Remote Control Is a Failure for Railroads

[SwitchBender]

I think there's a place for remotes. On my couch...to opeate my tv and dvd player. There is no place in our yard for remotes. EVERY JOB was SAFER and MORE EFFICIENT without them. Even the hump. Especially the hump! Besides being able to use less locomotives, or less of a locomotive to do the same job. We were able to double tracks without having to track down a utility to protect our point. We had less problems stopping and starting the hump. We were able to hump cars literally twice as fast. 1.1mph remote vs. 2.3mph conventional. When I mentioned that to Oral Roberts he said "That won't save much time." Hmmm. A mile of train done in 30 minutes vs. an hour??? I was never good at math...maybe remotes are the BEST WAY to hump cars.

[04241989]

I LOVE it when I get called to be an engineer on a remote job. There is such low expecetations on how much work can be done that we end up doing very little. Come on, 15 car cuts? we used to bang out 60 or 70 car cuts and had fun doing it.

[PE987654]

HERES ONE YOU CUT THE ENGINEER OFF ADD ABRAKEMAN TO THE JOB AND PRODUCTION GOES DOWN BECAUSE THE REMOTE ONLY MAKES ONE MOVE PER SHIFT BECAUSE THEY TAKE MORE TIME (AFTER YOU DO YOUR JOB BRIEFING REMOTE TEST ETC) AND ONE MAN OFF THE CREW STILL SETS IN THE SEAT OF THE LOCOMOTIVE TO PROTECT SHOVE MOVE AND ONE MAN IS ON GROUND STILL DOING ALL THE WORK BUT HEO OR SHE IS NOW MAKING MORE THAN THE ENGINEER ON THE BASIC DAY. I REALLY DONT UNDERSTAND A COMPANY WHO WANTS TO PAY MORE AND GET LESS WORK DONE. I GUESS THE BEAN CONTERS DID NOT SEE THIS ONE COMING

[santafe engineer]

I think the remotes are just a way of running the yards in the ground so they can sell the yards to contractors

[Jim Rockford]

they just installed the puck system in acca, now when the engine gets 300 feet from the sigle it moves at a snails pace, great, just how much slower can we make this crap.

[braden]

the slower the better

[cornhusker]

Originally Posted by Hog&Tow

we all know first hand of the arrogance of the carriers. they will never admit the RC program was a failure. they have invested billions in it & their attitude is "by God we will make it work." it's a good thing they did it during a booming economy...they made record profits in spite of themselves.

i could not agree more!

[HOOK'EMHORNS]

The loss of the engineer at the head end was not just one of speed on the job, it also took away a valuable resource for new switchmen. The railroads seem to think it's a good idea to hire a bunch of new folk who have never switched a day in their lives AND give them control of a locomotive all in one fell swoop. If the RR would let the real railroaders to their job and lose the remotes we would again have a system in place for newhires to learn from the older conductors/switchmen and engineers on a full crew. Car counts would go up and yard derailments would go down. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

HH