Hulcher Caterpillar crews prep raising UP AC4400CWCTE

[@jamesshanks2614]

You want to rerail a locomotive quickly? Play with your HO scale train set. When you have a 420 ton locomotive to rerail and she is completely all 12 wheels on the ground and you have to rebuild the track under it to rerail it there is an old saying that is true the first time it was said and still rings true today. Slow is fast and fast is slow. After I retired from the railroad and I have worked work trains doing it the old way with a 250 ton steam powered wrecker from New Haven, Ct. They didn't work any faster than Hulcher or RJ Corman does. Simply different equipment to get the job done. My first day as an engineer on a wreck train before we did one piece of work the wreck foreman had a meeting with everyone on the wreck train and stated " you all know not to run on the job, but on this job you all better think before you move your feet cause the mistake you make could get someone killed. He asked for a volunteer welder to cut a set of welded rails 132 pound per yard that were twisted like pretzels and under a lot of tension and one man volunteered. Just over halfway through the head rail it sprung and threw the welder over 200 feet and by a miracle landed on a load of hay bales. He survived the trip but spent 2 years recovering from the hit, the doctors had to rebreak nine bones 5 times before he returned to work. He became a welding instructor after returning to work. In my case when he wanted me to move the wrecker he when we got to where the next setup was gave me directions in " I need a 1/4 of an inch west ". Whenever we had a wheel on the ground and I was on duty Moskow the night Trainmaster allways wanted me in the engine. When an engineer asked why he wanted me he said " simple I don't know how he does it but when I ask for an 1/8th of an inch that's all he moves everyone else moves half a foot or more ". I simply worked power against engine brake to get what was ordered and try like hell to make the rerailing process easier. Also as long as a train is moving through the wreck site nothing gets done until the train clears as the vibration can cause stuff to move when you don't want it to.

[@JohnR.1968]

Long ass stack train in back.Still dont understand why there are empty cars half way back in train ,then there are double stack the rest of the train.??Seems likesomething ain't right.Easy to pull knuckle apart.

[@dimidomo7946]

I didn't see any rerailing or raising of anything. C'mon now... I did see quite a few individuals standing around and getting paid for doing nothing. Bunch of overpaid lackeys.

[@wfkane2005]

The re railing took forever and was quite slow

[@jimharlow3455]

Dimi Domo This is a coordinated effort between swappers-cat operators-cat foremen- crew foremen-and train movement. They also have to make sure that every movement is done in a concise and safe manner. All 4 car operators make their movements together. It takes a lot of time to get it right and safe.

[@BenjaminEsposti]

Yeah they do this inch by inch. These locomotives are very heavy. Don't want to create any more accidents while trying to clean up an accident!