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NEOW-079-03
work order
North Eastern Railroad Freight
Activity (c) 2004
NEOW Marietta Thursday 8:00 am
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Work Order: NEOW-79-03
Time: 8:00 am
Season: Summer
Weather: Rain
Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes
Train: SD40, GP38, SD24
Class: 3
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The North American Land Bridge is an essential part of the
commercial transportation link between Europe and the Far
East. Over 300 trains cross North America each week
between west and east coast ports, saving time and money
over the alternative of the Panama Canal. Today you are
hauling such a "unit" train of containerized cargo and
automobiles from the interchange yard at Marietta to an
interchange siding at Byesville, where an NEC crew will
pick it up for the final leg of it's journey to
Philadelphia. Because of recent heavy rains and
thunderstorms there have been a lot of delays, so expect
heavy traffic. After entering your destination siding,
pull forward until the end of your train is clear of the
siding switch and stop.
Speed Limits:
Yards = 15 mph
Main = as posted
Other = as posted
Drive Safely!
________________________________________
Jon Noble
#79
Notes:
You must stay under 15mph until the end of your train
clears the Marietta yards, because of track conditions and
train weight. Your conductor will tell you when you can
accelerate. There are some pretty stiff grades on this
run; if you have trouble negotiating them, see the
hints
below:
Railroads typically assign
just enough motive power to get a train where it needs to
go. Locomotives are expensive to operate, and often
railroads--even the class A roads--operate on slim profit
margins. After determining how much motive power a consist
requires, railroad employees look at what locomotives are
available and try to devise a lash-up that meets spec and
uses the fewest locomotives possible. Sometimes the result
is less than ideal.
This is where you are today. Sorry about your luck.
Sandwiched between your SD40-2 and SD24 Highnose is an old
GP38. The overall performance you can expect out of a
lash-up is determined by the least capable locomotive, and
the GP38 is it. It is just not built for hauling heavy
trains over grades at low speed.
The key to getting up the grades between Marietta and Swik,
and between Unionville and Reiner, is to keep your speed
up. Try to maintain your speed close to the speed limit.
If you must slow down to avoid going over the speed limit,
use your train brakes--don't throttle down. It takes time
for the diesels to rev up, and if you're already on a
grade, that's time you don't have. You will stall. Use the
sanders. The rain has made the tracks slick and you
absolutely will stall out without your sanders. Remember
that you are prohibited from using sanders while crossing
over switches.
If you stall south of Reiner, there is a helper engine you
can use on the Reiner Pickup siding. Park your train and
use the lead locomotive to fetch the helper. You must stop
again and set out the helper back where you got it from.
Go to the second switch, so less of your train is stopped
on the steeper portion of the grade. You can restart the
train without helper or sanders at that point.
Also keep your speed down on the downgrades, again using
the train brakes. You can be under the speed limit and
still derail.
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