Isn't that a violation of Federal law? The FRA should probably have an issue with this. What would have happened if the crew had gotten the work done without being seen by a train crew and had not completed the repairs properly?
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That's what's wacky about this. CSX knew the work was being done, and the county knew there was a train coming up to load. The county may not have known that the train had to pass the loader. The loading procedure is to pull the train completely pass the loader, and load moving back. Just above this area, the track is no longer used or owned by CSX. The county may not have realized how far up the track the train has to come. This loader is not used very often, I think they have only loaded one more time since this, which was almost a year ago.
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I bet this was indeed a failure to communicate! I saw a similar incident at a terminal where work was being done on a water line without the Railroad's knowledge (or consent) less than ten feet from a main track. Fortunately someone showed up, chewed out the water department foreperson, and set up the protection called for by the rules.
The RR employee told me "this happens a lot".
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Interesting how the controls on the control stand differ from the set up used by BNSF. On a BNSF unit of this type, the run, reverser and brake controls are on the counter in front rather than on the left side.
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El Roco, BNSF's GEVO's have standard control stands just like this CSX unit. Desktop control stands are no longer being placed on new locomotives, and haven't been for the past few years. BNSF's Dash-9's and Dash-8's do have the desktop controls however.
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