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Craziest Efficiency Testing
Author: Mark
Date: 08-24-2013 - 18:10
Anybody have a crazy effiency testing story? I'll start with one that's been circulating in the midwest for years.
A bumbling MOP and MTO decided to perform their own version of a fusee test. They hid in a culvert to launch a fusee at the very last minute - in the hopes of catching a crew not paying attention. The next train was not the slow moving freight they expected, but Amtrak moving at 79 MPH. So they were late climbing out of the culvert. The Amtrak engineer didn't realize it was a fusee - all he saw was a ball of fire - which landed between the main and the siding seconds before Amtrak got there. Given their behavior and the location, a wooden culvert, the idea of an efficiency test never crossed the engineer's mind. He figured arson or terrorism and toned up the dispatcher with a 911 call. The dispatcher got a clothing description and turned it over to RMCC.
These idiots never heard the radio conversation because they left their radios in the company vehicle. A few minutes later they learned Amtrak was stopped a couple miles ahead. The MOP/MTO believed it was for the fusee test. In reality, it was because the dispatcher told them to stop until the police and special agents assessed the situation. Again, the MOP and MTO had heard none of this, but drove to Amtrak's location anyway.
Police were beginning to swarm the area and stopped to question the Amtrak engineer. About this time the MOP and MTO come walking his direction, to which the engineer emphatically yelled to the cops, "that's them ... those are the guys right there". The cops turned around with guns drawn and ordered the MOP and MTO to the ground. I guess they were detained for about an hour until everybody agreed it was a mix up.
A bumbling MOP and MTO decided to perform their own version of a fusee test. They hid in a culvert to launch a fusee at the very last minute - in the hopes of catching a crew not paying attention. The next train was not the slow moving freight they expected, but Amtrak moving at 79 MPH. So they were late climbing out of the culvert. The Amtrak engineer didn't realize it was a fusee - all he saw was a ball of fire - which landed between the main and the siding seconds before Amtrak got there. Given their behavior and the location, a wooden culvert, the idea of an efficiency test never crossed the engineer's mind. He figured arson or terrorism and toned up the dispatcher with a 911 call. The dispatcher got a clothing description and turned it over to RMCC.
These idiots never heard the radio conversation because they left their radios in the company vehicle. A few minutes later they learned Amtrak was stopped a couple miles ahead. The MOP/MTO believed it was for the fusee test. In reality, it was because the dispatcher told them to stop until the police and special agents assessed the situation. Again, the MOP and MTO had heard none of this, but drove to Amtrak's location anyway.
Police were beginning to swarm the area and stopped to question the Amtrak engineer. About this time the MOP and MTO come walking his direction, to which the engineer emphatically yelled to the cops, "that's them ... those are the guys right there". The cops turned around with guns drawn and ordered the MOP and MTO to the ground. I guess they were detained for about an hour until everybody agreed it was a mix up.
