Railroad Skates

[bgreen58]

Could someone offer a further explaination as to what railroad skates are; if they are still used in the rail industry; how they are used; and whether or not anyone can offer a link to view a picture of them. I know that they are a metal device set upon the top of the rail to stop rail cars from moving, however, that's about all that I know about the topic.

[locomutt]

I'm probably wrong,but I always thought a "skate" was for moving cars. A wheel
stop to keep them from rolling(brakes of course)
Maybe M. Hemphill will weigh in on this one.

[Randy Stahl]

Skates are handy for keeping cars from rolling away, also good for blocking open roundhouse doors.
Randy

[cherokee woman]

Why don't they just call them rail stops instead of rail skates?

[dknelson]

There are similar "portable" (as if I could pick one up! lol) car stops that would involve a sudden and crunching stop, possibly derailing the car if it moved fast enough. Furthermore the car is still loose and could possibly roll the other way.

The advantage of and idea behind the skate is two fold: that the wheels roll up a slight hump, so that it is unlikely to roll back the way it came, and when it hits the bumper the entire thing slides along the rails for several feet. This avoids both a crunching halt to the car, which could damage the load, and because the wheel is now above the rail it avoids a flat wheel too. If a bumper is to slide it is best of the wheel is above the rail.
The only skates I have seen were in normal bumper service where I assume the railrod decided a bumper was needed and the skate was otherwise not needed. I'd love to see one in action.
Dave Nelson

[zardoz]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cherokee woman

Why don't they just call them rail stops instead of rail skates?

Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?
Why is there no egg in eggplant, or no ham in hamburger?
Nor is there any apple or pine in a pineapple.
If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how would we ever know?
If webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words?
Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?
Why does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?
Why does "fat chance" and "slim chance" mean the same thing?
Why do "tug" boats pu***heir barges?
Why do we sing " Take me out to the ball game" when we are already there?
Why are they called "stands" when they are made for sitting?
Why is it called "after dark" when it really is "after light"?
Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?
Why are a "wise man" and a "wise guy" opposites?
Why do "overlook" and "oversee" mean opposite things?
Why is "phonics" not spelled the way it sounds?
If work is so terrific, why do they have to pay you to do it?
If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?
If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
Why is bra singular and panties plural?
Why do we put suits in garment bags and garments in a suitcase?
How come abbreviated is such a long word?
Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

[Overmod]

Note the following, also from the Nolan Company site:

http://www.nolancompany.com/Main/WheelChocks/WheelChocks.asp

This, I think, is what people meant by 'wheel stops'. Note that the two types of device do different things.

I thought it was interesting that the rail skate is intended to prevent flat wheels if 'skidding occurs'. Interesting use of the passive voice... interesting also to contemplate the various ways that 'skidding' might be induced...

[Overmod]

Anyone: e-mail me OFF LIST for answers to any of the above, a la Marilyn...

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz
<snip>
Why do "tug" boats pu***heir barges?
<snip>

Tug boats do pull their barges.

It is tow boats that pu***hem!
[:)]

[Overmod]

And since when do you 'tow' something by pushing on it? In all my years of using that word, I've never understood it to mean anything but 'pull'...

It's also true that tugboats DO usually push. (Ask any liner captain if the tugs helping his ship out of her berth do so with lines instead of fenders of some sort!) Much easier to work large loads, and the consequences of a line failure (savage!!!) are not present as they are with towing.

This doesn't apply to ocean-going or salvage tugs, of course... but what they are pulling is usually not a 'barge'...

[Anonymous]

The skate allows cars with locked axles to be moved ("skated") short distances without damaging the track. See the Nolan Company web site, previously referenced. Regards, MJH

[Anonymous]

One of the hump yards in Chicago used to use skates to stop cars or slow them down before coupling I beleive. It is very labor intensive and dangerous. It is still used extensively in Europe where they employ a switchmen to throw skates on the bowl tracks, each guy covers 5 or 6 tracks in a busy hump. These guys throw the skates down right in front of an on coming car 2 or 3 car lengths before a joint ! Some judgement required. ((While these switchmen are coupling with chains between buffers and stopping cars with skates the TGV glides by at a smooth 180 in the back ground on the main !))
The skates have better "braking power" on two axle cars because you got half the weight of the car on.
I once saw of a freight in Europe that was stopped some 20km out of town because someone had forgot to remove a skate wich was now red hot under a wheel ! It could have caused a derailment.

[CShaveRR]

At Proviso, skates were used to assist in stopping cars rolling down a clear track. We used to have three "skate-men" per shift, whose job it was to place the skates on clear tracks and tie brakes on the first cars to roll down them. Two skates were usually placed on a track (in case one was knocked off by the cars). You would not want more than one skate under the cars on any track--that would be quite a bit of metal to run over the wrong way, and they become very unyielding when they encounter a switch frog! The pull-down crews had to check for skates (they weren't always used) and remove them before coupling the track.

I received my only serious on-the-job injury when I was working a skate job. They were the most dangerous and least liked jobs in the yard.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Overmod

And since when do you 'tow' something by pushing on it? In all my years of using that word, I've never understood it to mean anything but 'pull'...

It's also true that tugboats DO usually push. (Ask any liner captain if the tugs helping his ship out of her berth do so with lines instead of fenders of some sort!) Much easier to work large loads, and the consequences of a line failure (savage!!!) are not present as they are with towing.

This doesn't apply to ocean-going or salvage tugs, of course... but what they are pulling is usually not a 'barge'...

Well, regardless of how you have used and understood "tow," all those boats on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and others that are pushing those barges up and down the river are called tow boats! And they are powered by big diesel engines. No, they are not "pusher boats." That is a term used only by the unititiated. It is akin to calling a locomotive engineer a "driver!" Or thinking they are the ones that design them.

Also, docking and manuevering ships is only a part of what tug boats do. eg. All the materials used on the North Slope and the Alaskan Pipeline was transported on barges towed by tugs from Seattle. Indeed a lot of what is sent to Alaska gets there on barges towed by tugs.

A friend of mine lives on the hill overlooking Puget Sound in Seattle, right next to the Ship Canal. I have spent many a day sitting on his deck, enjoying a few cool ones, watching ships going to & from Bremerton, the San Juan ferry, and tugs towing barges.