BNSF News

Alertness and Quick Action Make a Great UPS Save

2007-12-17

Due to the exceptional awareness of one of BNSF’s rapid responders and quick action by the Needles, Calif., Mechanical team, a failure turned into success for this year’s Peak Season. On Thursday, Nov. 29, train Z-ALTRIC9-28, carrying 15 loads of UPS traffic, departed Needles three hours and 42 minutes ahead of schedule to ensure it would make the afternoon sort on Friday, Nov. 30. But just outside of Needles, between Danby and Cadiz, the crew reported the train had gone into an undesired emergency at 1:24 p.m.

Responder Eric Bas, carman, was called and, in the meantime, the crew inspected the train, found a parted air hose between two cars and re-coupled it.

The responder soon arrived and gave the conductor a ride back to the head end. But after dropping off the conductor, Bas decided to take another look at the spot where the event had taken place. He saw fresh markings on the glad hands, and noted that some sort of impact may have caused the hoses to part.

He then proceeded to inspect the rest of the train to see what may have caused the fresh markings. As the train slowly departed, he noticed that a piece of the wheel was missing on one of the cars. He immediately notified the crew to stop the train for further inspection.

His observation was correct. A 15-inch piece of the wheel had broken off, and it had struck the glad hands connecting the air hoses, thus causing the initial air hose separation.

He notified his general foreman and then contacted the Needles wheel truck to determine their response time. It was now about 2:20 p.m., and the Needles wheel truck was approximately one hour from the location.

Bas assessed the situation and determined that it would not be safe to attempt to move the train in either direction, and the nearest siding was about four miles east. The decision was made to change the wheel on the main line. The wheel truck arrived, equipment was set up and the wheel was changed; the train was back on the move at 5:20 p.m.

With diligent efforts from the Regional Operations Center, the train arrived at Barstow, Calif., just five minutes late, and then made up time to arrive at Richmond, Calif., three hours and 24 minutes ahead to make the sort.

"This was a great team effort, starting with the awareness of the rapid responder," says Daniel Rodriguez, general car foreman, Barstow. "All of our efforts are truly for the same cause: To provide transportation services that consistently meet our customers’ expectations."

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