Banner Testing
Question: How often do they perform a banner test and
what do they check for when they do one?
How do they knock a signal down to do one? Is it remote or do they put
an electrical charge onto the track to knock it down? Who performs it? A train
master or yard master?
Answer: A “banner test” is conducted to test a train
crew’s compliance with Restricted Speed.
Restricted Speed is a speed that will permit stopping within one-half
the range of vision. It will also permit
stopping short of a train, a car, an obstruction, a stop signal, a derail or an
improperly lined switch. It must permit
looking out for broken rail. It will not
exceed 15 MPH. To conduct this test, a
trainmaster will place an obstruction (sometimes called a “banner”) on the
track ahead of a train that is required to proceed at restricted speed on a
main track. The obstruction is large
enough (with reflective tape for night tests) for a train crew to see in plenty
of time to stop their train. Similar
tests are conducted in yards, where locomotive movement may not exceed 10 MPH.
A
crew that fails a banner test (by allowing their train to come into contact
with the banner) is immediately suspended from further train duty. There will be due process and, depending upon
many factors (such as a crew member’s safety record), appropriate discipline
will be imposed. It can (and probably should)
be a career-ender for a repeat offender.
Both crew members are held equally responsible.
Usually,
a trainmaster is the one who conducts the test, but he or she may be joined by
a road foreman of engines (who supervises engineers), or perhaps a more senior
operations manager like a terminal superintendant or someone from division
headquarters. This is usually a
two-person operation. The test must also
be carefully coordinated with the train dispatcher.
Banner
tests are an important check of one of the most important operating rules. However, they can disrupt traffic. They require a trainmaster and others to
venture away from a terminal (and their myriad other time-pressing duties). They require coordination with the dispatcher. Because of these factors, banner tests are
probably the most elaborate safety check to accomplish and the hardest to
successfully plan, schedule, and execute. Most railroads have policies in place to
ensure a minimum number of these checks is conducted in each territory each
month. Every crew member should expect
to be tested at least once each year.
A
test crew can “shunt” the track, which tells the track circuit the block is
occupied, thus telling the block signal to indicate Stop or Restricted
Proceed. However, if they do this, they
must coordinate this with the dispatcher.
You need to be very careful not to put an unexpected Stop or Restricted
Proceed signal in front of an oncoming train operating on a Clear indication. The train should be operating on nothing more
favorable than Approach (which means medium speed—30 MPH—and prepared to stop
at the next signal). More often than
not, the test crew will just collaborate with the dispatcher to line the route
automatically, having the train crew progress through a block on an Approach
indication then pass the next signal, which will be indicating Restricted
Proceed.
Often,
doing this will raise some suspicion among the train crew. More often than not, a train crew will request
and be granted by the dispatcher permission to hold at a Restricted Proceed
signal for a more favorable indication (so they don’t have to creep along for
several miles). If the dispatcher denies
the request and it’s not clear to the crew why, the train crew will be on alert
for a banner test. This isn’t so
bad. It would be just fine if every crew
expected a banner test every time they are running at Restricted Speed. They should also be expecting a train, a car,
an obstruction, a stop signal, a derail, an improperly lined switch, or a broken
rail
Good
train crews welcome the banner test, aren’t intimidated or put out by it. They’ll run their lead locomotive right up to
about ten feet before the banner, lean out the window and, with a grin, say
something wise-ass to the trainmaster standing in the weeds trackside. Usually, the test crew will board the
locomotive and congratulate the crew. The
railroad is not interested in catching crews failing a banner test; they want
to catch them all passing with flying colors.
Great
question. Stay safe out there! Here we go.
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ReplyDeleteold school............a RDG RFE bought a new set of automobile jumper cables and connected them to rails at Perkiomen Jct. Budd car engineer stopped, took jumper cables and left with RFE running and shouting ! RFE nickname "silver fox"
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