Submitted by Steve Winicker.
LAST WEEKENDS SHOP ACTIVITY
This weekend we cleaned up the drawbars and got them ready for measuring and checking for cracks. Hope to do that over the next week. With a lot of advice and the help of Andrew and Matt we took apart the buffer and I believe I can shim it to bring it back to the standard that is specified in the SME Instructions.
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
Projects include magnafluxing the drawbars cleaning up the pockets on the tender and engine. putting the buffer back together. Inspecting the interior of the tender tank, changing out the main stoker throttle valve and many other fun and entertaining projects as they occur.
Other projects include getting the open-air car ready to go – possibly sand blasting the interior or cutting out a bit more steel. The box car is coming along with a few more grab irons to be installed. Other opportunities should be available on the 358.
SAFETY SENSE
Whether there is no injury, a small bruise or scratch, or worse, the consequences of unsafe acts and conditions are left to chance. A ratio showing a relationship between the number of near-miss incidents and injury incidents reported by researchers shows that for every 15 near-miss incidents, there will be one injury. In other words, there are 15 missed opportunities to prevent an injury.
An unknown number of near misses probably go unreported each month during our maintenance and operational activities. Many may not think of an incident as a near miss, but it is more often human nature that keeps these potential lessons from being reported and improving the safety system. Reasons employees don’t report near misses may be because they do not want to be blamed for problems or mistakes.
It takes time to report a near miss, however, it is truly important you report them. If not, what is lost is a free lesson in injury prevention. The few minutes spent reporting and investigating near-miss incidents can help prevent similar incidents, and even severe injuries. The difference between a near miss and an injury is typically a fraction of an inch or a split second.
It is truly unfortunate to incur a near miss, but it is unacceptable not to learn from those near misses and thus correct policies, procedures and our human behavior.
SAFETY IS JOB 1
SAFETY FIRST ALWAYS
