Nation: Three on Amtrak Auto Train engaged emergency brakes

CRESCENT CITY, Fla. (April 20, 2002 7:34 p.m. EDT) - Investigators said Saturday that two Amtrak engineers and a conductor hit the emergency brakes just seconds before a train derailment that left four people dead and more than 150 injured.

The lead engineer of the Amtrak Auto Train told the National Transportation Safety Board that he saw a disjointed track about an hour into a trip from Sanford to Lorton, Va., and slammed on the engine's brake.

Seconds later, a backup engineer in the locomotive cab and a conductor two cars back felt the train hit the disjointed track and switched on emergency brakes as well, NTSB board member George Black said Saturday.

The NTSB hasn't said if its investigators have been able to verify if the track was misaligned.

The train's two engines and first two cars stayed on the tracks, but more than half of the Auto Train's 40 cars derailed Thursday afternoon, throwing passengers to the floor and against walls. The train was going 56 mph in a 60 mph zone at the time, investigators said.

The four people killed - all vacationers and snowbirds returning to the North from Florida - were identified as Frank Alfredo, 67, of Waccabuc, N.Y.; Joan DiStefano, 65, of Staten Island, N.Y.; and Joseph Wright, 75, and his wife, Marjorie, 70, of Toronto.

A person who answered the phone Saturday at Alfredo's landscaping business in Pound Ridge, N.Y., said the family was going through a lot and declined to comment. Alfredo and his wife, Dolores, have five grown children and had just sold their home a few weeks ago, a neighbor said.

DiStefano's son, Robert, reached at the family's home Saturday, declined to offer any details about his mother. The family of Joseph and Marjorie Wright had gone to Florida, Canada Foreign Affairs Department spokeswoman Martine Lagace said Saturday.

The train's two engineers were put on temporary administrative leave, a standard procedure in an investigation, Amtrak spokeswoman Kathleen Cantillon said Saturday. She said she didn't think either played a role in the accident.

Saturday's Auto Train was bound for Washington with 418 passengers and 34 crew members, as well as 200 automobiles stacked in 23 specially designed cars, when it derailed.

The tracks had been visually inspected eight hours earlier and had been in good condition, according to CSX, the freight railroad that owns the track.

Four other trains had passed over the area just before the wreck, including a southbound train carrying coal. A preliminary examination of the coal train and another train showed no problems, but investigators wanted to perform another inspection on the coal train, which passed only six to eight minutes earlier at 35 mph.

It is not uncommon for rails to expand in the Florida heat, but Black said the temperature, 81 degrees, did not appear to be a factor. Misalignments can also be caused by damage done by a previous train.

CSX spokeswoman Jane Covington didn't immediately return messages seeking comment Saturday.

An audit by federal inspectors two years ago raised questions about the effectiveness of CSX's track inspection, maintenance and track construction programs. The Federal Railroad Administration faulted CSX for failing to make track repairs quickly and said several track-related derailments could have been prevented with better inspections and maintenance.

Amtrak officials hoped to have the Auto Train running again by Monday or Tuesday, Cantillon said Saturday. Workers in hard hats and reflective vests used cranes Saturday to clear away the remaining rail cars.

The derailment was Amtrak's deadliest accident since March 15, 1999, when a train collided with a truck and derailed near Bourbonnais, Ill., killing 13 people and injuring more than 100.

The last Auto Train accident was in 1998, when a train hit an empty car at a crossing in the Virginia town of Jarratt. There were no injuries.

Since you apparently are familiar with railroad operations, I would appreciate your comments on something that long since has bothered me. Namely, how does one get to be a Locomotive Engineer? There are formal schools, military and civilian, that produce pilots. I can't comment on the civilian counterpart but having received my wings, courtesy of the United States Air Force, I can testify to the thoroughness of their training. Back many years ago when I graduated, that training cost about a million dollars for each young pilot.

There are also formal training schools for truck drivers. Not that they anywhere near approach the depth of class room and hands-on requirements of military fliers, but are there, nonetheless.

All of which brings me to to my original question of how does one qualify to operate a locomotive? I have seen employment ads for pilots as well as multiple ads of flight schools (wanting students). The same is true for truck drivers, but never in my lifetime have I seen an ad for a Locomotive engineer - or any hint of a training school for same. All of Which leads me to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that it is a closed society whose entry is restricted to members of the "family."

Please elaborate.

Yes, perhaps I spoke too generally. I was thinking of the long-haul trains, outside of the Northeast Corridor. Since passenger trains run on a schedule, I've always heard that most places considered it a plum assignment, so the competiton to get hired as an engineer by Amtrak on a line with just a couple of passenger trains a day led to needing a pretty good amount of seniority(experience, actually) and a sterling record for Amtrak to hire you. Especially in areas that saw a lot of consolidation in recent years. But I could see how that might be different in the Northeast or say California with its recent service expansions.

But down in Florida, are there any fairly new engineers? I still would bet they all average at least 20 years. I loved freight RR money, but the hours killed me. Amtrak seemed like a nice compromise, but I had plans outside the RR. I do know a lot of older heads would talk about drifting over to Amtrak when they finally got sick of it all(I think they had flowback rights from Penn Central days, where they would keep their seniority?)

It just depends on a lot of factors. There are a few colleges that offer some types of training. Someone might be able to get hired by a shortline railroad, some of them will train you. Also the major railroads hire from time to time, but it is very hit and miss. For a long time the railroads did almost no hiring, as they were consolidating and reducing excess staff. Only a generation ago most freight trains still ran with a 5 man crew, but labor agreements reduced that to two. So a lot of layoffs resulted, but many would still return when openings arose when retirement and growth eventually created spots. Airlines and truck traffic has grown much faster, hence the higher demand. It took until the mid-90's before there was a real need for hirings on a large scale. But then the railroads overhired, then the economic slowdown, and currently there is a glut in some places. In addition remote control is in the early stages of being implemented, that will reduce many crews to 1 man. So the outlook for new hiring is not good, but will take place in spots.

Yes, many new-hires were indeed 'family', being those with relatives already working for the RR. One reason for this is the nature of the job and the lifestyle. Odd hours, until recently no holidays off until you had many years of experience, seasonal layoffs for newhires, much time away from home, and no set schedule. Lots of divorces on the RR. Thus the retention rate is abysmal, half the guys the RR would train would quit within 6 months. So they figured people with family members on the RR may at least have a better since of the lifestyle demands. Nowadays railroads will send out hiring info to state job agencies, and even run ads in the paper. But they might do so one week, and then not again for 10 years.

Now to your actual question of how one trains to be an engineer. First you have to get hired by the RR. Background screening(no speeding tickets), psychological tests(don't answer yes when asked "Do you like to drive aggresively?"), and scare stories about how 'you'll spend Christmas in hotels and never see your kids grow up, so do you really want to do this?'. Once hired your sent to trainmen's school, 3-6 weeks plus of the basics(or some are required before hiring to attend a community college RR program, basically the same). Then you are assigned to ride along with crews for weeks or months to learn the territory and get hands on experiences as a brakeman or conductor. After a period(a few months to several years) of working as a brakeman or conductor in the yards and then on the road you may get a chance to bid on going to engineer school, all slots filled by seniority. That is 5 weeks of fairly intense training, followed by 6 months of riding with mentor engineers and gradually getting to run under their supervision in a variety of conditions. I believe then the student has to sit for certification.

Used to be that trainmen and engineers were separate crafts with separate unions and seniority, but nowadays the major RR's are forcing all trainmen to go to engineer's school. So the above sequence will vary from RR to RR, but that should give you an idea. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to be hired by the RR, but they try to look for people willing to take orders and meticulously follow a routine. Military background is a big plus. But in a pinch they also will hire some real nitwits. It just depends.

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