Inside TTC: A Railroad Professional’s Perspective from Pueblo, CO
From track construction to locomotive maintenance and rail safety training, the range of services provided by Northern Plains certainly provides its employees with interesting experiences in railroading. Since entering into a contract with ENSCO in 2023 to provide train operations personnel at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) in Pueblo, CO, those experiences have become much broader indeed.
TTC – operated by ENSCO on a U.S. Department of Transportation-owned site northeast of Pueblo – spans 52 square miles, making it the largest railway test center in the world. Located somewhat remotely in the Pueblo region of southern Colorado, it originally opened in 1971 as the “High Speed Ground Test Center,” and in 1974 was renamed TTC, featuring over 50 miles of track used for industry testing.
NPR’s Matt Walker gives us some personal perspectives as a railroad professional working at ENSCO’s Transportation Technology Center, Pueblo, CO.
The Railway Test Track (RTT) is the longest and most advanced: A 13-mile loop with continuous overhead catenary, a reverse curve, a long straight-away (a favorite spot for brake tests), undulating grades, and built to test operations at speeds up to 165 mph. Equipment such as the Amtrak Acela, now in service on the Northeast corridor, has been tested on the RTT.
The Transit Test Track (TTT) is a nine-mile-long loop featuring continuous electrified third rail and nearly two miles of overhead catenary. Additionally, it has two 1.5% grades in each direction, allowing testing on both ascending and descending grades. Rounding out the specialized tracks is the High Tonnage Loop (HTL), a 2.7-mile track used to test anything from the crossties up. When testing is conducted on this track, a unit aggregate train weighing over 18,000 tons might run nonstop 10-12 hours per day, accumulating valuable data on equipment and components being tested.
In addition to “on-track” testing, TTC delivers other services that include certifiable training and support services for railroad emergency response, hazardous materials, and security meeting national and international standards. In addition, training is provided in rolling stock and track inspection, rail vehicle dynamics using prototype equipment and simulation software, and advanced lab work and test facilities that support rail integrity research, component failure analysis, and full-scale collision and impact testing.
Given all of these technical services offered, Railroader readers might ask “What are those Northern Plains guys doing down there?” Great question – many days we ponder that ourselves! The truth is that while there are days considered by our group of NPR staff to be fairly mundane, sometimes a task comes up that’s so “off the wall,” even with over 100 years of combined experience we have to put our heads together to figure out how to meet the customer’s needs and formulate the best plan quickly. Our planning process, however, is important; there’s often a lot of thoughtful poses; looking skyward at some imaginary schematic…eyes closed, motioning back and forth with a finger to follow our thoughts on what the next switching move might be (e.g. “If we cut off there, then spin the engine, then set it over…”). There is always plenty of discussion about what approach will work – and what definitely won’t, given the track configuration and the positioning that the customer requires the specific car equipment to be in for testing purposes. As the old saying goes, there may be “100 ways to skin a cat,” but there’s usually only one that’s the most efficient, and that’s what we shoot for.
Whenever a new project is introduced, everyone involved goes through safety training with ENSCO for the site-specific particulars. In addition, after gaining understanding of the specific test plan, our NPR team develops a railroad operational safety protocol specific to the proposed test. Of course, we include the standards, such as prohibiting getting on/off equipment and ensuring “3-step” or “red zone” protection. Some tests are more complex, and thus, have more people involved. For example, on some tests you might have an entire passenger/commuter train of up to 1,000 feet long, with 10+ people stationed in various places monitoring activity with computers, together with additional observers in a locomotive cab. All of this leads to us designating one point person in charge of relaying instructions and confirming the application of rules.
The vastness of Colorado, including its wildlife, is evident from the TTC facility where Matt Walker and his Northern Plains Railroad colleagues work to deliver safe and customized operating solutions to ENSCO.
Many of the clients of TTC have prior experience testing at the location, and thus have an existing good rapport with NPR’s crews and the ENSCO staff. When a new group shows up, it’s like going on a first date – you’re learning each other’s personalities and expectations, and what a successful test means for them. It is gratifying for us that with few exceptions, once we all get to know each other, everything typically goes pretty swimmingly.
Test plans have a tendency to change – a lot. But our NPR crew is proud of its ability to find ways to work with the ENSCO team to roll with the punches and figure it out when they throw us a curveball. Sometimes this requires NPR Superintendent John Barry, along with ENSCO leadership, working together to say, “While we can’t do that – here’s what we can do.” And 99% of the time everybody walks away happy. That’s a pretty good track record!
You might be wondering about the actual tests we do. While I unfortunately can’t get into all of the specifics, nearly every test includes a significant emphasis on brakes because, as you know in the railway world, they’re kind of important. There are often repetitive tests on stopping distances at certain speeds at varying brake settings carried out – and it can sometimes be a little stressful for those of us in the “hot seat,” because there is an understood margin of +/- 2 mph in order to satisfy a test – and we all do our best to “nail it.” Further, it’s not just doing the test once the desired speed is reached. Given the fact that we are measuring distance, each brake application is done at the exact same spot. So, you have to be at the target speed right at that spot, without braking to do so because that heats the brakes up and skews their results. If anything falls outside the parameters of a test enough to invalidate it, the test is repeated.
As you can probably appreciate, this is not a normal freight railroad job! We have the opportunity to work on very unique projects, and it is our goal to meet customer needs in a safe and proactive way.
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