Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Yes Steve it takes a bit longer than in the garden. OTOH hooking up the juicers front and back should (???) have been quick.
I worded that awkwardly, I meant just hooking up the electrics front and back. Doh! 
That’s what I meant, too. Just like helper engines. Over at Geddis - between Kamloops and Chase - the CP helpers come off, that goes lickety-split
Steve Featherkile said:
For Craig… does it take 30 minutes to change locomotives at the head of a train?
Depends on the type of locomotive change. What takes the most amount of time is doing a full set and release on the train line. Removing engines from the rear of the consist is the fastest, as can simply set out the ones you don’t need, and then light power back to the train. This is normally how EB trains at Wenatchee work. The Interbay crew pulls down the main, makes the cut at the first car and then sets out the required number of units to the roundhouse. As the inbound Interbay crew is doing this, generally the outbound Spokane crew shuffles out… The spokane conductor exchanges paperwork/info with the Interbay conductor at the cut, while the engineers do the same thing in the cab. After the engines have been cut off, then the Spokane crew brings the power back to the train, and makes a set and release. I would say total time if everything goes smoothly is 20-30 minutes.
Adding power is much more time consuming (40-60 minutes) as you have to do both a locomotive air brake test and a set and release. Most WB trains add power in the Apple Yard as not to tie up the main or the yard lead while doing the work.
If you have manned helpers, the cut off can be accomplished on the go. But that’s manpower that BNSF doesn’t want to spend (at least at Steven’s as manner helpers exist over Marias). However MRL seems to justify it in both Livingston and Helena over the two passes? Adding manned helpers can take about 30-40 minutes because again you have to do air brake tests.
Did the GN and later successors loose the bet when they removed the catenary from the Scenic Division?
I think so, but didn’t BN make just as big of a mistake by tearing out the SP&S line from Spokane to Pasco, or pulling the rails up over the MILW?
Wouldn’t it have made sense to extend the cat from Skykomish down the hill to Everett or on to Interbay, and run the electrics from Wenatchee all the way to Everett or Seattle?
If you’re going to add electrics for the hill it makes the most sense to have them from Everett to Wenatchee. Technically Interbay is the crew change point, but recently a lot of EB trains over Steven’s have been staged in and around Everett. A local gets the train together and shuttles it up to Lowell where it waits for an outbound crew. Wenatchee is already a crew change point, and power is added/taken off so logistically it would be similar but you would have to rearm FRED, and do a little more work. I’d say 60 minutes or so.
Or, as an alternative, why not hook up some electrics on the front and rear of a train and just drag/push the train through the tunnel only, like was done in the first tunnel, leaving the diseasals at idle? Much less exhaust to clear out.
Because they tore out the cantary! I think the GN got away with using electrics because they generated their own power at the dam. BNSF would have to buy power on the open market (BPA?) and is the cost more or less long term than regular loco’s. Oh and you would have to set up a roundhouse that could repair the electrics in either Wenatchee, or Everett, neither place which has room to spare. What makes more sense for capacity issues is to run directionally. Run WB over Stevens, and EB over Stampede. But Stampede would have to get undercut. And if Stampede gets undercut, the UP gets trackage rights over Stampede… Now here’s the kicker, UP has direct mainline access to the Port of Tacoma, were as the BNSF doesn’t (BNSF has access, but it requires a fancy game of chess to spot and pull trains from POT, where as the UP can spot/pull in one move). So UP has direct access to the POT and Stampede guess who’s going to get all the intermodal traffic? So BNSF will likely never upgrade Stampede. Capacity on Steven’s is at the max and has been for years. How long it takes BNSF to realize that this is the next chock point for hot intermodal traffic, who knows?
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
That’s what I meant, too. Just like helper engines. Over at Geddis - between Kamloops and Chase - the CP helpers come off, that goes lickety-split
HJ,
That’s if you used manned helpers with helper link that allows for an automatic uncoupling, etc.
Manned helpers of Stevens doesn’t really make much sense as the grade is fairly short, and it wouldn’t add much capacity through the tunnels unless it was electrified. If electric then it would make more sense to go the whole way (see my response to Steve).