Yard Derailment

A recent occurrence on CP's Havelock Yard while I was on vacation a few weeks ago got me thinking about how a similar occurrence during an operating session on the KLR should be handled.  The background was that some tracks separated as CP was moving loaded railcars out from the loading area and towards a staging track.  Two short hoppers loaded with roofing pellets ended up with wheels on the ground as the rail moved from the old ties.  Actually surprising that this isn't a more common occurrence for this yard, given the worn ties and track nails that get a bite into the wood anymore.  But that's another story.

The derailment took several days to get the tracks back into working condition, as CP had to call in Hulcher Canada to pickup the loaded cars and place them on a good piece or track, before removing the offending ties and replacing them with newer ties.  This resulted in the track being out of service for several days, as well as a delay in shipping the railcars to the customer and isolating this track from moving empty cars to the loader. 

Two car derailment at CP's Havelock Yard, Aug 201  OK I know most everyone strives for "bulletproof" trackwork on the layout.  However, no matter how good the track and cars are, at some point an operator will place something on the ground.  Should you allow the 5-finger MOW to do it's job, or should you take it as a real event and realize that time will be lost and cars will have to be re-routed and/or delayed while the situation is corrected.  It is prototypical to a point, so why not handle it the way the prototype does?  Now not every railroad will have a wreck train, which is true for the KLR.  So I have chosen to handle it a different way, that is by assigning a time penalty to the track as well as a penalty to the crew. Now before anyone goes crazy with that last statement, let me explain what I mean by it.  On the KLR, the offending crew has to go through a drug test (similar to the prototype) and they are relieved of duty and placed down at the end of the crew board and must wait for another train. 

The track is given a time penalty as well, depending on the severity of the incident. Most incidents result in a loss of that piece of track for a minimum of a day.  Of course, this adds to the yardmasters headache and stress level, as they have to figure out how to  dispatch around the blocked trackage.  One or 2 cars can usually be handled by the road crew but more than that may require more man power and extended loss of the track.  Got shipments or passenger trains that need to be on time, better hurry that MOW.