Repair Work
As I explained a couple of days ago, Lisa called the railroad to tell them about the ding-a-ling locomotive. Nobody seems to have paid any attention to that call, based on the experience of the BNSF crew called on Monday.
The contractor delivered the crew on Monday. The crew tried to start the locomotive, with no success. Fortunately, the contract driver stayed around while they tried. I saw them trying to call someone about it. They sat for a while. I walked over (masked up) and told them that (a) we'd called that in to Union Pacific (after BNSF told us to call UP) after the bell had clanged away for over an hour and (b) the bell had run all night long and at least eleven hours that we personally observed. The crew member said that they'd not been told anything about that. It does appear that the message died somewhere in UP's system. I suspect that whoever took the call didn't take Lisa seriously and assumed it was just someone complaining about the sound of a passing train. The crew van left soon afterwards, which probably was going to make BNSF customers in Fernley unhappy.
Later in the day, a contract repair person turned up. The first we knew of this was when the main bell started clanging again. It soon stopped, and the mechanical contractor kept working on it. I was totally zonked and went to bed early, but Lisa told me today that she spoke to the the contractor (at a safe distance) and told him the story of us trying to tell the railroad about their bell-ringer. He'd not heard about that. He did offer to give Lisa a tour of the locomotive, but she turned it down due to COVID concerns, but thanked him.
Overnight, we heard the locomotive start back up and idle periodically. Today, however, it did not restart. We have heard it trying to restart repeatedly, including the "telephone" bell ringing for a long time. (This isn't so much of a problem as the main warning bell on the locomotive.) The mechanical contractor told Lisa that BNSF repainted these locomotives, but that's about all they did, he thinks. I wonder how long it will be before #502 gets hauled away by the "big BN" through freight.
The contractor delivered the crew on Monday. The crew tried to start the locomotive, with no success. Fortunately, the contract driver stayed around while they tried. I saw them trying to call someone about it. They sat for a while. I walked over (masked up) and told them that (a) we'd called that in to Union Pacific (after BNSF told us to call UP) after the bell had clanged away for over an hour and (b) the bell had run all night long and at least eleven hours that we personally observed. The crew member said that they'd not been told anything about that. It does appear that the message died somewhere in UP's system. I suspect that whoever took the call didn't take Lisa seriously and assumed it was just someone complaining about the sound of a passing train. The crew van left soon afterwards, which probably was going to make BNSF customers in Fernley unhappy.
Later in the day, a contract repair person turned up. The first we knew of this was when the main bell started clanging again. It soon stopped, and the mechanical contractor kept working on it. I was totally zonked and went to bed early, but Lisa told me today that she spoke to the the contractor (at a safe distance) and told him the story of us trying to tell the railroad about their bell-ringer. He'd not heard about that. He did offer to give Lisa a tour of the locomotive, but she turned it down due to COVID concerns, but thanked him.
Overnight, we heard the locomotive start back up and idle periodically. Today, however, it did not restart. We have heard it trying to restart repeatedly, including the "telephone" bell ringing for a long time. (This isn't so much of a problem as the main warning bell on the locomotive.) The mechanical contractor told Lisa that BNSF repainted these locomotives, but that's about all they did, he thinks. I wonder how long it will be before #502 gets hauled away by the "big BN" through freight.