Since I'm on the operating side like Charlie, I'm not much on the nitty-gritty details except what I really need to know to run the things. The most important thing from my POV is that the daily inspection is done (if not, then I have to take care of it if it's due), and that the 'Blue Card' (FRA Inspection Record) is in date. The 92-day periodic inspection recorded on that form is the basic starting point for major servicing so if the unit is overdue, it can't be used for power until the inspection is done. There are other types of inspections that range in period from 368 days to 1840 days but that stuff is pretty much beyond my limits. If you really want to know what they look at, follow this link to the FRA rules under Title 49, Chapter II, Part 229 and have a ball. http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/cfrassemble.cgi?title=199949 On the actual servicing side of the game...I'm pretty much lost as to who does what, how many of them it takes and what their titles are. Somebody'll step up with an answer, I'll bet. All I do is park 'em on the pit, hand off to the engine house guys and head for someplace to get some sleep. There's always another set of power on the outbound tracks for me when I come back though so I know they do something with them after I leave. :hammer: Beyond that, it's all smoke and mirrors to me!
Well Guys, I'm going back to work Monday after my little adventure with the medical profession. It'll be tougher to squeeze in quick posts once the phone starts ringing in the wee hours again so westcoaster, shoot off anything on your mind one more time!! :question:
Might be abit late rule281.When i post i havent got a clue what times are over there!uk is easier @12hrs diff.Enough blah!Incase you catch this,With along heavy train,is it possible for a coupler to break?what with all the weight and to & fro forces?cheers stu:tb-cool:
Don't worry about time zones...I'll get it when I'm up and around. LOL In answer to the question...definitely yes, and it doesn't even need to be that big a train. Poor train handling can snap a knuckle or even rip out the whole drawhead on a really bad day. Such an event normally leads to a lengthy and usually unpleasant chat with a Road Foreman and a hard look at your event recorder. It just depends on how well you control the slack in your train, how well you know the terrain and how you use your power and brakes. Something as simple as a wheel slip during a high power, low speed pull can create enough sudden slack action to pop the metal apart if you're not ready for it. Too much power, a running brake release, a heavy hand on the independent (engine only) brake or any number of other factors can add up to more than a knuckle can take and a long walk for the conductor to fix it. So in addition to keeping you out of trouble with the management, knowing how to avoid knuckle breaks keeps the conversation with your ground-pounder a lot more civil. Sometimes one just plain gives out from years of use and abuse too. A small flaw or crack will expand over time until it finally comes apart on it's own. If the broken pieces show rust inside the flaw, you might get off the hook but if the whole crack is fresh and shiny metal (clean break), you'll probably get an unwelcome addition to your work record file.
Story... I was a student conductor working a 2nd shift transfer job to the BRC Clearing Yard in Chicago. I was working with 2 brothers,one was the conductor the other the brakeman. They were widely recognized as being about the two biggest bungholes in about 12 divisions in the Midwest. Their reputation was quite widespread. I was told by another old head, who worked with their father, that the old man was the biggest bunghole of them all. So the acorns fell pretty close to the tree in that family. Enehay... We were yarding a train in the east yard and we snapped a knuckle. The hogger had a fair amount of whiskers and normally worked the "long pool"(Chicago-LaCrosse WI). I think he was temping on this road switcher. Well... these two jokers jumped feet first on this hogger and told him "You own this knuckle -------!" They rode his back the rest of the night and all the way back to Eola. It was no big deal!!! There were no cars on the ground,nothing was damaged except the knuckle.We got a spare knuckle off the locomotive and the BRC utility man changed it out for us while the two clowns were busy picking apart the hogger. I should also add that as students, all of us were warned about what it was like to work with this pair and we were all wished the best! I think they have both retired by now. Hey... it's something that's bound to happen to even the best of 'em! Remind me sometime to post some of the biggest untruths a railroader can tell. I will post them on "Storytime with Charlie" Rule 281, I'll work with you on compiling this list!! Something just for a laugh! Charlie
Consider yourself reminded Charlie. The list is long and probably starts with, "Jeez, nobody ever told me I had to_________" Fill in the blank. :eh-wink: You can PM or just hit me here. I'm working an unassigned pool so posting is kinda hit or miss but be patient and I'll catch up eventually.
Hehe rule281,im back!So you and charlie-(untruths a railroader can tell!)You know i will believe it eh?!!!!!!So if i dont click on to it too quick and look a dick,just give me a nudge eh!lol.Anyway,broken couplers!eg:16000 ton train.has one ever broken while running?If it did happen would the brakes on the uncoupled part of train automactically come on?Or do they not work that way?I could imagine it could go pear shaped!cheers stu.:tb-cool:
oh YES! once the brake hoses or line is parted or broken, the reduction in pressure in the brake pipe will cause the system to go into emergency. The brakes will apply on the whole train.Depending on the terrain,speed,weight etc this could result in a derailment, not always a "fait accompli" but always a possibility. Having a train or purposely placing a train into emergency braking is something to avoid if at all possible. That of course is easier said than done in the reality of everyday railroading. Long trains give you a greater possibility of having a "dynamiter" in your train, some dumb@$$ "gandy" will be in the gauge of your track after you've been given the OK thru a "Form B", A jogger will be using the R.O.W. on the "Aurora Racetrack", wearing headsets and listening to their IPOD and not see or hear your 70mph commuter train whistling frantically for them to get out of the way. The inevitable "soccer mom" rushing Junior to his rugby game and can't wait the 30 seconds for the "dinkie" to pass so she drives around the gate, never noticing the "dinkie" approaching from the opposite direction! These are folks who see trains every day and have no cognizance of what damage they can do! Charlie
I was told of an incident where the old Southern Pacific Sunset Limited accidentally dropped a Private Varnish car somewhere between Beaumont and Houston, Texas. Not sure why the couplers parted but the brake line hoses pulled apart like they are supposed to and the train went into emergency. The lone car came to an abrupt stop while the rest of the train slid around a curve and out of site before it came to a stop. The passengers on the private car, having spent the day at the horse track in Lafayette, Louisiana where they had gambled and drank away their money, stumbled off the car to see what happened. About the same time a Texas State police cruiser pulled up behind them along Highway 90 which paralleled the track. The officer was accusing them of stealing the passenger car and wanted to know why they were blocking the mainline with it. Fortunately the train crew had closed the brake line angle cock on the last car, pumped up the air in the brake line, and was able to back the train up to come rescue them. The state trooper just stood there scratching his head as they hooked on, connected the brake hoses and everyone got back on and headed off to Houston.
I might have read wrong,but if a train does snap intwo,does the power end go into emergency?Automatically?cheers stu:tb-cool:
Yup, nothing they can do from the front end but come to a complete stop. The air is gone from the whole train and all the brakes on each car are locked up. Until they can close the line where the break occurred, they can not charge up the air line and release all the brakes on the cars still attached.
Let's think about this.....do you think the officer believed the passengers had pushed the car to that location since he obviously did not see any harnesses hooked to the front of the car.......:tb-tongue:
...Especially since the conductor has to walk the entire train and inspect it before you can move, even after you get whatever was wrong fixed. Derailing is always a possibility but getting your tapes pulled to check your train handling is a given. Heaven forbid you put a flat spot on a driver! Also, if you get any kind of severe slack action during the stop, the DS has to put a 10 mph slow order on the track until it's inspected too. Yep, emergency braking is definitely a last ditch effort.
Yea rule281,while milking this morning i as wondering about "flat spots on wheels"if wagons got some that would upset thinks too i presume,as far as vibration etc goes.Just one more thing on this topic...A train with power at front,middle & end and train breaks,the power behind the break automatically shuts down?Or what would happen?Now thats an oddball question eh?Hope you follow what im trying to get at.cheers Stu:tb-cool:
Oh Mercy!!!! BTDT!!!! more than I care to remember! Especially the time in E.Dubuqe at 3AM, in 6-8 inches of snow. Temp -10F. Still dont know what was causing that dynamiter! That one was on a CN train that the BNSF was operating for the CN.
Flat spots are pretty common on freight cars for various reasons. A stuck brake or handbrake left on will slide a wheel until it melts a spot or guys dragging them around the yard with brakes on will get one started. Over time, they get worse so sooner or later, it'll have to get replaced. Sometimes you can hear even a small spot banging on the rail as a train passes but unless they get beyond a certain size, it doesn't hurt much. I certainly can't feel it from my seat! Under the right conditions though, a flat-spotted wheel can either break the rail or derail the car so you have to watch out for them whenever possible. I've even had a couple of instances where the wheel finally broke and you can imagine how that ends up. ...and since you mentioned 'milking'...I've been known to tug a Holstein or two in my much younger days. Sometimes I still wish I'd stayed on the farm... :eh-wink:
Oh yeah!!...Here's a walk-in-the-snow horror story from my years-ago conductor days... A monster freight on a bitter night, snowing like you read about and wind that wouldn't quit. We didn't go in emergency but we did go over a detector that came on with a 'detector malfunction' message and no information. We reported it to the DS and instead of the expected '30 mph to the next detector' that the rulebook specified, he ordered me to walk the train and inspect it. I still don't know why but he wouldn't back off and threatened to take me out of service if I didn't do it. I guess it wasn't snowing in his office. I had already made a 40-car pickup in the storm and walked the brakes not 15 miles before the detector so I had a pretty good idea that nothing was wrong with the train but hey...orders is orders. In a compromise move, the engineer dropped me off at an interlocking and pulled by to get me to the rear end so I didn't have to walk it twice. That gave me a roll-by but now I had to get back to the head-end. The train was so long that he couldn't get the tail end off the single-track without blocking crossings so we had the whole shebang plugged until I could make my way ahead. Like yours, it was around 3 in the morning and the wind was blowing straight out of the west about 40 mph with squalls mixed in every half hour or so. The snow varied from shin to thigh deep with a heavy layer of crusty ice on top so I broke through and sunk with each step. The ROW was perched on a bank so there wasn't anyplace to hike except the other track which was a solid sheet of ice and our friendly DS said I couldn't use because he had another train pulling in to wait for us. No choice but to walk on the tree and bushes side. It really was a perfect storm to do the long walk. By the time I got anywhere near the locomotives, I could only walk about 2 cars at a time and then had to stop and rest to catch my breath. I couldn't stand still for long though because I was sweating under all my layers and would start to freeze in the wind. The DS by now was hollering about us taking so long, plugging up HIS railroad. I wouldn't even waste the effort to answer him anymore. Finally the engineer couldn't stand it and blasted him on the radio about this stupid, useless move and how "...it's 10 below out there, the wind's blowing about 100 miles an hour, the snow's up to his waist, he's walking 150 cars because YOU ORDERED him to, he's just about to drop from exhaustion and I don't give a damn how long we tie up YOUR railroad...he'll get here when he gets here!" Silence ensued from the warm and dry dispatching office. In the end, I made it to the engines and just about collapsed. Guess what?...there wasn't anything wrong with the train, just as we figured and the advertised meeting train never showed up. I could have walked the main but I was ugly enough by then that I would have walked another hundred cars in the weeds if it would have made that dispatcher any madder. We went on our way but by the time we got to our destination, they were bulldozing the snow to get the yard open so we just sat on the main until we outlawed and they had to come get us with 4-wheel drive vehicles and a backhoe. That was one for the record books. P.S. - I smiled the day they offered that dispatcher retirement or dismissal for certain other 'infractions'. The best revenge is to outlast them.
Where did this happen?(in what area) So they got the DS!! Justice was served! BTW there is another chapter to that E.Dubuqe story. But I'll tell you b/c if you really care to know. It's kinna gross! Charlie
Do all freight trains meet another?And change crews?Reason:so crews get back to home base.I take it from what ive read that engineers and conductors can only work so many hours on a shift.Some here have said that they have been picked up by vehicle.I take it a crew is dropped of to take over.Does this happen often?I know here quite often theres a train sitting on a sidling not far from us.It sat there four days once!Surprised me for two reasons,we arent hundreds of miles away from another town/yard etc,and its a train that carries a few wagons of gold ore!Its a wonder some boys havent backed a truck up to it during the night and started shoveling!Mine you would be abit to hard work for alot them round here!!I didnt say that!Cheers Stu:tb-cool:
