emergencies; however, experience has proved that both safety and
efficiency decrease when crews must work continuous daily shifts of
more than 12 hours. It is possible to work crews on 16to 18hour
shifts provided that sufficient rest periods are allowed before they
report back on another run. Road crews may be required to work
longer shifts because of the length of the division. When they are,
they should be allowed enough time off between runs so that the daily
shift will not average more than 12 hours.
The following paragraph presents and explains a formula that
military planners use to obtain a fairly accurate determination of
the number of road crews needed for a given railway division.
4.3. FORMULA FOR DETERMINING ROAD CREWS
To determine the number of road crews needed for a rail
division, find values for the unknowns and substitute them in the
following formula:
where:
TD = train density
2 = factor to convert to twoway traffic
RT = running time (length of division divided by average
speed)
3 = time allowed for 2hour call period plus 1hour
period at destination
12 = 12hour shift per road crew per day
1.25 = constant factor to allow 25 percent reserve for
sickness and other absences
If you are going to operate a singletrack rail division 90
miles long with a TD of 10 and an average speed of 10 mph, you can
use the formula and determine the number of road crews you need as
follows:
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