Mind-set

I’m intrigued by "mind-set." In the transportation business, mind-set is a killer. It’s ruthless. Nasty. And very, very sneaky. It’s the phenomenon of seeing or hearing what you "want" or "expect" to see. From the Airlines & Railroad Accidents newsgroup.

And I replied:
Sometimes I have looked at CTC signals thru fatigue blurred eyes and saw green. A second look and it snaps from green to its real color. Or sometimes something clicks in my mind and I say "wait a second, the best that signal can display is Flashing Yellow - Approach Medium - it can't be green. A more wide awake look reveals it is not green but Yellow - Approach.

Mind set is very powerful. At 3am it can be overwhelming. Due to bad lineups and lousey calls it is 4am and you've been awake for 21 hours. You've been running 40 mph on yellows for the last 20 miles where you can see each signal 2 miles down the track. A mile before you get to each red they flip to yellow as the train ahead clears the next block.

"Running-on-yellows" like this is never a good idea and I usually avoid it by hanging back until I get better signals. But when fatigued you often make irrational decisions, "Oh it will be OK tonight, I want to stay right on his butt so when I pass the CTC O.S. points the disp can see we are right there". Maybe he will let you around or at least make the same meets rather than hang you back a siding.

Mile after dark mile you watch the signals ahead flip from red to yellow. Then you come to a curve approaching the next signal which you know is still red even though it is not in sight yet. You know it is red because it will be red like all the others until the rear end of the train ahead passes the 2nd signal. You know he hasn't passed that signal because it is co-located with a detector and you haven't heard the detector sound off. You have your hand on the air, waiting until the last second to set it, he should be clearing that block any second now.

Your mind-set becomes listening for that detector. If only the detector would sound off it would indicate that his rear end is out of the block and I won't have to set the air and slow unnecessarily.

"BN detector, Mile post 357.3, no defects." Yessss! "Ambient temperature...." You take your hand from the airbrake. "Axle count ...." You settle back into your seat. "BN detector, out". You pass the point of being able to stop before the next signal. The detector at the 2nd signal has sounded off, the train ahead has cleared the next block.

At 4am all possibility of a red signal in front of you is gone from your mind. You roll around the curve and reality strikes. A few hundreds of feet in front of you is a red ABS signal. Damn!....damn damn damn!

It jolts you back to your senses. Where is his rear end? You keep pulling on them and set 15 psi straight off. Adrenalin flows thru your system like water in the river next to you. The last signal _was_ yellow you idiot! You have to expect a red signal next...you idiot.

You make a very fast analysis of the situation. No way you are going to stop before that signal without emergency and even that would be very doubtful. With this train there is a very real possibility of jacknifing if you do that. Eyes strain into the darkness, Is there a flashing FRED up there? .....Maybe his FRED has gone dark! No. I can see, the full moon is shining off the silver rails, there is nothing in our way but that red signal. Wonder if there are any officers around? I'll bet our jobs there is not. Not out here in nowhere at 3am this night.

The deep set with its long air blow has awakened the conductor. Just in time to watch the red light come and go. With air still exhausting we roll by the Stop & Proceed at 30 mph. He doesn't say a thing. We stop 1500 feet past the signal.

It would have been a hell of a wreck if that train's rear end were just beyond the signal. Signal lights and FREDs would not have been the only things red that night. A shiver goes up your spine. You kick off the air and move out at restricted speed. Your heart is returning to normal. Cold sweat covers you. Sheepishly you creep thru the darkness. A mile and a half later you come up behind the train you've been following. He is stopped with 25 cars still on your side of the detector and still in your block. When the detector had sounded off you didn't catch that his axle count had changed.

Mind-set is dangerous.

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It doesn't always workout that mind-set causes more danger though. Sometimes it just makes you look foolish. This very last trip I was coming into Billings on a 97 car clay empty from Laurel. We gave our track warrant back to the Missoula disp as the rear end entered yard limits at Billings. With green ABS sigs you can do track speed even in yard limits. He said we had to meet a coal train at East Billings (end of double track ABS, begin single track CTC) and it was just just about there.

I knew about this coal train from having checked the lineup when I went on duty. It was the Montana Power train for the Billings plant. This train is usually ran against the current of traffic from East Billings to the Wwd Auxillary track across from the Billings Northern Pacific passenger depot. Since it is yard limits no warrant is required for that move.

Flashback:
One day last spring I was approaching East Billings EB on the Z-PTLKCM hotshot. I got a red ABS signal at the east switch of the Wwd auxillary track. MRL still has the Restricted Proceed indication for red ABS signals that BN had before we went back to the Stop & Proceed. So I cruised past the red signal on the overhead signal bridge at about 17 mph. Approx 1/2 mile beyond this signal the track makes a hard 90 degree right turn onto the Yellowstone River bridge then a sharp left 90 deg bend on the other side. As I approached the first curve I got down to about 11 mph due to limited visibility.

Through the bridge trusses and trees I saw BN units coming onto the other end of the 3 span double track bridge. Something didn't look quite right so I grabbed the air. Luckily I already had them bunched. At the same time I radioed the WB asking what track he was on. I could hear his air blowing over the radio as he says "I see you and am stopping. I'm on the EB track".

We both stopped about 10 cars apart. Darn sure glad we were both running at actual restricted speed, able to stop in 1/2 the range of vision.

It was one of the Billings coal trains. The disp had lined him up the Ewd and didn't bother to tell us. I was quite PO'd and told the dispatcher so. We had to back our train up about 1/2 mile to let the coal train into the aux track. My cond first had to walk 6000 ft to the rear end though.

Back to the present:
When the disp told us we had to meet one at East Billings I just knew it was the Billings coal train. It immediately reminded me of that episode last spring. We are set up for the same thing to happen tonight.

I wonder if the disp has lined him head on up our track or is he running up the Wwd as he should. There is a crossover between mains at the aux track so you can go either track and still get into the aux. If there is opposing traffic the disp will run the coal with the current of traffic up the WWD and they crossover at the hand throws after traffic clears. If there is no traffic the disp lines the coal against the current up the Ewd. But as I well knew from last spring, you never know what they are going to do.

Then the disp comes on the radio and says,
"BN 8120 copy a track warrant".
The 8120 answers and state they are ready to copy. I figure he is going to give the coal train a warrant to run between Billings and Laurel with their light power after they set the train out at Billings. I listen.

"BN 8120 check item two T-W-O. Move between MP 10.9 and MP 2.5 on eastward E-A-S-T-W-A-R-D main track".

...EASTWARD!! I listen as the coal train repeats the warrant. "EASTWARD, E-A-S-T-w-a-r-d". Son of a bitch. He _IS_ running them head on into us again.

I grab the air trying to stop short of the auxillary track switch. The condr asks what I am doing. I explain about the warrant and what it means. He says, "You're goofy. That was the Laurel-Dilworth train leaving Laurel yard behind us. He is following us on the eastward".

Geeze how dumb can I be? Now I remember, the disp _did_ say MP 10.9 to 2.5 not the other way around. And he did say 8120 at _Laurel_ not Billings. Not just once but twice. I was so fixated on the "fact" that he was talking to the Billings coal train and so worried the disp was going to send him my way again that my mind just blanked out the order of the mileposts and every time he said "Laurel" I heard, or thought, "Billings". Amazing how that works.

Oh well. All's well that ends well. ;-)

I gotta get some sleep.

AK

Created 03-10-96
Updated 06-19-2001