Code 101

[mechurchlady]

the trains at Disney are real working trains and not Casey Jr. toy trains. I bet if put on straight track they could do 70 mph.

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Naw. The engineer was in a rush with his legs crossed, in some distress. What Zazu didn't mention was the engineer hopped off the train near the backstage restrooms while the train coasted into the station. (j/k)

Actually I believe this run was mentioned once before when "famous last days" were being discussed.

Randy

When ya gotta go...Ya gotta GO!!!

[smart1hermione]

Naw. The engineer was in a rush with his legs crossed, in some distress. What Zazu didn't mention was the engineer hopped off the train near the backstage restrooms while the train coasted into the station. (j/k)

Actually I believe this run was mentioned once before when "famous last days" were being discussed.

Randy

Hey, when you gotta go, lives of innocent children apparently aren't important...

[joanna71985]

Probably the most interesting 101 happened one afternoon just as I was going off shift. My bump had arrived at Main Street station and we both loaded the train and sent it off. As I was briefing my replacement, I happened to look down the track after the train and noticed small puffs of smoke rising from the track.

Not the train--the track. And no, that's not how it's supposed to work.

Fortunately, I'd seen this before and knew what was happening: Something on the locomotive had broken and it was dripping burning oil on the track. (It was a cracked atomizer, in case anyone cares.)

So, I told my bump to call in a Signal 25 and to notify the next station. I grabbed a fire extinguisher and walked off down the track putting out the little fires, poof, poof, poof. (No, this isn't where I got a reputation as an "outstanding poofer", that was another time in Fantasyland.)

Is that where you jumped from the train because some idiot threw a cig into the brush?

[Zazu]

48 MILES PER HOUR?!?!?!?! That's almost scary, especially considering the backstretch isn't all that long really and the distance you would have needed to slow down to a safe speed for the curve at the end of it. I'd be holding on for dear life if I was on him when you all did that.

It wasn't all that scary. The Park was closed, and the Chief Mechanic was at the throttle. The high-speed run was the best way to see if the suspension had been set up properly by the Tweetsie when they rebuilt the locomotives a few years back. If the loco bounced off the rails at four times normal speed, it wasn't fit to be put into service with guests.

And yeah, had I been aboard I would have been using a five-point harness. If not to the train itself, then to my parachute!

[Zazu]

Naw. The engineer was in a rush with his legs crossed, in some distress. What Zazu didn't mention was the engineer hopped off the train near the backstage restrooms while the train coasted into the station.

Naw, the Engineers just let fly out the side of the train if they have to go. It's actually traditional, and fully within the definition of authentic performance theming!

OTOH, a few have been reprimanded for taking a leak out behind the oil house.

Actually I believe this run was mentioned once before when "famous last days" were being discussed.

Now that trip *did* involve guest passengers!

[ktulu]

It wasn't all that scary. The Park was closed, and the Chief Mechanic was at the throttle. The high-speed run is the best way to see if the suspension was set up properly by the Tweetsie when they rebuilt the locomotives a few years back. If the loco bounced off the rails at four times normal speed, it wasn't fit to be put into service with guests.

And yeah, had I been aboard I would have been using a five-point harness. If not to the train itself, then to my parachute!

I'd have also packed a clean pair of underwear, or at least some depends.

[Zazu]

OK, now we want to hear the Fantasyland story... :D:

I was on limited duty while my heel heeled. Assigned to Fantasyland Merchandise, they put me in the stockroom for Tinker Bell's Treasures.

My leader was a stern Teutonic type. "You vill take der dresses out of der box, you vill remoof der plastiker wrap, you vill place dem on der korrect hangars, und you vill be certain dat dey vill haf der korrect size rinks. Verstehen?"

"Ja vohl!" I replied, and set to work.

Twenty minutes later, she came back to see how I was doing. There were no boxes of dresses, no pile of plastic wrap, and I was just sitting in a chair. "Vat haff you been doink?" she demanded.

"Well, I broke down the cardboard boxes, but don't know where to put them for recycling. I did find the plastic wrap bin, so that's gone. When I got done unpacking and hanging the dresses, I went through the rest of the rack and replaced incorrect hangers and size rings. Since I didn't know how to reach you, I just sat and waited for the past five minutes.

She took one of the dresses off the rack and examined it with a critical eye, "You did a good chob of poofing up deese dresses. You are a very gut 'poofer'!"

"Thanks for the compliment," I replied, "But please ... don't ever say that when my Main Street co-workers can hear!"

[GuestJockey]

I was on limited duty while my heel heeled. Assigned to Fantasyland Merchandise, they put me in the stockroom for Tinker Bell's Treasures.

My leader was a stern Teutonic type. "You vill take der dresses out of der box, you vill remoof der plastiker wrap, you vill place dem on der korrect hangars, und you vill be certain dat dey vill haf der korrect size rinks. Verstehen?"

"Ja vohl!" I replied, and set to work.

Twenty minutes later, she came back to see how I was doing. There were no boxes of dresses, no pile of plastic wrap, and I was just sitting in a chair. "Vat haff you been doink?" she demanded.

"Well, I broke down the cardboard boxes, but don't know where to put them for recycling. I did find the plastic wrap bin, so that's gone. When I got done unpacking and hanging the dresses, I went through the rest of the rack and replaced incorrect hangers and size rings. Since I didn't know how to reach you, I just sat and waited for the past five minutes.

She took one of the dresses off the rack and examined it with a critical eye, "You did a good chob of poofing up deese dresses. You are a very gut 'poofer'!"

"Thanks for the compliment," I replied, "But please ... don't ever say that when my Main Street co-workers can hear!"

Where I work on Main St. we have a LOT of "good poofers."

[Zazu]

the trains at Disney are real working trains and not Casey Jr. toy trains. I bet if put on straight track they could do 70 mph.

In their original configuration, I suspect most of them could. That said, the locomotives at WDW have had their suspension modified to optimize performance at 12-15mph. I suspect they would bounce themselves off the track before they hit 70mph. At the very least, I'd want to take the speed up in 10mph increments with some way to measure how far off the rails the tires got.

But you are very correct that these locomotive designs were built for much higher speeds and much more tractive effort than are asked of them in a typical park setting. This light duty is one of the reasons some have hit the 100-year mark and the rest are very likely to. It's also why most of us railroaders get quite angry when we see them being neglected or abused.