When the media doesn't have anything to report that is worthy, the media can create some "what if" news. This ya-ba-da-ba-doo about an impaling rod is just that.I'm writing my response with a sorry try at humor, so try to follow along.
First, #12 is an oil burner. There is no "stoking of the fire" on an oil burner. That rod is used to clean the burner, and every engineer I know would stop the train if the fireman started poking around with the firebox door open. Secondly, the rod that you're talking about was typically kept on the water tender of #12, meaning that the fireman would have had to get out of the cab on #12, shimmy past the oil bunker, grab that "rod of death", shimmy back to the cab, stoke the non-existent bed of ambers, then shimmy back to the water bunker to put the "rod of death" back. Wait, perhaps the fireman kept it on the oil bunker, meaning that if the engineer did indeed apply the emergency brakes at a rate beyond imagination, the "rod of death" would have to either fall between #12's oil and water bunkers, or fly off the oil bunker, bounce off the water bunker, and impale 23 unsuspecting tourists ... after it goes through the ridge on #12's tender. Woah ... I don't think even the media or movies gets that creative. At what point do the scaly creatures come up out of Clear Creek to devour the unsuspecting survivors?
Let me get this straight - you're saying that the conductor dumped the air AFTER the train had stopped under the bridge, switched directions, and was rapidly accelerating up hill? Are you sure?
I've dumped the GLR train into emergency enough times to give you one more bit of reassurance that the rate of deceleration is rapid, but not barely enough to knock over a cup of water, let alone propel the "iron rod of tourist sacrifice".
FRA? The letters to strike fear and sensationalistic grandeur? FRA has been thrown out and speculated here on NGDF like a mystical grim reaper. Find out for yourself. I source their website on a regular basis and interact with them for a living. See
[www.fra.dot.gov] to be rid of the FRA goblins.
The conductors on GLR get so many silly statements that they seemingly all flow in and out the same - with a smile and a polite response. There's been exceptions to silly things being individually documented by one of the past GLR conductors. This list is always good for a belly laugh. I'm sure the "what if iron rod of death" could qualify.
Now that the Loop is with a new operator, and most people are not returning, you offer up the advice that GLR should find alternate ways to stop a train other than the conductor's valve ... ala Buster Keaton? huh? I guess the radios the GLR conductors had were only to enhance the shape of their square butts, should they put them in their back pocket? Since them radios supposedly didn't work (they did work), we certainly thought hand signals meant "bring me cookies", but we were usually fresh out after the first run.
We should use whistle signals, you say? Tell that to the locals who protest - yet GLR used whistle signals that I'm certain the FRA would have given shiney happy smiley faces for. Wait - how can the conductor give proper whistle signals to the locomotive? Perhaps the next Georgetown Loop conductors can have canned-air-horns with accessory lassos and butterfly nets.
"I also told the conductor that I observed that the engineer never turned his head around to check back over the train to see if it was derailed or why he went in emergency. He seemed surprised to see the Conductor climb in the cab." Have you noticed that the number of sightings of UFOs has drastically decreased to nothing now that everybody has video cameras? Golly, you observed all this, ensuring that the engineer was so consumed with other things that he never ever looked back? And, from thirty feet away, with an oil bunker and a water bunker blocking your view, you could empathize with the shock on the engineer's face when the conductor appeared in the cab? That is psychodelic, man.
"First try to apply the brakes with a conductor’s valve before dumping it.", you say? So, the conductor should, with finesse, operate the conductor's valve like the engineer's automatic valve to produce a regulated and constant release of pressure to the train brakes ... until the point that the conductor can telephone the unaware engineer? huh? ICC tells you this?
Jerry Huck, Earl Knoob, and Robby Peartree have written some well deserved responses to all you foaming nitpickers. Besides, it's a train ride -meant for enjoyment - lighten up and quit looking for that thing that makes your trip not super-perfect. That goes for more foaming nitpickers than you, PRSL. Narrow Gauge trivia is great on this site, but picking on operation is simply no class bad taste - especially exagerated.
You say you're not just picking on C&TS? Give it up. I'd bet that C&TS crew won't appreciate you picking at them as to what you feel they do wrong either. Quit trying to pick on anybody. Us dingbats that enjoy sitting right next to 200 psi of superheated steam take offense to those that know more based on 12VDC experience.
GLR was a group of wonderful people. They still are. We don't, as any other operation, appreciate a bad rap. It isn't the great trip that people remember when you tell them a fairy tell like this. They remember the crap that you just served ... that "iron rod of impaling sacrifice".
Keep your advice. Try to come up with a list of ten things that made your trip enjoyable. That's why you go, isn't it? Or, is it to find the one thing to make stink? Lighten up on your next train ride. Check out the scenery, take some pictures, and attempt to talk to a few people that are riding the train with you (minus the conductor and locomotive crew).
