Reducing Fire Danger on the Mountain

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Folks we are heading for a dry start to our season.  Amongst other measures, we are concerned with the amount of dry material on the track between ToM and TBS.  Mostly leaves and pine needles, this material is dry and accessible now and could be readily blown clear of the track with careful use of the leaf blower.  I say “careful” because lack of care would also send the ballast off into the woods.

This is a two person job: one as a lookout and safety watch for heavy labor, and the other blowing.  That way the two can trade off as well. 

The blower was a huge utility for us blowing snow this winter.  It should work well for this as well.

Are any volunteers willing to take this task on?  It is important to mitigate our known fire hazards before we run again.

Thanks
Jason

[Benjamin Richards]

Dan and I tentatively plan to do a bit of leaf blowing in conjunction with RC4 testing on Thursday.

[Dante Lakin]

I can also be there to help this weekend, Saturday or Sunday if needed.

[Benjamin Richards]

We did not accomplish any leaf blowing today.

[Dan Malkowski]

As Ben said, we did not accomplish any leaf blowing but we did get a handle as to what should be done. Primarily on the mountain the first spot in question is where we had some issues last year, about 3/4 down the first steep grade out of ToM and just before Fossil crossing. That area should be blown back off the ROW and up the bank in my opinion, it's mostly pine needles there but still needs to be blown back. The other spots which are sporadic along the mountain could most likely just be blown off the ROW.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Thank you all for your attention to this.  This will ease a major concern for steam operations this spring. 

We still expect some high fire danger days so we’ll be very attentive regarding steam ops and fire protection. 

Thank you,
Jason

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Just a thought to consider here. Most fires, it would seem, start adjacent to the right of way rather than on the right of way, or at least the track structure itself. This is because most of the cinders emitted from the stack wind up landing somewhere adjacent to, but typically not on the track. I guess cinders from the ash pan or coming straight down on any given day might cause a fire directly on the track, but that seems less likely than the area that lies more or less at the edge of the ballast to treeline (or the edge of our right of way)

Fires are also not likely to be started by a cinder falling on fuel sized pieces of wood, or in decent conditions even kindling sized pieces. But a cinder landing in tinder is a recipe for a pretty good start for a fire so perhaps, blowing pine needles (ideal sized tinder) and concentrating them along the row is actually increasing the fire load in that area.

What about collecting and burning them somewhere or mulching them somewhere wet?
I could be off-base on this, but it seems to match what I’ve observed over the years.

[Joe Fox]

Steve you are quite right. Dry pine needles will literally burn like a gasoline soaked board at the touch of a hot cinder or ember. Dry grass of course presents a similar danger.

Unfortunately we are seeing dryer and dryer climates, with less and less snowfall each year now. We either end up with too much rain all at once, where it brings severe flooding, or we are dangerously dry.

Another thing I have thought of is using the around 3 tank cars of water to soak the right of way ditch to ditch on the mountain. At slow speeds, and on the morning before train time, this should provide enough saturation into the ground to reduce the fire danger a little more. Then leave the tank car loaded at ToM, or maybe even TBS on the tail track where it can be readily accessed.

A fire could easily start on the mountain on a class 3 fire danger day.

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Steve I appreciate your thoughts and don’t disagree that this material is fire ready regardless, but having studied our fire situation for some time I can attest that our principal cause for concern is from ashpan-induced fires more so than stack fires.  This is from paying careful attention to tue likely starting point of fires and noting it is usually on pine needles within 3’ of the track centerline.  This is especially true for locomotive 9 as noted over the past 7 years or so.  The notable exception was Monson 3; that difference was directly attributable to a known difference in spark arresting apparatus.

This doesn’t mean a stack-induced lineside fire can’t happen, but it has historically proven less likely.

If we look at our choices in mitigation: blowing leaves and pine needles off the track is significantly less effort than collecting for mulch.  I would estimate that it’s orders of magnitude less effort to blow leaves than collect and mulch- I used to do take part in a collect-and-mulch operation annually at another local maine narrow gauge railroad due to the propensity for stack-induced fires as well as the desired aesthetic- the effort took a crew of 5 a full week each spring to handle about 1/4 mile in the woods. 

So while we may choose to undertake the more difficult option, we still have every reason, in my opinion, to blow the leaves both because it is relatively little effort and will have the greatest mitigation effect given that our principal concern are fires that start within the track width. 

It was with this background and specific knowledge of our circumstance that we chose to purchase the high powered leaf blower.

As such I don’t believe we should diminish the value of our volunteers’ efforts to blow leaves this spring.

I hope that clarifies the reasons for the current approach.

Thanks
Jason

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Well, I definitely just learned something!

I was under the misunderstanding that issues were most likely to be caused by material ejected from the stack rather than the ashpan. As follows, the approach we're taking makes much sense to me now.

Thanks for clarifying and explaining.

[John McNamara]

While we should always be aware of fire danger, do we have any indications where fires are most likely? I have two locations in mind: north end of Cockeye Curve and north end of the steep section near TOM.
-John M

[Jason M Lamontagne]

Other notable locations are MP6 and Rosewood. 

[Bill Baskerville]

An ashpan fire I once witnessed was smoldering between the rails between two cockeyed curves.

[Benjamin Richards]

I think this fact (fires are more likely to start nearer the track centerline) should be emphasized by crew foremen and conductors during crew briefing. I admit that when assigned to the rear of a train for fire protection, I was not quite sure where exactly I should be watching. Now I know.

[Bill Reidy]

Some photos taken this morning.  Dan Malkowski led a crew of Dante Lakin, Dom Nesta, Nick Anderson and myself on the Mountain grade between Top of Mountain and Fossel's.

Dan handled the blower, while the rest of us cleared larger branches and/or raked the ditches.





Just south of Location 1.  The pine needle litter has been cleared from the track behind Dan, while some litter remains in the foreground.


At Fossel's, just before we headed back to Sheepscot.


We've has a lot of rain this winter, and the ditches were wet today in this section.  Once they dry out, another pass with the blower should be made.  Walking a bit north, I found a lot of deciduous leaf litter on the track in the area of Locations 2 and 3.  This litter is very wet.  Since this area does not get much sun, I suspect we need a week+ of warmer, dry weather so the material dries out enough for blowing.