Trains dispatching - (pic)

[KatDiesel]

Those of you that wonder what a dispatcher does.



Here is one of the jobs I work, this is the Moffat Tunnel job. . west of Denver and through the Rockies. I took these on a SLOW night..... The territory your looking at is handled with "CTC" meaning all I gotta do is line signals and throw switchs and make the train meets.



However... what you can't see is that Leyden all the way to E Portal is a roughly 2% grade the whole way (52 miles). Between Plain and Cliff there are 32 tunnels. So its not "as easy" as it may appear to be from just the picture. You have some good days and some bad.

 

[KatDiesel]

All the "words" are the Moffat tunnel..... 6. 2 miles long.

 

[me4osu]

Cool. I went to four years of engineering school and never learned how to drive a train.



Automation is great. Hopefully you have limit swiches for verification of a track change.

 

[TPCDrafting]

I used to live in Coal Creek Canyon and the tracks went through our fire district almost to Pinecliff. I've put out a few fires from the trains including one owned by Warner Brothers when they were filming Under Seige part 2. They started 17 fires because they didn't have a proper spark arrester.



The train started a good fire at the bottom a few weeks ago. It threatened several high dollar houses on the east ridge of Blue Mountain Estates.



When I was younger we used to go down to the tracks and run through the tunnels for a rush. Never had to dodge a train but came close a few times.



All your territory Kat. Looks like a busy job.

 

[KatDiesel]

2 runaway tank cars last night in Denver.....



never a dull moment.



One flew off the tracks about 400ft into a used carlot..... I wish I could have seen that. These were BNSF cars... that came from BNSF traks, but hit ours and jumped the track. I was "two desks over" working Dotsero to Grand Jct and the North Fork sub (coal mines)... ... . I'll post pictures of that "station" later.



IF I get any pictures of the tank car on the Benz I'll post it.