Btw...about 4 months ago

[Kurt]

Norfolk Southern Railway was after me for a Operational Technology Cyber Security lead.

Rail OT includes "carriage intelligence" which is kind of like the "check engine" light on your car. But imagine you get a "check wheels" or "check trucks" light on and the train passes over a transponder that functions like an RFID reader and gives specific details to what the problem is so you can address it.

Norfolk Southern seems to have had car intelligence but no train control systems to utilize a transponder to address "check engine" lights.

I have no problem addressing challenges in a job but the reason I kept blowing them off is they are well known as being horrible people to work for. Really big on "Grind Culture" (work til you drop or "hardcore" like Musks twitter) and I would have had to move to the Atlanta area and commute daily to work (I work from home 80% and my commute is a 40 minute train ride where I sit and read)

Grind Culture type places tend to "blame the new guy" so I am sure if I had taken this job I would have been shitcanned for not detecting a problem that would have been impossible for me to detect.

Essentially the crash was caused by this:
The check wheel light is on.
Oh, that things always on. I think the light is broken.

[Michael]

Back when computers were a new thing on trains. I was involved in getting rid of station agents because computers. One of our witnesses recounted an argument he had over the phone with a dispatcher on the other side of the country over a missing tank car full of hazmat. The dispatcher insisted that the car was on the siding where it was
supposed to be because the computer said so. Finally, the customer told the dispatcher told the dispatcher that he was standing on the siding and there were no cars of any kind to be seen anywhere. The dispatcher still argued with him. As I recall, they eventually found it in Wyoming. An agent probably wouldn't have prevented the problem, but it does speak to putting too much reliance on systems with no back up.

[Alphabet]

Wait....It wasn't Neo Nazi terrorists trying to start up the 4th Reich?

You mean like train derailments, and other infrastructure shit happens this much every fucking year, and it isn't some White Power conspiracy?

You don't say?

You should just tell them it's Nazis.

[Kurt]

Wait....It wasn't Neo Nazi terrorists trying to start up the 4th Reich?

You mean like train derailments, and other infrastructure shit happens this much every fucking year, and it isn't some White Power conspiracy?

You don't say?

You should just tell them it's Nazis.

There are enough Nazis I do not need to pad my bias with made up stuff.

[Tarkan]

One of my wife's cousins used to steer trains for BNSF, otherwise known as Better Not Start a Family.

You got 2 days of sick time. Not per year, but per career. Working holidays would net you more sick time.

The train companies spend close to a $100,000 training each conductor, and then after they are trained, do everything possible to fire them / get them to quit.

Seems like a pretty shit culture and working environment all around.

[gnaruki]

BNSF is shit for small customers too. They pretty much laugh if you try to order a single rail car to an inconvenient siding. In America bulk freight rules the rails.

[Kurt]

Back when computers were a new thing on trains. I was involved in getting rid of station agents because computers. One of our witnesses recounted an argument he had over the phone with a dispatcher on the other side of the country over a missing tank car full of hazmat. The dispatcher insisted that the car was on the siding where it was
supposed to be because the computer said so. Finally, the customer told the dispatcher told the dispatcher that he was standing on the siding and there were no cars of any kind to be seen anywhere. The dispatcher still argued with him. As I recall, they eventually found it in Wyoming. An agent probably wouldn't have prevented the problem, but it does speak to putting too much reliance on systems with no back up.

I cannot even fathom this. Was the computer one to aid dispatch in dark territory? (AKA most of the USA). Most train control systems would not lose a car. They could have a train with a dropped ID or a car with mislabled cargo.
Anyway, most US rail lines seem to be a crap festival. Weare probably going to find a secret cabal of mutton chopped men wearing top hats holed up in a chop house in NYC or Pittsburgh that really run the country inbetween bouts of Gout and Pleurisy.

[Kurt]

Oddly enough, I was just at a meeting where:

1. Stop Cop City folks (or those claiming to be) shunted a signal of a Norfolk Southern line in PA but it was discovered and removed. On the East coast this is not a typical Lefty action (or any action) but in the Pacific Northwest and Canada it is something environmentalists have done to trains carrying old growth lumber.

2. Nazis are trying to use 3D printed Derailers (that is actually a thing with legit uses, but not 3D printed in the hands of Nazis). Some have been found that were manufactured to spec in China.
The good news about Train Derailers is that they usually are only effective at low speeds like in the yards and at stations. The bad news is they are a pain in the ass and, they might work at higher speeds too.

[Alphabet]

I was at a red light for literally 5 mins this morning. 100% Nazis.

[Michael]

Anyway, most US rail lines seem to be a crap festival. Weare probably going to find a secret cabal of mutton chopped men wearing top hats holed up in a chop house in NYC or Pittsburgh that really run the country inbetween bouts of Gout and Pleurisy.

I have always maintained that the rail industry is far and away the most progressive industry that is still in the 19th century...

[Kurt]

Anyway, most US rail lines seem to be a crap festival. Weare probably going to find a secret cabal of mutton chopped men wearing top hats holed up in a chop house in NYC or Pittsburgh that really run the country inbetween bouts of Gout and Pleurisy.

I have always maintained that the rail industry is far and away the most progressive industry that is still in the 19th century...

I work for one and that is right. One of the things I am in charge of is moving railway and signaling systems to be IEC-62443 compliant.

You won't believe the confused looks I get. "International?" "Cyber Security?"

A Signalman who died in WWI could come back from the dead and totally understand most US railway operation but would lament at how deteriorated it had become.

Even Metro systems like Boston and Chicago are running on tech from about 1941.