How to determine no. of cars a locomotive can pull? - Trains Magazine

ndbprr

Yardmasters have been known to overload trains just to clear their yard and relieve the congestion since a stall on the line is not their problem.

Only in railroad fiction -- at the three Class Is I know and love.

The yardmaster has no authority to overload the train.  The dispatcher will refuse it -- he has the trainlist and there's no way he's going to give a signal to a train to leave the yard with a hp/ton ratio that exceeds the division's limits.  The yardmaster wants to fudge the trainlist?  The train crew will refuse it.  It's a federal violation.  The yardmaster doesn't even have the authority to try to overload the train, that's up to the terminal trainmaster.  The terminal trainmaster can plead his case to the trick dispatcher, who will turn him down, and he can appeal to the chief dispatcher, who will turn him down.  Tough cookies.

The yard has to publish to the chief its needs for the next 48 hours.  The chief assigns trains to lift the tonnage and the power desk assigns power to pull the trains. If the yard goofs and has more tonnage than locomotives, then they can try and explain themselves to the superintendent and the regional GM on the next 0700 conference call to everyone else's amusement. 

If a train falls down because of too much tonnage, that's the chief dispatcher's problem.  He's not ever going to take an overtonnage train unless he is ordered to do so, in writing or with witnesses, by the Regional VP or GM.  If it falls down because of bad power, that's mechanical's problem -- but if it's due to a known bad-actor locomotive or class of locomotive, the chief will get reamed for allowing the power desk to let a train out with such crap on the pointy end.

I regularly turned down grain trains that one of our major terminals tried to foist on me with junk SD45s from one of our connections.  On paper they would barely pull the first ruling grade.  But they never actually would all stay running to make it to the next hill.  Nice try, guys, I would say. Call me back when you want to give it the ACs or SD60s on the next inbound.  What's that?  You need them for that coal train?  Well, I guess that grain is going to sprout in your yard, then. And drop the phone on the hook.

RWM