Thanks for the video Jeff.
Watching the whole thing, I can't believe my first 11 years were spent much closer to moving trains than that boy was standing. It seems my childhood was extraordinarily dangerous.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
jeffhergert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58X6Xstpg1E Coupling up the glad hands begins about 7min 30 seconds in. UDEs don't always require a walking inspection for us. If the air comes back and there was no harsh slack action felt when stopping, there are a few items that if any one is met, don't require the inspection for most trains. Of course, if the air doesn't come back, you have a problem. Hopefully just an air hose. Jeff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58X6Xstpg1E
Coupling up the glad hands begins about 7min 30 seconds in.
UDEs don't always require a walking inspection for us. If the air comes back and there was no harsh slack action felt when stopping, there are a few items that if any one is met, don't require the inspection for most trains. Of course, if the air doesn't come back, you have a problem. Hopefully just an air hose.
Jeff
Not only coupling glad hands, but repairing a recalcitrant broken knuckle - crew unable to remove cotter key, Car Dept came from either North Baltimore or Willard and burned off the cotter key so the knuckle pin could be removed and permit releasing the remains of the broken knuckle from the coupler housing. Note that the new knuckle was able to be installed and locked in place without the knuckle pin - the knuckle pin permits opening the knuckle with out it falling out - the coupler locks hold the knuckle in the coupler housing.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
It is really amazing that neither couplers or trucks have any threaded load bearing componets. In the 21st Century nobody would ever think of designing something that way.
The one thing I would still like to see and understand about gladhands is a slow motion demonstration of what exactly happens when they separate. That pulling out the fittings from one side or the other isn't something that you would think would be routine.
Getting back to Rochelle, UP has done an amazing amount of intermodal business in the last hour or so. Christmas must be coming on a train near you.
Balt answered my first question about the need for the torch. Thanks.
I was also wondering about the difficulty in getting the glad hands to fully engage in both the truck and train videos. Is it common for it to be that hard? If so, making up a whole train must be a real workout.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Paul, I, too,wondered about the difficulty the man had in getting the two hands to clasp, for I had no memory of such difficulty the times that I connected air hoses.
Johnny
I am not positive, however, CSX runs 2 man crews - Engineer & Conductor. With 2 men on the ground at the cause of the incident, that tells me that we were seeing the Conductor and a conductor trainee. Trainer makes the trainee do the work so they can get familiar with what needs to be done. Doing things the first few times one is not totally proficient in doing it, thus the difficulty in coupling the air hoses.
^Coupled glad hands
The picture is of a single glad hand. The recessed surface on the toe or left side of the glad hand slides under a raised tunnel on the heel of the companion glad hand and keep the glad hands coupled in their 'normal' positions. When the cars are uncoupled and the air hose begin to pull away from each other, the glad hands rotate in relation to each other to the point that the recessed area leaves its locking tunnel on its companion glad hand and the coupling is uncoupled. If trainline air pressure was being pumped through the air hose and couplings at the time they parted, the brakes will apply in emergency as the trainline pressure gets vented to atmosphere.
The glad hands shouldn't give a problem, wither in coupling or uncoupling. I learned how to couple air hoses as a teenager, as well as gently turning the anglecocks (the "gently" part I often learned the hard way) once the hoses were connected.However, some gladhands often gave a bit more of a problem than they should have. There were times when accumulation of ice had to be dug out. As for coming apart, one never knows what gets into them. I often saw cars coming over the hump with the gladhands desperately hanging onto each other, usually dragging along the hose from the following car. The trick then is for the bouncing hose not to become lodged in a bad spot in the yard, such as where it could become wedged into a switch point. Of course, a point could encourage the otherwise-recalcitrant gladhands to separate, and the points to not quite close. (Usually there was not enough time to react to the signs that the switch ws open, and we'd have a little problem afterwards.)The most fun I ever had with air hoses was when we had to pick up an empty unit coal train from Oak Creek, in the days before the dumper was designed to handle rotary couplers. That meant that we had to check the couplings between each car, and make the hoses one at a time. The engine crew would take us to the far end of the track, and the conductor and I each worked two tracks' worth of the train, twenty-some joints in each track, making the hoses. If we messed up, we'd all know about it soon enough.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Thanks Balt, I think I get it.
As to Paul's question, I remember times when crews would be hooking up air lines as easy as buckleing their pants and then coming to a dead stop on a single coupling. I'm guessing one of those flanges must get bent or the tunnel portion as Balt calls it must get filled with road grit. It throws off the whole rhythm of the work.
Oh, and by the way, Happy Thanksgiving to all the forum members in the US.
Or if one hose or the other is a tad short - makes making the connection just that much harder...
Opening the anglecock - I've dumped a train once or thrice, despite trying to be gentle... It helps if you watch the hose - you can usually tell when the rest of the trainline is coming up to pressure.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Great description, Balt!
Is that first picture, the one with two glad hands, of rail or truck glad hands? There's nothing in the picture to give a sense of size but the air hoses and their connection to the glad hands looks lighter than I recall seeing on railroad cars. My railroad jobs never required me to connect train lines although I supposedly knew how after some training right after I hired out.
ChuckAllen, TX
Almost looks like a locomotive MU hose (either A&R or actuating). Those have smaller hoses than the main reservoir and brakepipes.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
Just watched a EB BNSF piggy back, Did a fast slow down before hitting the diamonds, was very visiable in slowing down. Isn't there a notification slow order for the diamonds, or can the diamonds catch an engineer by surprise?
right after a mow truck just pull up.
If the train is short enough or light enough, it's quite amazing how fast you can slow a train down in a short distance. Maybe the engineer was just showing us what he can do.
I highly doubt it was a case of the engineer now knowing where s/he is.
10000 feet and no dynamics? Today is going to be a good day ...
MKT Dave Just watched a EB BNSF piggy back, Did a fast slow down before hitting the diamonds, was very visiable in slowing down. Isn't there a notification slow order for the diamonds, or can the diamonds catch an engineer by surprise? right after a mow truck just pull up.
There may be a slow order some distance shortly beyond the diamonds. In operations, you maintain speed as long as you can before you have to comply with slow orders (permanent or temporary).
If the diamond take the engineer by 'surprise' I would ask why he has his Engineers Certification on this territory. Knowing where things are is part of being qualified on a territory.
BaltACDIf the diamond take the engineer by 'surprise' I would ask why he has his Engineers Certification on this territory. Knowing where things are is part of being qualified on a territory.
I'd even go a little further and say that knowing the territory is basic to being qualified for that territory. All else is general knowledge for all engineers or basic for being qualified with the power to be run.
Train crew or engine crew, you have to know the territory better than a drummer knew his territory (reference-The Music Man).
I wonder: how many trips before you would be qualified before beginning operating on a particular line? I understand that it is necessary to make at least one trip a year to remain qualified.
The name of the song is, in fact, "Rock Island" and is set on a train! It is the opening scene of The Music Man.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ9U4Cbb4wg
kgbw49 The name of the song is, in fact, "Rock Island" and is set on a train! It is the opening scene of The Music Man. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ9U4Cbb4wg
cute
Always liked that scene and thought the details of the set were fairly authentic ... until now. Stop the video at 2:56 and I think you'll agree that the engine is an outside frame 4-6-0. How many of those would have been running from Brighton, IL to River City, ("Ioway -- just over the state line from Illinois")?
BaltACD MKT Dave Just watched a EB BNSF piggy back, Did a fast slow down before hitting the diamonds, was very visiable in slowing down. Isn't there a notification slow order for the diamonds, or can the diamonds catch an engineer by surprise? right after a mow truck just pull up. There may be a slow order some distance shortly beyond the diamonds. In operations, you maintain speed as long as you can before you have to comply with slow orders (permanent or temporary). If the diamond take the engineer by 'surprise' I would ask why he has his Engineers Certification on this territory. Knowing where things are is part of being qualified on a territory.
A quick slow down implies power/stretch braking, something frowned upon in this day and age of fuel coservation.
It may not be a question of qualification on a territory, but one of distraction. That's why there are laws and rules banning the use of certain items, rules (at least for us) limiting radio and in-cab communications during certain times and a mandate for an operating system to take control as a last resort on trains.
jeffhergertA quick slow down implies power/stretch braking, something frowned upon in this day and age of fuel coservation.
Didn't someone post an event in this thread where a BNSF track inspector came through on a hi-rail truck and saw something in the diamonds that caused him to slap a slow order on the diamonds at a time when an approaching UP train had to do a heavy brake application to get down to the speed?
On the other hand, I would suspect that an engineer would be "surprised" by the diamonds only once before maybe an unscheduled vacation.
One more Music Man note - cefinkjr - you are correct! It looks like the locomotive is Oahu Railway 85 - an outside frame 4-6-0. And in the background scenery they never cross the Mississippi River. Just a minor detail. But they tried and the average person will probably never notice. But an outside frame narrow guage 4-6-0 is not quite a Rock Island 900 class Pacific!
http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=393
http://www.irm.org/railwire/rw154.html#crip938
ChuckCobleigh jeffhergert A quick slow down implies power/stretch braking, something frowned upon in this day and age of fuel coservation. Didn't someone post an event in this thread where a BNSF track inspector came through on a hi-rail truck and saw something in the diamonds that caused him to slap a slow order on the diamonds at a time when an approaching UP train had to do a heavy brake application to get down to the speed? On the other hand, I would suspect that an engineer would be "surprised" by the diamonds only once before maybe an unscheduled vacation.
jeffhergert A quick slow down implies power/stretch braking, something frowned upon in this day and age of fuel coservation.
That would be me.In that situation the UP Dispatcher issued the slow order to the train just seconds before it hit the diamonds, so the head hend hit them at track speed, but by the time the rear of the train cleared them it was apparently doing the specified 10 mph. There was a bit of a delay in notifying the UP dispatcher since the BNSF apparently contacted UP MOW who is responsible for maintenance in the plant.A few months ago I opened up the webcam and the scanner feed and became aware that some sort of "incident" had occured that had the plant tied up, although nothing obvious was visible. It apparently involved an eastbound BNSF and from the radio chatter it was aparent that the crew had be relieved. Trains were stacking up on both railroads. Finally the relief crew was ready to proceed but was concerned about the procedure to be followed; Apparently either he had a stop signal or was already fouling the interlocking; he sounded very nervous about moving. Eventually, he slowly crawled through the diamonds. He was instructed to drop of the relieved crew at the yard office located a few blocks to the east from the diamonds where a trainmaster or superintendent was waiting to take them back to Savanna. Meanwhile the UP train closest to the diamonds was giving a play-by-play of the movements to the UP dispatcher; I guess the BNSF dispatcher was not giving much information to the UP Dispatcher.A day or two later I heard a bit of chit-chat from one BNSF crewmember to another asking if he had had a "safety sandwich" at Savanna. Not positive this was related to the incident but it does seem indicate there was some sort of violation involved rather than a failure of equipment/accident.
BaltACDThere may be a slow order some distance shortly beyond the diamonds. In operations, you maintain speed as long as you can before you have to comply with slow orders (permanent or temporary).
Spoken like someone in the movement office. (no offense, but not always reflective of what happens on the ground)
When I was training, I had the opportunity to have a couple good engineers allow me to run balls to the wall up to a restriction, then using the air to grind it down just before. Not typical of everyday running (looking ahead is your goal, fuel conservation and all that), but good to know how to be able to. We're only human out here...
Not sure why you think it should have been a Rock Island 900-class but I'll take your word for it. I also bow to the encyclopedic knowledge (or terrific internet searching skills) that let you identify Oahu 85 so quickly. That's definitely the engine on film. I did a couple of quick searches for outside frame 4-6-0 and got nada.
zugmann BaltACD Spoken like someone in the movement office. (no offense, but not always reflective of what happens on the ground) When I was training, I had the opportunity to have a couple good engineers allow me to run balls to the wall up to a restriction, then using the air to grind it down just before. Not typical of everyday running (looking ahead is your goal, fuel conservation and all that), but good to know how to be able to. We're only human out here...
BaltACD
You also have to comply with your company's policy concerning the use of air/dynamic braking.
BaltACDYou also have to comply with your company's policy concerning the use of air/dynamic braking.
Yeah. But when it comes to complying with orders.... terminology is weak for a reason.
Looks like there was a close call at Fostoria yesterday ..
https://youtu.be/8_AyFabk9Ik
Red Signal violation by someone. Either train 'could' have been the violater. A investigation will determine the guilty.
Chatter is that the CSX was to wait for the NS.
I bet a few small cups got filled up in the bathroom.
http://reviewtimes.com/local-news/2015/11/30/close-call/
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