Bizarre...

I've never seen anything like it.  Looks somewhat problematic though doesn't it?

 "What's y'all think?" it

it was a gag photo taken during a break in a training session.........DaveB 

There goes another good yarn....

Always letting the "truth" stand in the way of a good story.

Off course you could always do things the other way round -

and park this fire brigade across a road crossing 

Gag it may be

but was safety ensured at the time? Graveyards, poorhouses and prisons across history have hosted people who thought their actions were simply humour.

That is Funny!

Having had a volunteer fire career of 16 years myself, I find it funny. I can only remember working two major structure fires where we had to lay line across active railroad tracks. The first thing we did want notify dispatch to get in touch with Conrail and tell them there was a fire and that hose lines were blocking the tracks.

"Having had a volunteer fire

 Did you ever have to put out a train fire?   An old SP conductor told me about a trip along the line from SanHo to Watsonville where they were returning with a switcher from the Jct. in the consist that had been up for repairs and now was throwing out sparks so something was still not right. When appraising the situation the hogger laughed and said "it's puking it's gut out" or something to that effect.As they continued discussing it I guess the decision was to keep going and maybe that would send the message to the shop to next time do it right. So they are rolling along still amused by the "puking it's guts out " thing when they see a cop car parked at a grade crossing flagging them down, then shortly after a fire truck rolls up and tells them one of their cars has caught on fire and they better roll it up to the crossing so they can put it out:> )   .....DaveB

Rules, just following the rules

This was circulated on FB by firefighters a year ago. The story was that a " rule abiding " firefighter took the opportunity to "apply" the SOP rules and use a new piece of equipment as instructed. They had called and blocked to RR crossing with RR authorities - this was an afterthought.  . . . .  or so it was said . . . .

Here's a explanation beyond humor and "just following the rules"

Keep in mind that this explanation may not apply, but it could be a consideration:

A hi-railer approaching the scene could lower its rubber tires on the grade crossing, traverse the hose, then raise the tires and continue on the track.

This was posted in Freerails

This was posted in Freerails some time back, probably shortly after it's FB introduction and after the predictable "What Idiots" comments a discussion ensued regarding "hose jumpers". Back in the day, streetcar operators had these metal bridge like devices to allow a streetcar to slowly traverse hoses across the tracks. There's a set in one of the car barns of the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, Ca. Saw them myself recently during a visit there. They wouldn't be up to the huge tonnage of a modern (or older) locomotive and freight cars, but for a streetcar they were useful.

What railroad?

That fire train is NEAT--what railroad is this?  and do yu have any more info on it?

I talked with and old man at

I talked with and old man at a C&O conference once.  He told a story about how when he was young and lived in Thurmond WV there was a fire in a trackside house so they ran a house from the railroad water supply (Thurmond is a yard and engine maintenance location) this worked well for a while, but the supply was on one side of the tracks and the house was on the other.  And when a train came by they suddenly had three hoses were they used to have one.  The whole story sounded like something from the keystone cops type of movie.

So thuis does happen.

-Doug Meyer

As I recall

when this image first surfaced it was eventually sussed out as a training exercise in Europe somewhere - and the local FD had apparently coordinated with the rail line to shut off service for the duration of the training time.

Hmm...not so fast...

What happens to that firehose if a heavy truck comes along and all that weight is on the hose against the steel rail with the dropouts for the grade crossing creating a nice edge? Just might damage the hose.

You know, maybe these guys do know what they are doing...

It's not the hose...

Likely to damage the fireman on the other end if the hose is delivering water.

Re :What Railroad?

This is the only accredited rail-mounted fire-fighting tanker on 2' gauge in NSW.  The fire tanker   http://www.ilrms.com.au/fire_tender.htm is at  http://www.ilrms.com.au/index.htm  The tank came from a scrapped road bushfire unit, The underfame came from a former sugar tramway wagon. The pump is now a diesel unit. It replaced an earlier fire tanker unit of ours on which the tank rusted out The pump is rigged with:

• a full size standard fire fighting hose outlet  (3.5"?)
• the hose reel 
• a spray bar for damping down the track surrounds  

The tanker is kept coupled to a i/c-powered loco and can transport a crew of 3 of our members on the fenced in front platform in front of the water tank to wherever the problem might be.  

When you are running through tree-lined tracks like this  http://www.ilrms.com.au/main_line.htm where dead leaf litter build-up can be a problem when running steam trains, then it makes good sense to have something like this fire tanker to stamp on a small fire before it becomes a large fire. It also helps us to "hold the fort" until the real firies arrive. If has only been used rarely, so far to fight small smoulders, but we are glad we have it. The spray bar gets far more use - on a hot summer's day we might do 2 or 3 runs with the spray bar during the day, Each lap with the spray bar will put up to about 1/2 a tank full of water down on the track and ballast shoulder where any sparks/live embers from the ashpan are most likely to fall. On days of total fire ban due ti bushfire danger, the steam locomotives stay in the shed and we run a diesel hauled service. 

DaveB

Never had to put out any railroad equipment. The vast majority of rail traffic on the railroads in my hometown was coal. We used to have brush fires in the springtime due to sparks from wheels or hot journal boxes (I am thinking more like bored railroad workers). 

When I was a kid, a buddy of mine got ahold of some of those jumping jack firecrackers. We were back by the old railroad freight sheds. On the dock there were some bags of creosote wooden wedges in burlap bags. Dan lit one of the jumping jacks and it jumped up onto the dock and lit the bags on fire. Luckily we weren't held responsible for the fire by the railroad, but we both got our hides tanned for it by our parents!

"When I was a kid, a buddy of

    Those were the days, playing in the rail yards makes one a lifetime railfan or modeler. Too bad kids don't get that education anymore.   As for sparking locos or brakes I've seen photos of SP fire trains that apparently got quite a bit of use in the old days. The only time I've seen one actually used was when they were grinding rail up on Donner and the fire train followed along to spray the right of way to hopefully  douse any sparks. .DaveB