Fire Fighting train?

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dispatcher812

dispatcher812

Member
On railpictures.net, I saw a picture of a firefighting train. Seen here: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=276074&nseq=79

Besides the obvious, what is this train used for? When is it deployed? Why have a fire fighting train at all?

I could understand in areas in Europe that run the high speed trains in the middle of nowhere but this looks urban to me. Any ideas? I am a Fire fighter and the thought of a Fire Fighting Train was very curioius to me. Thanks.
 
I'm guessing you're right about the need for it in Europe, not a lot of access . I believe logging railroads had special cars for the remote areas where the sparks and cinders were flying. Never heard of a dedicated train however.
I'm also a fire fighter, or was until this year anyway, and drive a hi-rail fire truck behind a rail grinding train that has fire fighting capabilities. We get into some pretty remote areas and have some intense moments when the flames start climbing "fuzzy" mountains!
 
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I can't really speak to the purpose of firefighting trains in Europe but in western North American many logging facilities had such trains, consisting of several specialized cars, always sitting at the ready in the yard in case of forest, or wooden trestle fires.

NYW&B
 


While I'm unable to quickly lay my hands of any photos of prototype lumber company fire fighting trains, here's a link to HO models of the one employed by the McCabe Lumber Co., which is fairly representative of those used in the past. Several such HO fire fighting trains have been offered over the years, one as I recall even in brass. More modern examples (at least one offered in plastic) look pretty much like regular RR tank cars with a pump, platform and monitor mounted atop them.

Here the vintage, wooden craftsman kit, example:

http://www.btsrr.com/bts8275.htm

And here's a modern one as a plastic model:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Trainline-R-Fir...1QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

NYW&B
 
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Tunnel Rescue Train

That's a Tunnel Rescue Train of the Swiss Railroad; used for - obviously - tunnel resecue situations as well as fire fighting in or around tunnels. There are many railroad tunnels in Switzerland with little of no vehicular access.

The only access to the tunnel is by train. The German (DB) and Austrian (OeBB) Railroads have similar equipment. The DB also has dedicated Fire Trains for fighting forest fires.

Dvaid

dispatcher812 said:
On railpictures.net, I saw a picture of a firefighting train. Seen here: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=276074&nseq=79

Besides the obvious, what is this train used for? When is it deployed? Why have a fire fighting train at all?

I could understand in areas in Europe that run the high speed trains in the middle of nowhere but this looks urban to me. Any ideas? I am a Fire fighter and the thought of a Fire Fighting Train was very curioius to me. Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
Joe Fugate models the Siskiyou line in the 1980s and per the prototype each train over Rice Hill carries water cars with it. It was a Forest Service requirement that trains had to use them from April to October. The cars are old MOW tanks with various sprinklers, pumps and hoses.

Photos:
http://shastaroute.railfan.net/MWTankcar.html
 
Is CORP still running over that part? I thought they quit shortly after the quit on the Coos Bay line.
 


Back in the early 60's there was a train run by US Sugar in the Everglades that was for out of control Sugar cane fires. I remember that train to this day. It was pulled by a small switcher & had 8 oversized tank cars w/large rotating water guns mounted on a platform on each tank car. Those water guns could sure put out a heavy concentrated blast of water. When I was in the sales business & on the road all the time I was down in Pahokee at a Sugar Cane Plant & there sat that water train all rusted away. I couldn't beleive what I was seeing. Even the switcher was connected up & it was in worse shape than the cars. A guy at the maint. shed said it had been sitting there since about 1968.
It was on a dead siding.
 
kjd said:
Is CORP still running over that part? I thought they quit shortly after the quit on the Coos Bay line.
Click to expand...
Could be, just know that they were required to run the same train, as was UP for the short time they owned it...
 
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