San Diego Railroad Museum c/o Santa Fe Depot 1050 Kenner Blvd. San Diego. Ca. 92101 We are into another summer season, and as you all know it can get very hot at Campo. The summer season is a season to be extra careful. Not only is heat stroke and heat exhaustion a very real concern, but the summer heat can cause other safe ty hazards as well. Wear a hat and a good set of gloves when you are working and be sure to force fluids. I cannot over emphasize the im portance of these three actions. The hat is obvious, to provide protection to the top of the head and some shade to the face. Gloves are very important. If you have spent a summer at Campo, you know that grab irons, ladders, metal tools get very hot under the Campo sun. Hot enough to cause burns to unprotected hands. There is also the very real possibility of reaching for a grab iron on a car and falling because the metal burned your hand and you could not hold on or reflex made you let go. FORCE FLUIDS!!! This is by far the most impor tant safeguard. Drink, Drink, and Drink some more. Your body cools by evaporation. That uses fluids and they have to be replaced. Water is by far the best fluid to take. Soft drinks taste good but don't do much good. If you want something besides water, try Gator Aid. It will help replace the phos phates and the salts your body needs. Watch each other. I am sure that everyone is familiar with the buddy system when you are swimming. Well, it might not be such a bad idea during the summer season. Check your part ner for signs of overheating, heat exhaustion or heat stroke. If your partner becomes disorientated, or seems to be weak or dizzy get them into the shade and get them fluids. If you are working in a remote area, make sure that you take plenty of water. Trainmen watch your passengers for the same symptoms. HotScoop July 1995 Page 2 If necessary refill the water jugs in the cars between runs. Encourage your passengers to drink lots of fluids. These are just a few tips to help get us through the summer season so go out, enjoy yourselves and be careful. See you at Campo, Denby TRAINING DEPARTMENT Jim Baker COMING OPPORTUNITIES IN TRAINING We are happy to announce the following upcoming training classes: 1) Orientation to Museum Volunteer Activities. This class is primarily directed to new members of the museum to acquaint them with the various places and jobs to volunteer for the museum. It will cover activities at Campo, the Santa Fe De pot and the La Mesa Depot The class will be held Tuesday evening, August 29, prob ably at the Santa Fe Depot. Further details will be available later. 2) Trainman's Class, aka “Working on the Railroad...as a Trainman." We will be trying something new here, and offer the class through Grossmont College Extension. Arrangements are being finalized, but the schedule now call for the class to be held two evenings at Grossmont College, Sept. 20 and 27; and one day at Campo, Oct. 7. The class will cover San Diego railroad history with Bruce Semelsberger, Trainman's duties and safety orientation. Again, further details will be following. 3) Brakeman's Class. Brakeman training will consist of 4 sessions this time; two in-town classes on Oct. 10 and 17, and two all-day sessions at Campo on Oct. 21 and Nov. 4. Remember that the prerequisite for becoming certified as a brakeman is a minimum of 12 operating days as a trainman. I'll start taking sign-ups in August. RULES TEST As I stated in the February Hot Scoop, the 'Top 10" bad questions from the last Rules Test will be discussed one or two at a time for the next several months. Here are some more questions. What must be done when a train stops enroute? [General Order #2] (10 people missed this one) (A) Crew members must determine the reason for the stop (B) Walking inspection of train must be made as time will permit (C) Crew members must immediately provide flag protection The correct answer is B. Our track warrants usually say that flag protection is not required, so C doesn't necessarily apply. While most crew members will want to know why the train stopped, and it is probably a good idea for the conductor/engineer to keep the crew apprised of what is going on, this is not a rule requirement. A public crossing must not be blocked longer than minutes when it is practicable to avoid it. [Rule 6.32.6] (9 people missed this) (A) 10 (B) 5 (C) 15 Not much to explain here, A is the answer, and that's just what the rule says. What must employees give as proper iden tification when they initiate communications by radio? [Rule 2.2] (missed by 8 people) (A) Name or initials of railroad, position and train number (B) Name or initials of railroad, base station location or train/engine number (C) Name or initials of railroad, FCC station identification, radio frequency Again, no specific logic here, it's what the rule says. However, C could probably be dropped from consideration, since the frequency would be obvious to anyone who is monitoring the communication. When there is a conflict among General Orders, rule, and special instructions, which will prevail? [Rule 1.3.2] (missed by 7) (A) Rule (B) General Orders (C) Special Instructions This is a pretty important one to remember. B is correct. One way to remember this is that the "Rules" apply to many railroads, but we have our own "General Orders," which, because of our local situation, prevail over the more generalized "Rules." The term, "Special Instructions," sounds like it might prevail, but it doesn't. An ex ample is that SP's Special Instructions are printed in their Rule Book, and apply system-wide. I am guessing that each Division may have its own General Orders. One type of instruction that can supersede a General Order would be a "Specific Instruction" issued in block 17 of a track warrant. When may cars be shoved to block other tracks? [Rule 6.5] (missed by 7) (A) When switch is lined for the movement (B) Only when it is known it is safe to do so. (C) Never Cars being shoved may be blocking an ad jacent track, but when it is not intended to continue the move through the switch, the switch doesn't need to be line for the track occupied by the cars. Therefore A or C don't apply. B actually applies to ANY movement. SAFETY CORNER Lew Wolfgang We have a number of items to cover this month, so let's get started. Children At Campo The Museum has always been a family ori ented organization and continues to welcome member's children at Campo. But please remember that Campo can be hazardous to unsupervised kids. If you bring your children with you, be prepared to supervise them. We just can't allow small kids to have free reign where they might injure themselves. If your children are at least ten years old why not consider putting them to work on the Miller Creek train selling candy and soda pop? Check with George Boggs for further details. Oil in Short-Hoods If you have ever noticed that a locomotive was low on lube oil but didn't know where to find makeup oil, you will be happy to learn that we will now be keeping 5-gallon cans of oil in the in the short hoods of each locomotive. Please use the oil only in the locomotive containing the cans and if you run out, let me know so it can be replenished. Ties The stack of cross-ties north of the Depot was donated to the Museum under the condition that they be used on the main-line only. Please don't use them for any other purpose. There may be some culls, but this determination is to be made by duly appointed members only. Documentation regarding the number of culls should be made to the business office. Your cooperation will be appreciated Courtesy Recently during a short delay while running around at Miller Creek I noticed one of the trainman asking a brakeman what was going on. The brakeman responded in a rather brusque manner, by saying not to bug him at the moment. Remember, we all have our jobs to do at Campo, and we should strive to be courte ous at all times. The brakeman may not have been sure what the problem was and shny m k6 b— ; 478-9917 Campo Caretaker, Thomas Lee Braginton . .. . 478-9344 Campo Gift Shop, George and Nancy Boggs ... 789-4210 DEPARTMENT HEADS Facilities, Steve Wade........ —................ Interpretation, Rich Borstadt................ . ........469-8029 ............ 294-9321 Research, Bruce Semelsberger........ ............ 264-7282 Chief Trainman. Mike Retz 466-8808 Mechanical, Lew Wolfgang (acting)...... ........... 553-3106 Library, Roy Pickering...... ................... ___ 462-3392 Operations, Mike Reneau.................... ........... 466-5402 Restoration, Ted Kornweibel.......... ....... ............461-0098 Safety, Lew Wolfgang........... ........ ...... .......... 662-9019 Steam, Richard Dick........ . ..................... ............ 276-2222 NETWORK NEWS Where articles from USENET'S rec.railroad are presented for your edification and further enlightenment. Opinions are those of the author's and are worth exactly what we paid for them: NOTHING! A small font is used to minimize production costs. +++ From: nkp@ix.nctcom.com (Neil Carlson) Subject: Re: Nevada Northen wreck Date: 18 Jun 1995 16:1553 GMT Per an AP news article in the local paper, the Nevada Northern in Ely, NV suffered a serious wreck on Saturday There were no fatalities, but 56 out of 80 passengers were injured — three seriously enough to be flown out to Sall Lake City, Evidently a flat car loaded with ties got loose on the west end of the line and rolled easlbound downhill and hit the westbound passenger train head-on at a reported 60mph. The passenger train was pulled by a steam engine and consisted of two passenger cars and an open observation flat car. The engine crew was shaken-up but escaped serious injuries. Neither the locomotive nor the train derailed, but the engine is reported to have suffered major damage. Has anyone heard more about this; know anyone who was there? Neil Carlson Santa Cruz Front: ltlfield@ccnet.com (Don Littlefield) Subject: Re: Nevada Northen wreck Date: 18 jun 1995 20:39:00 -0700 In article <3sljfp$ro2@ixnews6.ix.netcom.com>, Neil Carlson wrote: Per an AP news article in the local paper, the Nevada Northern in Ely, NV suffered a serious wreck on Saturday. There were no fatalities, but 56 out of 80 passengers were injured - three seriously enough to be flown out to Salt Lake City. Has anyone heard more about this, know anyone who was there? There were TV news reports in the San Francisco Bay Ar ea, CH 4 (I think) CBS, at 11 pm Saturday evening. They had film of waler pouring out of the engine, and the rail car imbedded in the train. 1 am sure everyone in Ely was there because of the number of people milling around Other than the poor folks flown to Salt Lake City, I don't recall that anyone hospitalized locally spent the night Don Littlefield From, curt@best.com (Curt Bianchi) Subject: Re: Nevada Northen wreck Date’ 19 Jun 1995 06:18:14 GMT The Nevada Northern Railway Museum excursion train was struck by a runaway flat car loaded with railroad ties. The flat car was the responsibility of the Northern Nevada Railroad Corporation, which despite the similar name is a completely separate entity and operation from the museum. They had four flat cars loaded with ties up at Keystone, which is at the end of the museum's excursion run, and where the Northern Nevada is extending the tracks to a new copper reduction plant being built. Apparently they wanted to move one of the flat cars about 75 to 100 yards, which they attempted to do by gravity. The grade at that location is about three percent Until the fads are known, suffice it to say that the flat car got away from them, and began careening down the canyon A passing motorist paced it at about 65-70 miles per hour It was slowed going through a curved tunnel, where ties struck and damaged the tunnel's support structures. Amazingly, the car stayed on the rails, but was slowed by the tunnel and an slight upgrade, in the meantime, the excursion train had left the East Ely depot and was passing downtown Ely at about 10 miles per hour, when the engine crew caught a glimpse of something on the track and began stopping the train. It is thought that the fiat car hit the engine at about 45 miles per hour My understanding is that of the injured people, three were sent to Sall Lake City with fractures. Amazingly the engine crew was relatively unhurt, and was able to drop the fire and prevent a more serious situation from developing. Thankfully the injuries weren't more serious. The engine involved was Nevada Northern No. 93. The engine crew dropped the fire immediately, and the fire department showed up and was dousing the engine with water from a fire truck. That probably explains the scene on channel 4. Although it's too early to tell, it appears that overall the engine sustained less damage than initially feared, and that it can be made operational again. It is believed that the boiler remains sound, but they won't know until they get it back to East Ely and thoroughly check it out. The tender water tank and coal bunker ripped loose from the tender frame and moved forward about a foot. Behind the tender were two turn-of-the-century Nevada Northern wooden coaches. The No. 2, right behind the tender, was severely damaged. The concession end was totally destroyed. The No. 5, built circa 1883, seems to be in pretty good shape. The couplers and bolsters are pret ty banged up, the trucks are damaged, but the rest of the car seems okay. Not even a single window was broken. Some of my friends were on that train, and it just made me feel sick to hear about this. It remains to be seen just what the Northern Nevada thought they were doing with that flat car, and I'll refrain from commenting until more facts are known, but I think they have a few questions to answer. - Curt Bianchi curt@best.com +++ Date: Sun, 18 Jun 1995 18:31:40 -0400 From: "Steven P. Kehoe" Subject: Steam Engine Explodes The followong is an AP article from the June 18, 1995 Boston Globe; Steam engine on train explodes Gardners,PA. - A steam engine pulling an excursion train with 300 passengers exploded in rural south-central Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association © 1995 mailto:nkp@ix.nctcom.com mailto:ltlfield@ccnet.com mailto:ro2@ixnews6.ix.netcom.com mailto:nkp@ix.netcom.com mailto:curt@best.com mailto:curt@best.com HotScoop July 1995 Page 6 Pennsylvania, injuring three crewmen. All three suffered bums; one was critically injured in the accident Friday night No passengers were injured The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the cause of the explosion on the Gettysburg Steam Railroad train. The train was on the return portion of a round-trip dinner excursion from Gettysburg to Mount Holly Springs. (AP) Article copied without permission. Date: Mon, 19 Jun 1995 1352:23 EDT From: Mark D Bej Subject boiler explosion on GETY Fred Wertz (of Harrisburg) writes me back: Mark-only info I have comes from Hbg. Patriot-News (6/18). Short article under a byline I did not recognize. Report stated that boiler “exploded." I can not confirm, but three crew members were injured No passengers apparently injured. I don't know engine number, but it should be either 2-8-0 No. 76 or 4-6-2 No. 1278. It was a dinner trip, but dinner is not served on train. Instead, the train stops at restaurant in Mt. Holly Springs (also location of CR interchange). The explosion occurred in Gardners at 7’15 pm on 6/16. Gardners is about 12 miles north of Gettysburg, where train originated. After incident, paper said a diesel was summoned, and took train (six cars, I believe) on to dinner Waitress at restau rant (Mt. Holly Inn?) was quoted as saying passengers appeared "stunned " Crew victims went to bum units at three different hospitals One of crew was Jim Cornell, 48, son of Sloan Cornell, who is one of the owners. [..JI have no further information Mark D. Be) Date: Mon, 19 Jun 1995 16-38-15 -0500 From: Doug Bailey Subject Gettysburg Accident CPR No. 1278, which was only two weeks out of a major FRA inspection was the locomotive whose boiler explod ed on the Gettysburg. The engineer is in critical condition with third degree burns over much of his body. One of the two firemen was standing in the gangway when the explosion occurred and was blown off the locomotive. He is reported to be uninjured. The other fireman, who was sitting on the fireman's seatbox when the explosion occurred was blown out the window and is also essential ly uninjured. The explosion appears to have been a crown sheet failure. The backhead stayed intact and the force of the explosion was directed downward, through the fire and the ashpan. The engineer was burned by steam being de flected out of the ashpan. The locomotive's firedoors are bowed outward, according to witnesses, about 4" Date: Tue, 20 Jun 1995 14:47:00 UTC From: Robert Harbison Subject Gettysburg Accident Reply: Item #0625255 from RAILROAD@CUNYVM.CU- NY.EDU@INET# I appreciate all of the news and information on the Gettysburg Railroad accident, as it could have an effect on all tourist railroad operations. However, I would like to echo other comments reccomending that we limit speculation on the accident, and clearly mark any opinions as opinions, rather than facts. This accident is very serious, and could cause serious repercussions I have seen several posts mentioning boiler explosions, and crown sheet failures. It is my opinion that it was not a boiler explosion, or a crown sheet failure Both of these accidents are catastrophic failures, which usually result in very serious damage to the locomotive, and crew. Yes, there are cases of less severe damage, but not often. Some of the reports I've seen seem to indicate that this explosion was not a boiler failure at all, but rather caused by coal gas exploding in the firebox. Fresh coal could have caused a gas build up, and when the firebox door was opened, the fresh oxygen caused it to ignite. That explanation would fit with the reports I've seen, and also is consistent with the type of damage showm. Please note that this is also purely opinion and speculation. However, what I'm trying to say is that we should be careful about posting messages world wide that a locomotive had a boiler explosion when that may not be accurate. Granted, most of the messages say 'appears to" or 'might have been", but I just felt that I needed to point out there are other possible causes besides a boiler explosion. In case you're wondering, I do have some experience with steam locomotives, having worked with them for about twenty years I have no affiliation with the Gettysburg RRat this time, but I was employed by them as summer help years ago. Bob Harbison Date: Sat, 24 Jun 1995 11:12:09-0500 From Doug Bailey Subject: Gettysburg Accident Photos of the boiler interior of the Gettysburg locomotive show the crown sheet collapsed partially downward into the fire box Approximately 60 threaded staybolts ripped out as the crown sagged into the firebox. The collapse was stopped at a row of Canadian 'button-style" staybolts which remained intact The button stays are probably what saved the crew, stopping the collapse and allowing the force of the steam to deflect down and forward away from the cab. Whether the locomotive had recently been FRA-inspected or not is moot at this point The locomotive's Form 4 still showed the Cadillac & Lake City as the owner and operator of the equipment, and other required paper work was said to be "years out of date" The locomotive's sight glass was found plugged upon removal. Canadian Pacific RR locomotives had, as a rule, only a single sight glass. Though most G5's were delivered with low-water alarms, there was not one on this locomotive Further, the locomotive was 10 days overdue for its 30-day, at the time of the incident. The photos I referred to above will be published in the next issue of Railfan •- • a n ua *> u s ?.* - = a a M on th vi t A ug us t 1 99 5 7/ 20 -9 5 9 :1 7 am <->

1995-07-Hot-Scoop

Publication

Pacific Southwest Railway Museum

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