Day Job

I have worked as a fright car carman/welder for approximately seven and a half years. When I began, I was technically just a welder. I performed structural repairs on the bodies of the cars though my main job involved cutting and welding the inspection ports on tank cars for the purpose of qualifying the tanks for continued service. Today I have one those cushy union protected inspection positions. I still perform a bit of welding but nothing compared to when I first began. Those early days taught me all the rules and regulations I needed to know to perform the safety inspections on trains before their departures. Most of the railway companies ignore a large percentage of these rules and gamble on an hourly basis that the FRA won’t catch neglected defects. Although, the fines levied for these infractions are so small, they don’t present a credible detriment to a company that makes $24 BILLION in profits every year. I don’t have a whole lot of pics of my job but I thought I’d share a little here.

These first two pics are of a damagedwheel tread/rim on a container train. The chunk taken out of the tread there is within the condemnable limits of width and depth. This car had to be set out of the train and the wheel changed.

These next three pics show damage on a flat car sustained while being switched from one train to another. The structural damages fall under several FRA violations but the main problem is that the flat walking surface is buckled which creates a safety hazard. This entire wreck is one of the most mind boggling parts of railway economics. Here’s the business model of the yard: “Give us YOUR car, loaded with YOUR commodity or the commodity of your customer. OUR employees shall damage YOUR car in OUR yard then WE shall charge YOU for that damage.” It’s crazy.

This is a broken gladhand on a trainline hose. This hose kept a coal train from having brakes. Because the railway companies have scaled back their mechanical repair personnel to the bone, I had to travel an hour and a half to get to this train that was clogging up the mainline for over 5 hours. They cost benefit ratios at these companies is completely off kilter simply because they want to show a different set of numbers to their investors. This category of problem can be hidden behind other numbers more easily explained away. It’s a scam.

Here’s a doozy. This is a 14” crack in a draft sill. Prior to spotting this on this car, I had seen several instances where either in the yard during a switch or in a departing train, this type of structural defect resulted in the entire end of the car coming free. If this were to happen at traveling speeds, it could very well derailed a train. Here’s the kicker: the foreman on duty this night—for reasons one can only guess—did not even take my report of the defect or bad order the car. These are the trains that roll through this country every day and night, carrying hazardous and explosive material through your towns and cities. Hide your kids…

Here’s a minor derailment in a switching yard. There are six more cars connected and derailed on the other end of this car. I won’t give details but this was a direct result of poor training.

A cracked coupler. This defect will break a train apart. Luckily the management decided this warranted the car be set out.

ROAD TRIP! A container train had broken trainline (brake pipe) due to a previous faulty repair. That suitcase looking thing is a Fronius battery powered welder. It won’t weld for long but it will weld. It’s not a bad piece of equipment.

This is a draft gear. It supplies the cushion when the cars jostle and bump back and forth. This one has jostled its last…

This is another example of yard damage as well as another example of improper repairs. That bent section carries the cushioning unit. And that flimsy piece of angle iron is all that’s holding up the coupler. This sort of stuff comes in and out all day every day and no one, not even the supposed authorities really give a shit… kooky stuff

This is one of the defects that railway management can’t really deny. That’s break apart/derailment waiting to happen.

I watched an undertrained switch conductor derail twelve cars, some filled with hazardous material, in this yard. That car actually stayed on the rails but it’ll need a full tank inspection, a new jacket, and the that body bolster is toast. That’s the stuff I used to do. Now I just laugh at it thinking about how much work some poor underpaid welder down the road is gonna have to do.

Here’s an obvious FRA safety rail violation. That pipe rail should reach all the way to that bolster web… it was quite the chore convincing the foreman this needed to be set out and repaired.