Amtak Continues to Burn Options

[ICGsteve]

MICRO, N.C. -- An Amtrak train engine caught fire as it traveled through Johnston County Saturday.

NBC TV

JEEZ, is it too much to ask of Amtrak for them to keep their locomotives in a good enough state of repair that they don't keep burning-up while on the road??? Apparently it is.

This post has been edited by ICGsteve: Aug 26 2007, 11:12 AM

[ICGsteve]

In my opinion the failures that cause fires are failures that developed over a period of weeks or months. Fires are not cause by failures that develop over a few trips, and are not noticed on the turn. Mechanics are through the locomotives for one reason or another on a regular basis, if they are any good they will instinctively notice stuff that is wrong that might be a fire hazard. They will notice a leak that is in a wrong place, a smell that it not quite right, a sound that is off, even if they are only walking through for some purpose totally unrelated to where the problem is. There is little doubt in my mind but that in most cases where we have a fire multiple mechanics either knew or should have known over the weeks and months previous that the unit was at risk, but nothing ever got done about it.

Also, engineers, even Amtrak engineers, have some basic working knowledge of how their equipment operates, when something is going on that might point to a major problem. Engineers spend a lot of time with these locomotives, they know what is normal and what is not. If Amtrak has the proper procedures in place there is in the culture a mindset that compels the engineer to notify someone, and for the one who is notified to take the information seriously. The mechanics will get many reports that don't worry them, that are not a cause for doing even minimal investigation, but others should ring an alarm in somebodies head and motivate them to go down or send somebody down for a peek. These rash of locomotive fires over the last 18 months is only a money problem if the problem has been noticed, the shop people have been notified, the managers want to fix the problem, and they get told no because there is no money to do it. I seriously doubt that this is what is going on. I have noticed now several reports where it is claimed that Engineers notified their chain of command about a potential problem with their locomotive but where over the coming weeks nothing is ever done about it. If Amtrak is not fixing known problems that in time turn into locomotive fires then it is guilty of gross stupidity. One locomotive fire will cost Amtrak big time on the short term bottom line (lost capacity, extra employee time, charges by emergency agencies and railroads, alternate transportation) as well as long term on the bottom line as people hear these stories and swear off Amtrak. They also erode Employee morale, public confidence, and what remains positive about the Amtrak brand after years of neglect.

We would need to get the insights of insiders to confirm my suspicions, but I believe that these locomotives fires are the result of a cultural problem at Amtrak, one that has nothing to do with money. This if true is damning of Amtrak as an organization, which is why I am a little hot about all of these fires.

This post has been edited by ICGsteve: Aug 28 2007, 09:23 PM